Date of Award

Spring 5-2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Civil Engineering

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Dr. Enrique La Motta

Second Advisor

Dr. Bhaskar Kura

Third Advisor

Dr. John McCorquodale

Abstract

Disinfection is the final and very important step of wastewater treatment to maintain healthy ecosystems. Although chlorination is the most prevalent wastewater disinfection method, there are serious safety concerns and ecological problems associated with its use. The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of using a HydroFLOW 60i unit for wastewater disinfection, as an alternative to chlorination. The study was performed using two different reactors, namely, a bench-scale laboratory batch reactor, and a continuous flow, pilot unit. Using the batch reactor, it was found out that the HydroFLOW 60i unit is effective to kill bacteria; however, modifications to this mode of operation would be required in order to increase the disinfection efficiency and to decrease the detention time. When the continuous flow system was run using a hydraulic detention time of 10 minutes and a single pass through the HydroFLOW unit, the E. coli removal efficiency was negligible. Further research is needed to determine the most economical and efficient reactor configuration in order to make the HydroFLOW unit competitive with conventional wastewater chlorination.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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