What Is Extended Aeration Process?

What Is Extended Aeration Process?

Aeration is a process that uses air or oxygen to treat wastewater. The most common types of aeration include conventional aeration and extended aeration.

Extended aeration is a type of aerobic treatment process for waste water and water bodies that may be contaminated with harmful organic matter.

This method forces air into the liquid in order to remove the pollutants through oxidation, which is achieved by using bacteria that consume organic compounds.

Extended aeration is a biological treatment process that uses oxygen to convert the organic material that is present in wastewater into carbon dioxide (CO) and water (HO).

Aerobic bacteria break down the organic matter into carbon dioxide, which can be removed from a wastewater treatment plant through ventilation or by burning it off as heat energy.

An aerobic treatment system has many benefits over other types of oxidation processes because it uses less energy than anaerobic processes and produces fewer odors than chemical oxidation methods.

Most common aerobic treatment processes include trickling filters and rotating biological contactors (RBCs), but extended aeration can also be used for secondary treatment if desired by increasing contact time between effluent and air bubbles on top of sludge cakes formed during primary clarification steps such as thickening or flotation before they are sent back through filtration beds again with more fresh influent being added every few hours until full capacity has been reached.

What Is The Difference Between Conventional And Extended Aeration?

The main difference between conventional or rapid aeration systems and extended aeration systems is that in conventional systems, the water flows through the bioreactor at high velocities. In extended aeration systems, it is pumped at low velocities.

Conventional aerators have higher flow rates than extended aerators because they rely on turbulence to mix air into water.

On the other hand, extended-aeration technologies use diffused air injection methods that produce lower mixing speeds but are more efficient in transferring oxygen from bubbles to liquid phase (Kamal et al., 2001).

This results in improved settling out of solids due to less turbulence and better contact between suspended particles and dissolved oxygen released by bubbles (Bozzolo et al., 2004).

The flow rate in conventional systems varies from 80 to 150 litres per minute per square metre of surface area. In extended aeration systems, flow rates of around 0.5 litres per minute per square metre are used.

Flow rate is the amount of water passing through a unit area in a given time. In conventional aeration systems, flow rates of 80 to 150 litres per minute per square metre are used. In extended aeration systems, flow rates of 0.5 litres per minute per square metre are used.

This means that less oxygen is exchanged with the surrounding environment and therefore less CO2 will be released into the atmosphere as well as less nitrates being discharged into lakes or rivers when compared to conventional systems

Conventional systems typically use mechanical mixing techniques to ensure good distribution of air throughout the wastewater body, whereas extended aeration systems use more physical means such as baffles and weirs to achieve this result.

Extended aeration is a process that uses a combination of both physical and chemical processes to treat wastewater.

It can offer benefits over conventional treatment methods in terms of efficiency, cost effectiveness, flexibility and ease of operation.

Another major difference between conventional and extended aeration is that in conventional systems, the biomass produced by the microorganisms settles out fairly rapidly due to gravity; therefore, these have to be removed periodically so that they do not clog up pipes or interfere with operating parameters such as pH levels.

In extended aeration systems, however, this settling out does not take place because there are no mechanical disturbances within the bioreactor itself; therefore, bacteria continue working until they consume all available nutrients in the wastewater body.