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Fall 2012 Semester Contributions
This fall I am was enrolled in CEE 2550 and will be was working on the Floc Sed Optimization team again. This semester we will be experimenting with introduced floc recycle into the flocculation and sedimentation system. By recycling flocs we are hoping from the waste a floc blanket produces we hope to improve the efficiency of the flocculator and floc blanket in the sedimentation tank by capturing more flocs and requiring less alum to be dosed. We will be varying varied alum dose, water turbidity, rate at which flocs are being recycled and upflow velocity and placement of floc recycle to maximize the performance of the floc blanket and water quality produced from our apparatus. Our results this semester were inconclusive. At each alum dose, a control experiment was run with no floc recycle, and compared to this control, sometimes introducing floc recycle into the system improved the quality of the effluent water, and sometimes it didn't. Our team believes that the placement of where flocs are being drawn and introduced into the system, and at what rate this happens is crucial for floc recycle to make the system more efficient and more work needs to be done to pinpoint this location and recycle rate in the coming semesters.