Water surface contacting cover system—the basic study for improving the oxygen transfer coefficient and the BOD removal capacity

In order to construct an environmental aeration basin in a sewage treatment plant, the suggested novel aeration basin was examined for the oxygen transfer coefficient by using tap water on a lab-scale and pilot-scale. We called it water surface contacting cover system (WSCCS) that was installed with a cover plate on the wafer surface and a slant plate in aeration basin, compared to a standard aeration basin (SRAS, spiral roll aeration system). Finally, the novel basin could be compared by adopting the slant and cover plates into the actual sewage treatment plant (W×L×D (m)=5.0×2.65×4.25, treatment capacity: 600 m3/d). As a result, only by adding a slant plate, the oxygen transfer coefficient (KLa) increased approximately by 15% more than that with a SRAS basin. And the slope of slant plate was optimized at 10°. Additionally, in the WSCCS, the increasing efficiency of the oxygen transfer coefficient, affected only by the cover, was proved at about 25% on the lab-scale aeration basin and about 20% on the pilot plant. After all, the increasing effect of the oxygen transfer coefficient on WSCCS that was installed with the water contacting cover and the slant plate on standard aeration basin was proved to be above 35%. The distance between the air diffuser and the slant plate was 20–30 cm in the pilot-scale plant. As an effective factor for increasing the oxygen transfer rate, the width/depth ratio of aeration basin was proved to be 2. Through the short-term results of actual sewage treatment plant, it was known that BOD removal efficiency could be improved by about 3% by adopting tile WSCCS not but SRAS.