Abstract
Aeration is a major energy consumer in wastewater treatment processes and is employed within several other industries, making the optimization of oxygen transfer from an energy usage standpoint a major focus for sustainability efforts. Although much effort has been put forth to improve this process, most notably in designing and implementing fine bubble diffusers, increased power costs due to increased pressure requirements are often overlooked. In this study, a discrete bubble model is utilized to estimate oxygen transfer in water columns containing bubble diffusers. This model is tuned using experimental head loss data from disc-type diffusers to evaluate the relationship between mass transfer coefficient and bubble size. The resulting model is used to prove that there exists conditions where standard aeration efficiency is maximized by modifying bubble size in which further reduction in bubble size incurs decreases in efficiency. Conversely, for a given bubble size, there exists a water column depth where aeration efficiency is maximized, meaning that further increases in column depth result in decreased energy efficiency. This study is the first of its kind to show that smaller bubble size and increased column depth is not always a wise choice from an aeration efficiency standpoint.
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Palya, N., MacPhee, D.W. Effect of bubble size and column depth on diffused aerator efficiency. Energy Efficiency 16, 3 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-022-10080-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-022-10080-7