Title: DO variations in facultative stabilisation ponds

Authors: Ali Gheisarifar

Addresses: Pars Arian Ab Consulting Engineers, Sheikhsadogh Street, Alley payam, No. 14, 8174657741, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract: Stabilisation ponds have recently attracted more attention as a natural wastewater treatment method and are currently being used in almost all developed and developing countries across the globe. The technical, economic, energy saving and operational advantages of such treatment systems have motivated many researchers in these countries to study the improvement of stabilisation ponds in order to increase their efficiency and also to lift the difficulties in their operation. Stabilisation ponds derive their justification as a reliable and easy-to-operate treatment system from the fact that the high oxygen demand by aerobic treatment systems requires costly electromechanical aeration equipment whereas stabilisation ponds do not call for such great investments as the process of photosynthesis in ponds generates an abundance of oxygen supply in excess of the system's requirements. In the present study, two stabilisation ponds operating in Isfahan, Iran, were selected and the variations in their dissolved oxygen levels were measured in the plant effluent at various depths and at different distances between the inlet and outlet points. The results revealed that oxygen generation was far in excess of the oxygen demand by the system.

Keywords: dissolved oxygen levels; dissolved oxygen variation; stabilisation ponds; photosynthesis; wastewater treatment; Iran; plant effluent; oxygen generation; oxygen demand.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2015.074908

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2015 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.205 - 211

Accepted: 02 Mar 2015
Published online: 24 Feb 2016 *

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