Evaluation on the impacts of predators on biomass components and oxygen uptake in sequencing batch reactor and continuous systems

An expanded unified model for the biomass fractions, soluble-organic fractions, and oxygen-uptake rates considering extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), intracellular storage products (X_STO), and predators for activated sludge is used to study the impacts of predators on biomass components and oxygen uptake. The new model is applied to evaluate how predation affects the oxygen-uptake rate (OUR) and the different forms of biomass: active bacteria (X_H), X_EPS, and X_STO, under dynamic feast-and-famine and continuous conditions. For the dynamic conditions of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), eliminating predators from the model increases X_H and X_EPS fractions significantly, and this causes the substantial increases in OUR and MLVSS once the famine period begins. An analysis of how the OUR is distributed among the several respiration processes shows that the predation of X_H is the most significant oxygen utilization rate process in the system under famine conditions of an SBR. Application of the model to simulate the long-term operation of an SBR indicates that predators reach their maximum fraction in the MLVSS (∼4% of MLVSS) at a solids retention time of about 13 days, but they are washed out at a solids retention time less than ∼3 days. Simulation for a continuous system indicates that predators take more time (about 800 h) to reach steady state and reach their maximum fraction (∼5.5%) at an SRT of ∼14 days. Comparison of SBR and continuous systems reveals that the predators have greater impact in the continuous system because the permanent near-famine condition accentuates predation processes.