Coupling Hydrodynamic and Biological Process Models for Wastewater Treatment

This thesis considers the problem of modelling bioreactors with complex mixing and biokinetic growth based on both soluble nutrients and photosynthesis. From the results of investigations performed on the different modelling methods for nutrient and photosynthesis dependent biomass growth a method of coupling the two biokinetic models was proposed. This new photosynthesis-nutrient (PN) model was then investigated, validated and determined capable of predicting growth characteristics dependent on both nutrient and photosynthetic processes. Additionally an investigation into the factors which may influence the results when using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model the flow field within a gas-lift bioreactor was performed. It was determined that one of the main factors which must be considered when modelling bioreactors with boundary layer flow separation is the choice of turbulence model. In the case presented here it was found that the transition SST turbulence model provided the best results with the k-w SST also performing well. Finally, a method of coupling the PN and CFD models was proposed and investigated. The photosynthesis-nutrient-hydrodynamic (PNH) model also incorporated a model for diffusion of light within the bioreactor to allow for investigations into the effects of light absorption and scattering within the bioreactor and how mixing affects the active biomass. Further investigation of this new PNH model determined that the coupling of the biokinetics and flow field provided some insight into the ability of a well-mixed bioreactor to counter low light penetration to an extent.