60

강원도보건환경연구원보 18：60～69, 2007

Rep. Inst. Health & Environ. 18：60～69, 2007

An Estimation and Application of Optimal DO Control

Concentration according to Oxygen Demand in an Aerobic
Process of Wastewater Treatment
Geun-Woo Hyun, Chan-Kee Lee*, Beom-Nyung Huh, In-Ryang Huh, Won-Gu
Jeong, Sang-Yeol Koh, Suk-Jong Lee, Nam-Seong kim, Sung-Bin Park,
Yeong-Jin Kim, Sung-Seok Kim

하수처리를 위한 포기 공정에서 산소요구량에 따른 최적 DO 제어농도의 추정과 적용

현근우, 이찬기*, 허범녕, 허인량, 정원구, 고상열, 이석종, 김남성, 박성빈, 김영진, 김성석

* 강원대학교 환경공학과

Abstract
하수처리시설을 운영함에 있어서 ORP probe의 경우 무산소 혹은 혐기 상태에서 (-)값을 지시하기 때문
에 DO probe보다 많이 이용되고 있으나, 유기물의 유입부하량에 직접적으로 영향을 미치는 DO 농도도
중요한 제어값이다. 유입부하량의 변동에 따라서 산소요구량이 변화되므로, 생물학적 반응조의 산소공급
량을 실시간으로 조정해주어야 한다는 사실을 다단계 DO 농도제어 실험을 통해서 확증하였다. SBR 반
응조에서 DO meter를 사용하여 포기시 DO 농도를 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 mg/L로 각각 제어하면서 DO 농도와
산소공급량 간의 관계를 2차방정식으로 유도한 결과, r=0.99로서 아주 높은 상관성을 보여주었다. 이러한
산소공급량은 유입 유기물 부하량에 따라서 변화하는 산소요구량과 같은 단위 개념이므로, 유도된 수식
을 가지고 유입 유기물부하량에 대응하는 산소요구량에 따른 이론적인 적정 DO 제어농도를 추정하였다.
그 수식을 유입 유기물량을 on-line으로 측정하는 계측기나 ORP 혹은 OUR 변화값 등과 연계하여 적용
하면, 하수처리시설의 포기공정을 자동제어하기 위한 인자 중의 하나로서 유용하게 활용될 것이다.

INTRODUCTION than DO probes because it points (-) values in

The ON/OFF interval of an aerobic device is
very important for efficient removal of nitrogen
and phosphorus in a wastewater treatment
plant. Various control methods using ORP, pH
and DO have been introduced in order to solve
this issue(1-3).
ORP probe has been used in more cases
a anoxic or anaerobic state(4), and also many
studies regarding the characteristics of ORP in
aerobic/anaerobic state have been conducted
(5-9). Although the DO was frequently
regarded as an auxiliary factor in automatically
control system, it is also an important control
factor because the optimum DO concentration
of an aerobic reactor changes in real-time

adding to the inflow organic substances.
The DO concentration can be controlled by
adjusting air flow a continuous aeration
method. However, automatic control system
using DO sensor presents more effective
methods, because the air flow adjusting method
can't actively respond to the change in the
state of inflow. In recent years, it has been
necessary to optimize the aerobic/anaerobic
process in a type of SBR or intermittence
aerobic process that periodically repeats aerobic
and anaerobic processes in order to remove
nutrients effectively(10).
There are several methods to control the DO,
such as a method using feedback controller,
which controls the DO by indicating a set
points of DO meter(11), ON/OFF control
method, which controls the DO by calculating
respiration rates and estimating OUR(12-13),
and a fuzzy control method, which controls the
DO after estimating OUR using respiration
rates(14).
However, these methods neglected the
concept which controls the set point of DO
concentrations in real-time. If wastewater that
has a low organic concentration suddenly
enters into a wastewater treatment tank,, the
set point of DO concentrations should be
controlled at a low level in real-time because
oxygen demand has decreased. Conversely, in
the case of the wastewater inflow having a
high organic concentration, the set point of DO
concentrations should be controlled at a high
level in real-time because oxygen demand has
increased. This means that the set point of DO
concentrations should be controlled in real-time
according to the change in the inflow of
organic substances. Because oxygen demand
presents the same unit as oxygen supply, it is
possible to estimate by relative equation of the
optimal DO control concentration that uses the
61
on-line DO monitoring data and oxygen
demand. The equation can be usefully applied
as control logic to automatically control the
aerobic process of a wastewater treatment
plant.
In this study applied using multi-step DO
control concentration method for estimation of
optimal DO control concentration according to
oxygen demand in an aerobic process of
wastewater treatment.
MATRIALS AND METHODS
SBR system
The continuous inflow SBR reactor used in
this experiment was fabricated using a
transparent acrylic cylinder, which has a radius
of 25cm, height of 70cm, and effective volume
of 35L as presented in Fig. 1. In addition, a
steel paddle was installed at a low speed motor
in order to obtain a perfect mixing. The
mixing was conducted at 120～130rpm. The
wastewater entered continually flowed into the
reactor through a tube, which was connected
at the bottom of the reactor.
A diffuser was installed at the bottom of the
reactor in order to supply air continuously
using an external blower, and the air flow in
the aerobic process was maintained at 3L/min
in which the air flow was controlled using a
flow regulator. DO and ORP probe were also
installed inside the reactor and monitored the
values in real-time using a PC. This
monitoring can be performed using automatic
control software, 'Advantech Drivers Supporting
for Industrial Automation' by Adventech, which
includes a control board that changes analog
signals to digital signals and digital signals to
analog signals. In addition, the program was
used to QBasic certain internal logics in order
62

