CFD Simulation on Improving Water Quality based on Various Aerator Models to Demonstrate Cost Performance Analysis

Abstract There are many types of aerator that can be used to perform a water treatment process either from air to water or from water to air approaches. Other than focusing on the performance itself, the usage cost of aerator should be forecasted in detail too to have a sustainable and economical method in remediating the polluted water. Therein, the cost performance analysis was demonstrated by performing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation on improving water quality based on various aerator models. The simulation was focused in a small-scale aeration tank that consists of a mixing chamber, air duct, and a few of bubble diffusers. The improvement of water quality was assessed by calculating the number of gas bubble particles produced by 4 different configurations of aerator model, namely aerator model A, B, C and D, respectively. Results found that the aerator model D (5 bubble diffuser at 620 L/min) produces the highest number of gas particles up to 72.2%. However, the aerator model C (5 bubble diffuser at 300 L/min) was found to achieve the most efficient and sustainable approach based on energy consuming and cost of aerator configuration when compared to the other aerator models.