Radiotracer investigations of municipal sewage treatment stations

Tracer techniques, which are well-established methods in process dynamics studies in industry, were applied to investigate the dynamics of sewage treatment process. The concept of residence time distribution (RTD) was used to investigate the efficiency of the primary clarifier, aeration tank and secondary clarifier of a sewage treatment plant. Preliminary treatment and modelling of the tracer data was performed using software DTS PRO Ver. 4.20. A big short-circulating (by-passing) with a large volume of stagnant zones were found in the primary and secondary clarifiers, while no stagnant zone was detected in the aeration tank. (author)