to control the response time for sensors, such
as anaerobic/aerobic, settlement, decantation,
and wasted sludge.
The reactor applied in this test was operated
in the order of Anaerobic - Aerobic - Settle -
Decant as presented in Fig. 2, and the
anaerobic time, aerobic time, settlement time,
and decantation time were 90, 110, 60 and 30
minutes, respectively. The sludge was removed
for 2～5 minutes at the period between the
settlement time and decant time.
The reactor temperature was maintained at
20～22℃. The experiment lasted for 2 months
in which the MLSS was also maintained at
about 3,800mg/L. HRT was 18～20 hours and
SRT was 25～28 days.

DO ORP
m eter m eter

PC

M D ecant

Effluent
reservoir
C ontrol panel
SBR
Reactor
Feed pum p

P A ir pum p

R aw
W /W

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of SBR system

Anaerobic
/Aerobic

Continuous inflow
raw wastewater

React Settle Decant

Figure 2. Schematics of continuous inflow SBR process

 63

DO control is required into the reactor. It was possible to

maintain an optimum DO concentration using
A level of the DO control is required as the
only a simple ON/OFF control of an air
indispensable condition for the degradation of
blower. The control was performed by setting
organic substances, nitrification and phosphorus
the air blower to either OFF or ON when the
removal. And certain excessive air flows
DO concentration either increased over or
should be prevented to save energies and
deceased under the set point level, respectively.
maintain an optimum state of microorganisms.
In this control, there was a slight oscillation of
It is known that nitrification bacteria can be
damaged as a result of competition between the range of ±0.1mg/L.
nitrification bacteria and heterotrophic bacteria The DO of an aerobic reactor was
when the DO level is lower than 1.0 mg/L automatically controlled by applying
even though the nitrification is effectively concentrations of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4 mg/L, an
processed at the DO concentration of 1.3～2.0 equation for automatic control was derived by
mg/L(15). On the other, in the case of the calculated a theoretical optimal DO control
biological phosphorus uptake, the poly-P concentration. In addition, this study
composition began at the DO concentration of investigated the cost reduction effect according
0.1mg/L, and the maximum phosphorus to a comparison of the optimum DO control
adoption was performed at 0.5 mg/L(16). concentration with the unoptimized case. Fig. 3
Because the DO concentration in a reactor presents the results of the monitoring of DO
can be significantly changed according to the concentrations using a PC by applying the
inflow load and time, an optimum DO control concentrations of 1, 2, and 3 mg/L.

4
DO Control Conc. : 1 mg/L
3
DO(mg/L)

0
4
DO Control Conc. : 2 mg/L
3
DO(mg/L)

0
4
DO Control Conc. : 3 mg/L
3
DO(mg/L)

0
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
Time(hours)

Figure 3. On-line monitoring profiles with controled DO concentration.

