Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study of the biological reactor of the wastewater treatment plant of Roldán, Lo Ferro and Balsicas (Spain)

Resumen

The hydrodynamic study of a biological reactor allows the detection of dead zones or preferential flow paths thatreflect hydrodynamic deficiencies in its operation. It is crucial to identify and optimize its behavior. If the requiredhydrodynamic conditions are provided, the efficiency of the purification process will substantially increase.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the hydrodynamic behavior, for the design flow, of a biologicalreactor type A2O of the Roldán, Lo Ferro and Balsicas Wastewater Treatment Plant, located in Torre Pacheco(Spain). The FLOW-3D software has been selected to analyze the three-dimensional operation of the anaerobicchamber for an inlet flow of 2,750 m3/day. The influence of the turbulence model and the mesh size in thehydraulic retention time has been investigated.