Analysis of particle size distribution in municipal wastewaters

• Published in: Environmental technology & innovation Vol. 27; p. 102638
• Main Authors: Cornacchia, Matteo, Moser, Gabriele, Saturno, Ezio, Trucco, Andrea, Costamagna, Paola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2022
• Subjects: environmental technology; Laser diffraction; least squares; microfiltration; Modeling; Municipal wastewater; particle size distribution; Particle size distribution (PSD); Probability density function (PDF); probability distribution; Particle size distribution (PSD); Probability density function (PDF); Modeling; Laser diffraction; Municipal wastewater
• ISSN: 2352-1864; 2352-1864
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eti.2022.102638

Innovative membrane filtration plants for municipal wastewaters are being developed and need the support of reliable filtration models in the designing phase. In the past, semi-empirical filtration models for membrane processes have been proposed. At present, the most prominent works point out the importance of particle poly-dispersity in the development of reliable models but fail into the implementation of probability density functions (PDFs) capable of an accurate fitting of the experimental particle size distribution (PSD). We report the experimental PSDs of two different municipal wastewater samples, obtained through the laser diffraction technique. The experimental results show that the laser diffraction technique can characterize wastewater particle dimensions both in the colloidal and supra-colloidal regions. The experimental study is complemented by a comparative analysis in which many PDFs are used to fit the experimental PSDs through a least-squares approach. Some of these PDFs are proposed here for the first time to fit experimental wastewater PSDs. Among the PDFs considered for the statistical modeling, the three-parameter lognormal and the Burr PDFs are demonstrated to provide satisfactory fitting, whereas the other considered functions fail. This result is confirmed by the analysis of both the available wastewater samples. [Display omitted] •Experimental data of particle size distribution in municipal wastewaters.•Experimental data from laser diffraction technique.•Fitting of probability density functions to experimental data through a least-squares approach.•Several probability density functions tested.•Burr and three-parameter lognormal densities capture well the experimental data.