64

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4mg/L) improves the nitrification rate, it is

Calculation of air flow factor
Dissolved oxygen is
important factors in the process of biological
nutrients removal. The amount of the oxygen
supply in an aerobic reactor is theoretically the
same as oxygen demand for microorganisms to
oxidize organic substances in an activated
sludge process. The rate of oxygen transfer
from gas phase to liquid phase is relatively
low, because a small amount of the supplied
oxygen is used only by microorganisms. If the
oxygen is a limitation factor in the growing of
microorganisms, activated sludge settlement
will present poor results due to the abundance
of filamentous bacteria.
The concentration of the dissolved oxygen in
an aerobic reactor generally
maintained at the level
Although the high DO concentration(more than
difficult to significantly increase the operational
performance. This will lead to a significant
increase in cost(10).
one of the most
In order to operate the reactor effectively and
economically, a DO meter was used to
maintain the DO concentration in an aerobic
process at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4mg/L, and the
results were monitored. Fig. 4 presents the
results profile and shows a partially magnified
graph of 2 mg/L DO concentration.
Because an air flow was to be produced first
in order to calculate the oxygen supply, the air
flow time expressed in (Eq. 1) that was added
to the aerobic time among the total aerobic
time, which was obtained by summing all 't'
values(values for the power ON), was
calculated, and then the air flow factor(Ahr)
was calculated by dividing it by the total
should be
aerobic time(1 hour).
of 1.5～2.0mg/L.
t1 + t2 + t3 + t4 + … = total T (eq. 1)

2.3

2.2
DO Control Conc.(mg/L)

2.1

1.9

1.8

1.7 t1 + t2 + t3 + t4 …… / total time

1.6
1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171

Time(sec)

Figure 4. A profile for calculation of air flow time in aeration time

 65

Calculation of oxygen supply DO : Dissolved oxygen, mg/L

Although a typical DO control method the air
flow generated by an air blower, in case of
control with the use of on-line concept and DO
meter can be applied an intermitted ON/OFF
control while an adequate level of air is
continuously supplied.
Oxygen supply was calculated basing on the
air flow factor(Ahr), air flow (3L/min=4,320L/d)
and DO concentrations (see Eq. 2). Table 1
presents the results of the oxygen supply
calculation according to
concentration using this equation.
Qair : Air flow, L/d
Ahr : Air flow factor per hr
Fig. 5 shows the change in the oxygen
supply and DO control concentration of specific
based unit on the data noted in Table 1. Based
on these results, a second order equation(Eq. 3)
was derived, which solution resulted in
obtaining the high correlativity r=0.99.
DO control conc.(mg/L) =
-0.0156Od + 0.489Od + 0.183 (eq. 3)
2
the DO control
Where, Od = oxygen supply

Os(gO2/d) = DO × Qair × Ahr × g/1000mg This equation can be derived using a

(eq. 2) multi-step DO control and monitoring method
where, Os : Oxygen supply, gO2/d online.

Table 1. Calculated oxygen supply by DO control concentration and air flow rate per hr

DO control conc. Air flow factor Oxygen supply

(mg/L) (Ahr) (gO2/d)
0.5 0.35 0.76
1 0.41 1.77
2 0.47 4.06
3 0.61 7.91
4 0.84 14.52

5
DO Control Conc.(mg/L)

2
y = -0.0156x 2 + 0.489x + 0.183
r = 0.99

1
M L S S : 3900 mg/ L

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
O x y g e n S u p p ly ( g O 2 / d )

Figure 5. Relation between oxygen supply and DO control concentration

66

Table 2. Theoretical optimal DO control concentration according to the oxygen supply

Measured oxygen Calculated optimum DO Measured oxygen Calculated optimum DO

supply(mgO2/hr) conc.(mg/L) supply(mgO2/hr) conc.(mg/L)
0.0 0.0 8.0 3.1
0.5 0.4 8.5 3.2
1.0 0.7 9.0 3.3
1.5 0.9 9.5 3.4
2.0 1.1 10.0 3.5
2.5 1.3 10.5 3.6
3.0 1.5 11.0 3.7
3.5 1.7 11.5 3.7
4.0 1.9 12.0 3.8
4.5 2.1 12.5 3.9
5.0 2.2 13.0 3.9
5.5 2.4 13.5 3.9
6.0 2.6 14.0 4.0
6.5 2.7 14.5 4.0
7.0 2.8 15.0 4.0
7.5 3.0 15.5 4.0

