Scale of Small Particle Population in Activated Sludge Flocs

The light scattering method is a valuable tool for accessing particle size and structure mainly due to fast and the nonintrusive nature of the measurement. The method is based on a scattered intensity pattern and depends on particle volume, particle morphology, the light wavelength and the scattering angle. The light scattering model, for particles characterised by a fractal structure, is enabled with the use of the Rayleigh-Gans-Debye theory under constrained assumptions. The range of validity of the Rayleigh-Gans-Debye is limited when primary particles constituting aggregate have a size close to the wavelength. In this work, a range of particle sizes was characterised in order to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between flocs size and its fractal dimension. Hence, the width of the power law regime is discussed. What is more, a specific fractal dimension value of activated sludge flocs was found for each of the analysed wastewater treatment plant, which suggests that the spatial structure of suspensions constituting the activated sludge is an individual characteristic of each treatment facility. It has been shown that activated sludge consists of microflocs from the range of 1–10 μm, which constitute approximately 90% of all the population.