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My team also conducted a variety of experiments to further our understanding about floc blanket formation and maintenance:
- Marcala Simulation experiment: My team simulated the retrofitted Marcala sed tank with our lab apparatus with a 100 NTU influent and confirmed that the new geometry could resuspend flocs efficiently and form a stable floc blanket.
- Low influent turbidity experiment: We were unable to form a floc blanket over a period of 2 days when the influent turbidity was set to 5 NTU.
- Seeding experiment: We found that directly pumping sludge into the tank was not a very effective way to form a stable floc blanket because the sludge particles were too small and had low settling velocities. Nevertheless, this experiment showed promise that floc recycle would be successful at forming a floc blanket quickly in the tank, even when influent turbidity is low.
- Floc hopper experiments: Our preliminary floc hopper experiments were not conclusive, but they indicated that important factors that need to test include the effect of alum dose on the stickiness of sludge and the ease of draining sludge, and the effect of floc hopper geometry on the rate of sludge consolidation.
Summer 2011 Contributions
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