Ferrous Salt Demand for Sulfide Control in Rising Main Sewers: Tests on a Laboratory-Scale Sewer System
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 10
Abstract
The addition of ferrous salts is a commonly used strategy for sulfide control in sewer networks. The dosing requirement in rising main sewers which takes into account of the effect of anaerobic sewer biofilms on the dosing demand is investigated. A laboratory-scale rising main sewer, consisting of four biofilm reactors in series and fed with real sewage, was operated for over 12 months, during which was dosed at several locations and at various dosing rates. The experimental results consistently revealed that approximately 0.7 mol of was required to precipitate sulfide formed from the reduction of 1 mol of sulfate by anaerobic sewer biofilms. This ratio is significantly lower than the ratio expected from reaction stoichiometry (molar ratio of 1:1), and also the to sulfide ratio (1.07–1.10 mol:1 mol) observed in batch tests conducted with real wastewater in the absence of sewer biofilms. Biofilms adapted to addition were found to contain a substantially higher amount of elemental sulfur than biofilms not receiving dosage. This suggests addition might have altered the final product of sulfate reduction by anaerobic sewer biofilms. The study also showed that the addition of ferrous salts at the inlet of a rising main sewer can effectively control sulfide throughout the whole system despite of the presence of competing anions in wastewater. Phosphate precipitation with ferrous iron in anaerobic rising main sewers is negligible.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Australian Research Council through Project Nos. UNSPECIFIEDLP0454182 and UNSPECIFIEDLP0882016. The industry partners of the project in particular Gold Coast Water and Sydney Water Corporation are thankfully acknowledged for their support. The writers also want to acknowledge Dr. Beatrice Keller-Lehmann and Ms. Kar Man Leung for their helpful collaboration with the chemical analyses.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 10 • October 2010
Pages: 1180 - 1187
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 6, 2009
Accepted: Apr 13, 2010
Published online: Apr 20, 2010
Published in print: Oct 2010
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