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Two-Stage Activated Sludge Systems in Municipal Used Water Purification

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Handbook of Water and Used Water Purification

Abstract

The two-stage, activated sludge process is utilized in plants possessing two separate, activated sludge circuits. It consists of high-loaded first and low-loaded second stages and was developed in the 1970s in Europe in order to treat high-strength used water influents. Subsequently, the tightening of the effluent discharge requirements with respect to nitrogen and phosphorus in the 1990s meant that the process ceased to make further progress. However, in the twenty-first century, it is attracting significant attention, as it offers great potential for the improvement of the net energy balance of used water treatment plants. On the one hand, as compared to the conventional activated sludge system, the high-loaded stage facilitates increased COD capture in the activated sludge, and on the other, alternative methods for backload treatment as a replacement for the conventional nitrification/denitrification enhance process efficiency. Therefore, numerous researchers are investigating the increased carbon capture mechanisms of the high-loaded sludge and the implementation of the nitritation and anammox process as a backload treatment.

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Abbreviations

A/B:

Adsorption/bio-oxidation

BNR:

Biological nutrient removal

BOD5:

Biological oxygen demand

CAS:

Conventional activated sludge

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

CS:

Contact stabilization

CSTR:

Continuous stirred-tank reactor

DO:

Dissolved oxygen

EPS:

Extracellular polymeric substances

F/M:

Food/microorganism

HRAS:

High-rate, activated sludge system

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time

MLSS:

Mixed liquor suspended solids

PE:

Population equivalent

PF:

Plug flow

SOUR:

Specific oxygen uptake rate

SRT:

Solids retention time

SVI:

Sludge volume index

UWTP:

Used water treatment plant

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Correspondence to Bogdanka Radetic .

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Radetic, B. (2019). Two-Stage Activated Sludge Systems in Municipal Used Water Purification. In: Lahnsteiner, J. (eds) Handbook of Water and Used Water Purification. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66382-1_98-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66382-1_98-1

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