Table 2 presents the estimation values of an of carbonaceous material is determined from a

optimal DO control concentration and oxygen
supply using Eq. 3.
Because oxygen supply has the same basic
units (gO2/d) as oxygen demand, the optimum
DO control concentration can be reversely
calculated in an aerobic process by substituting
oxygen demand for the oxygen supply. This
means that the optimum DO control concentration
can be calculated according to the inflow load of
organic substances using this process. This
equation is useful as a instrumental control factor
for automatic control of the aerobic process of a
wastewater treatment plant, when the equation is
combined with certain types of equipment, which
can measure the inflow of organic substances in
real-time online, or the changed value of ORP or
OUR measured in real-time online.
Calculation of oxygen demand
The oxygen demand for the biodegradation
mass balance using the bCOD concentration of
the wastewater treated and the amount of
biomass wasted from the system per day. If all
of the bCOD were oxidized to CO2, H2O, and
NH3, the oxygen demand would be equal to the
bCOD concentration. However, bacteria oxidize
a portion of the bCOD to provide energy and
use the remaining portion of the bCOD for cell
growth. Oxygen is also consumed for
endogenous respiration, and the amount will
depend on the system SRT. For a given SRT,
a system mass balance can be derived where
the bCOD removal equals the oxygen used
plus the biomass VSS remaining in terms of
an oxygen equivalent.
When nitrification is included in the process,
the total oxygen demand will include the
oxygen demand for removal of carbonaceous
material plus the oxygen demand for ammonia
and nitrite oxidation to nitrate as follows(17):
 67

Ro = Q(So-S) - 1.42Px,bio + 4.33Q(NOx) (4.33×46×0.005)g/d = 4.87 g/d

(eq. 4)
where, Ro = total oxygen demand, g/d
Px,bio = biomass as VSS wasted, g/d
NOx = the amount of TKN oxidized to
nitrate
where, Px, bio = 8250 mg/L × 0.6 L/d = 5.0 g/d
From the results, oxygen demand obtained is
Ro=4.87g/d.

The average values of the raw wastewater Optimum DO control concentration

treated in this experiment was used to analyze
oxygen demand(Table 3). The values were used
to estimate oxygen demand by substituting it
into Eq. 4. In the SBR reactor, the amount of
oxidation of ammonium nitrogen to nitrate for 1
cycle was assumed to be 5 mg/L.
Oxygen demand was calculated by
substituting the data presented in Table 3 into
Eq. 4. The results are as follows;
Ro = 46(0.152-0.0038)g/d - 1.42×5.0g/d +
The theoretical DO control concentration,
which is an optimum value in an aerobic
process, was estimated as 2.2 mg/L by
substituting the previously determined oxygen
demand(4.87g/d) into Eq. 4. Because this value
was similar to the experimental optimal DO
control concentration of 2.0 mg/L, the economical
efficiency was analyzed using this value. Table 4
presents the analysis results based on the value
of 2.0 mg/L as a criterion 1.0.

Table 3. Raw wastewater characteristics for estimation of oxygen demand

Item Values Remarks

Q 46 L/d
Inf. BOD 152 mg/L
Eff. BOD 3.8 mg/L
Inf. bCOD 243 mg/L bCOD ≒ BOD×1.6
Eff. bCOD 6.1 mg/L
NOx 5.0 mg/L 1cycle consumed
Waste sludge MLVSS 8250 mg/L
Waste sludge quantity 0.6L/d

Table 4. Comparison of power cost by the DO control concentration

DO control conc. Air flow factor

Power cost rates
(mg/L) (Ahr)
0.5 0.35 -
1 0.41 -

2 0.47 1.0
3 0.61 1.3
4 0.84 1.8
68
By considering the optimal DO concentration
of 2 mg/L in an aerobic process as 1.0, the
amount of air flows needed were calculated to
be 1.3 times of air flow for the DO control
concentration of 3 mg/L, and 1.8 times of air
flow for the DO control concentration of 4
mg/L. This means that the cost of the
operation electricity of air flow can be reduced
by up to 30～80% if the optimal DO control
concentration is maintained.
As a result, it is evident that the oxygen
demand varied according to the inflow of
organic substances and has a significant
connection to the DO control concentration of
an aerobic reactor. The results of these
experiments can provide useful information for
the professional operator in a wastewater
treatment plant by comparing them with
experienced control data, if the results of such
analysis are accumulated for every season.
CONCLUSION
Because oxygen supply has the same basic
unit as oxygen demand, which can vary
according to the inflow load of organic
substances, it was possible to propose a method
that estimates a theoretically optimal DO control
concentration by deriving the equation relating
the oxygen supply and the multi-step DO
control concentration. If the derived equation is
applied in an automatic control method in an
aerobic process of a wastewater treatment plant
in order to maintain the DO concentration at
the optimal level, it will make a contribution
not only to the prevention of excessive air flow,
but also to the achieving of economical and
efficient operation.
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