Hydrodynamic optimization of multi-environment reactors for biological nutrient removal: a methodology combining computational fluid dynamics and dimensionless indexes

Multi-environment reactors are an innovative alternative to simplify conventional Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) treatment trains as they are more compact and can adapt to existing quality requirements. However, maintaining the desired environmental conditions in different zones of the reactor im...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Blanco Aguilera, R., López Lara, Javier, Barajas Ojeda, Gabriel, Tejero Monzón, Iñaki, Díez Montero, Rubén|||0000-0001-8435-0195
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/340786
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/340786
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2020.115766
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Computational fluid dynamics
OpenFOAM®
Multi-environment
Dimensional analysis
Optimization
Biological nutrient removal
Dinàmica de fluids computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Física::Física de fluids
Descripción
Sumario:Multi-environment reactors are an innovative alternative to simplify conventional Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) treatment trains as they are more compact and can adapt to existing quality requirements. However, maintaining the desired environmental conditions in different zones of the reactor implies the need for deflectors or mixing devices that generate a complex hydrodynamic behaviour. Therefore, to ensure the desired biological efficiency, hydraulic optimization is essential. For that purpose, a hydrodynamic optimization methodology combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and dimensional analysis is developed and presented in this work. The methodology is applied to AnoxAn, an anaerobic-anoxic reactor for BNR. The CFD model is constructed using the OpenFOAM® open source toolbox and has been already validated in a previous work by the authors. Different features as hydraulic separation, dead volumes, short-circuiting or mixing performance are evaluated and main results show that configurations of AnoxAn with high slenderness have the most efficient hydrodynamic behaviour.