Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process

Includes bibliography.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bagg, Wayne Kendall
Other Authors: Marais, Gerrit van Rooyen
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2014
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613263541305344
access_status_str Open Access
author Bagg, Wayne Kendall
author2 Marais, Gerrit van Rooyen
author_browse Bagg, Wayne Kendall
Marais, Gerrit van Rooyen
author_facet Marais, Gerrit van Rooyen
Bagg, Wayne Kendall
author_sort Bagg, Wayne Kendall
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliography.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7581
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:21.255Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Civil Engineering
publisherStr Department of Civil Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7581 Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process Bagg, Wayne Kendall Marais, Gerrit van Rooyen Sewage Includes bibliography. This investigation was concerned with two problems: (1) verification of the bisubstrate concept proposed by Dold, Ekama and Marais (1980), in which the biodegradable component of wastewater consists of readily and slowly biodegradable fractions, and (2) physical separation techniques for estimating the readily biodegradable fraction. Intensive research, since 1970, into the behaviour of activated sludge systems at the University of Cape Town has culminated in the formulation of a general kinetic model, by Dold and Marais (1986). The model is highly complex, incorporating a number of different processes; however extensive simulation studies have shown that the model simulates the behaviour of activated sludge systems very closely. A crucial concept incorporated in the general model is that the biodegradable fraction of a wastewater can be subdivided into two fractions with sharply different characteristics (bisubstrate concept), a readily biodegradable fraction which is directly utilized by the organism mass at a high rate and a slowly biodegradable fraction which requires to be solubilized extracellularly to readily biodegradable material for subsequent use by .. the organism. Solubilization is hypothesized to be a relatively slow process. These characteristics were inferred from the oxygen utilization rate response of a system fed in a cyclic square wave fashion. No work has been done to verify if substrates of specific chemical structures can be allocated to one or the other of the fractions. One of the objectives of this investigation was to check if pure and mixtures of specific selected substrates reflected these fractions when fed to activated sludge systems. Glucose and maize starch were selected as representative of readily biodegradable and slowly biodegradable substrate respectively. Systems were run under steady state and square wave cyclic state with glucose only, starch only and glucose/starch mixtures. From the steady state response the specific yield values could be determined and the reliability of the data checked by doing mass balances on the COD. From the cyclic response the specific rate constants for growth and solubilization respectively could be determined by trial simulation using the general model and specifying the concentrations of readily and slowly biodegradable fractions equal to the stoichiometric concentrations of glucose and starch in the feed. The constants thus determined were compared with the "standard" constants for municipal wastewaters. 2014-09-22T07:49:35Z 2014-09-22T07:49:35Z 1986 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7581 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Sewage
Bagg, Wayne Kendall
Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
title_full Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
title_fullStr Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
title_full_unstemmed Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
title_short Verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
title_sort verification of the bisubstrate concept in modelling of the activated sludge process
topic Sewage
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7581
work_keys_str_mv AT baggwaynekendall verificationofthebisubstrateconceptinmodellingoftheactivatedsludgeprocess