General Ventilation System Optimization Study for Environment Improvement of Sludge Dewatering Area from a Wastewater Treatment Plant

One of the most important facilities in Romania for the wastewater treatment is located near Bucharest. The paper focus on the final sludge dewatering line where the working environment has recently been deemed unsuitable for human exploitation due to different chemical compounds such as water vapour, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and calcium oxide dust. To avoid problems, the company has to manage very careful the human activity with long breaks to protect their employees so they decided to change the ventilation solution, and to find the strategy of optimal air distribution. Our study defines the optimal solution for the general ventilation of the room for highly dehydrated sludge and for the improvement of technological parameters and working conditions. This solution obtained by means of numerical simulation generally adapts the existing ventilation system and prepares the implementation of local solutions to capture and treat the effluents of the treatment line. In order to propose a solution for the general ventilation system, we performed numerical simulations using Computational Fluid Dynamics models. The numerical models were calibrated and validated with measured data obtained in different experimental campaigns in situ.