THE GREAT OXYGEN DECEPTION

In aerobic biological wastewater treatment, the supply of oxygen is of great critical importance. It is one of the parameters that is mandatory and heavily relied upon to assess the efficiency of wastewater treatment. However it is one of the parameters that must be approached with the greatest caution as many wrong conclusions could be reached by wrong interpretation.

The importance of oxygen could not be denied as it is the indicator for the ability of the system to support life or whether the treatment system is properly functioning. The values of 2mg/litre have generally been accepted as the minimum concentration to support aerobic life. Below which the system is anaerobic.

I can always see how many engineers, chemists and even consultants are very excited prematurely to see if their WWTP registered a dissolved oxygen (DO) of about 4 mg/lit and declaring “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”

If only they stop the * Drum rolls!* *Applause!* Thunderous claps! * * Cheers!* and * Confettis!*

There is the possibility that something could be wrong if you register too high DO. You can only reach definite conclusions in conjunction with other observations or studies to support you

A high DO could be the result of various factors such as:
1 System too toxic to support life
2 The absence of microorganisms
3 Low number of microorganisms
And a few other causes

So before celebrating, and making hasty conclusions please analyse the other parameters or at least observe the situation over a few weeks analyses






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