Various biological and non biological particles form wastewater suspended solids.
They play a vital part during aeration methods commonly used for the treatment of sludge.
But it is important to estimate their quantity to determine the time required for such treatment.
In this article I discuss a formula commonly used to achieve this: MLSS A mixed liquor is stored in an aeration basin where the thick liquid is a mixture of activated sludge and wastewater that is either a fresh load or that which has been settled.
This water has a high concentration of solid particles in it.
The concentration of these particles is known as MLSS.
The unit used to express this when measuring the quantity of these substances is mg/l.
To put this simply it is the total amount of these substances in the aeration tank used during the activated sludge treatment.
These wastewater suspended solids are a mix of organic solids and inorganic solids.
Most of this particles are microorganisms.
To get an estimate of the amount of solids, a sample is taken from the aeration tank, filtered through a filter paper to obtain the suspended particles that get left behind on the filter paper.
These particles are then allowed to dry completely and the weight of the filter paper is noted.
The weight of the filter paper prior to being used for filtration is subtracted to find out the gain in weight.
The calculation used for this purpose is as follows: Total Suspended Solids Wastewater (TSS)/L = (A-B) * 1000 mg / Sample Volume (ML) where A represents the combined weight of the dried substance and the tissue filter paper written in mg and B represents the weight of the filter paper alone written in mg.
The number of hours required for the aeration treatment depends somewhat on the results of this test.
MLVSS The MLVSS are the volatile particles of microbiological nature found in a mixed liquor in an aeration tank consisting of activated sludge with either influent or settled wastewater.
The amount of the microbiological mass can either be called as the TSS or the VSS.