Response of Activated Sludge to Organic Transient Loadings

This research examines conventional substrate removal and oxygen uptake kinetic models, which have been justified previously for steady state circumstances, to determine of these models can be employed to predict system responses under transient loadings. Three different wastes were used, a synthetic, an industrial, and a domestic wastewater. The systems were periodically monitored for sludge settlability, microorganism changes, effluent quality, and oxygen requirements. The conventional kinetic models for substrate removal and oxygen uptake are shown to predict both steady state and transient conditions with no major alterations in the models provided average transient values are used. The substrate removal rate coefficient appeared to increase under most transient situations as compared to the steady state value. The efficiency of oxygen utilization seemed to vary under different loading conditions for the same waste.