Understanding Primary Treatment Performance and Carbon Diversion Potential of Rotating Belt Filters Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Organic carbon recovery modeling for a rotating belt filter and its impact assessment on a plant-wide scale

“…However, the TSS removal efficiency reduces as a consequence, which translates to lower methane production and higher aeration energy demand compared to the situation with a thick mat. For more detailed information on the working principle and application of an RBF, the readers are suggested to consult other papers [7,9,12]. To further understand the impact of these operating conditions at the plant-wide scale, scenarios for further analysis are framed (description is presented in Table 1) and implications of each scenario are discussed separately and put in the context of engineering practice.…”

“…Literature review suggests that only a few studies are available related to developing a mathematical model for the rotating belt filter [12,13] and no comprehensive study has been published on its impact assessment (in terms of aeration energy requirement, methane gas production, nitrous oxide (N 2 O) gas emission etc.) on a plant-wide level in comparison to a PC.…”

Numerical modeling and control of solids separation using continuously moving fine mesh filters

“…In a system where the mesh filter is rotating, and continuously cleaned with each cycle, there are two main filtration modes that occur. When the clean filter comes into contact with the wastewater, solids greater than the mesh pore size are screened from the influent (Franchi and Santoro, 2015;DeGroot et al, 2015DeGroot et al, , 2016Rusten et al, 2017). As a cake layer is accumulated on the filter, solids up to three times smaller than the mesh pore size can be removed due to the cake layer acting as a filter with a smaller pore size (Tien, 2012).…”

“…As a cake layer is accumulated on the filter, solids up to three times smaller than the mesh pore size can be removed due to the cake layer acting as a filter with a smaller pore size (Tien, 2012). In commercially available belt filter systems, the speed of rotation is typically controlled to modulate the cake thickness such that the treatment objectives are attained (Franchi and Santoro, 2015;DeGroot et al, 2015DeGroot et al, , 2016. A slower rotation speed will result in a thicker cake layer, which yields higher TSS removal and lower hydraulic capacity.…”

“…This complex coupling between solids removal and hydrodynamics leads to difficulties in developing accurate models to predict filtration performance. DeGroot et al (2015DeGroot et al ( , 2016 have developed process models for mesh filtration, including coupling with computational fluid dynamics for characterization of the hydrodynamics, based on the cake mass as the state variable determining cake resistance and TSS removal. Despite having a complete mathematical model developed, it has proven difficult to experimentally measure and correlate cake mass with the required operational parameters.…”