Performance of very small wastewater treatment plants with pronounced load variations

摘要

The operation of very small biological wastewater systems is strongly influenced by the patterns of wastewater generation. The absence of people in the connected building(s) during holidays or off-season leads to a system underload, other circumstances however may lead to an overload. Experiments have been carried out to display the effects of no-feed conditions on activated sludge biomass and its microbial activity during a 24 hour period after re-feeding. The decrease of the biomass during idle periods can be modelled by a first order equation. The initial specific oxygen uptake rate (OUR) of the remaining biomass decreased with the duration of the preceding no-feed sequence. Four different laboratory-scale treatment plants were operated to demonstrate the system performance when re-started after a break period of 24 and 52 days respectively. The effluent concentration after a break of 52 days had not been sufficient as compared to the discharge requirements given by German laws. In addition a full scale trickling filter was monitored, while the connected building accommodated a maximum of 40 guests interrupted by times with no guest at all. Conclusions are drawn from the experimental results and from literature, giving some hints on how to manage the impacts of varying loads at very small wastewater treatment plants.