4.7 Review

Current operation state of wastewater treatment plants in urban China

Journal

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Volume 195, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110843

Keywords

WWTP; Operating conditions; Operational difficulties; Hydraulic loading rate; Activated sludge; Energy and material consumption

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Wastewater treatment plants in urban China face operational difficulties such as high hydraulic loading rates, high activated sludge concentrations, low sludge activity, and high energy and material consumption. The study identified the main factors causing these difficulties and explored pathways to overcome them.
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in urban China generally face operational difficulties. To comprehensively analyze the current operation status and determine the factors that caused difficulties in urban domestic WWTPs, we conducted a questionnaire survey, and 18 operating conditions of scale-level WWTPs in seven regions in China were investigated. The research results showed that, of the 467-urban domestic WWTPs surveyed in China, approximately 63.17% of the WWTPs' hydraulic loading rates (HLRs) are greater than 80%, 67.02% of the WWTPs have mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations greater than 4000 mg/L, and 95.93% of the WWTPs' mixed liquor volatile suspended solids to mixed liquor suspended solids (MLVSS/MLSS) ratios are lower than 0.7. The WWTP energy consumption accounts for approximately 1% of the national electricity consumption, and approximately 100,000 tons of various chemicals are consumed every year. A high HLR, a high activated sludge concentration and low sludge activity, design value mismatches with actual values, high energy and material consumption, etc. have become the main operational difficulties of urban domestic WWTPs. In this study, the main barriers that hinder improving the operating efficiency of WWTPs were investigated, the causes of operational dilemmas were analyzed, and pathways were jointly explored to solve them. This study may provide valuable implications for industry practitioners with a comprehensive grasp of the industry's current status and related policy formulation.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available