The advent of sludge reduction technologies that are capable of significantly reducing sludge production from wastewater treatment facilities has garnered much interest from the wastewater treatment profession. As part of CH2M HILL's effort to better understand the mechanisms behind these processes, a research effort was completed that was focused on developing an ASM based model which adequately reflects the performance of the Cannibal® Sludge Reduction process by Siemens.
A modification is proposed of the standard ASM 2d model to capture the effects of biological sludge reduction used in the Cannibal Solids Reduction process. This model is able to capture the essential aspects of this system and provides a more quantitative method for the sizing and performance of these types of systems.
The primary components of this modification include separation of the microbiological decay products from the traditional particulate inert fraction, and into a separate particulate decay product for aerobic/anoxic microbes (XDAA). A new process rate is included in the model for anaerobic “hydrolysis” of XDAA to XS.
The results were compared against the experience of Siemens on a wide range conditions. The results indicate that this model predicts operating characteristics of the Cannibal process with a reasonable level of accuracy.
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