ABSTRACT
The points in the figures were computed for a variety of bioparticle and carrier particle sizes, thereby demonstrating that the characteristic film thickness works well as a normalizing factor.
Because the characteristic biofilm thickness serves as a normalizing factor that allows effectiveness factor correlations developed for planar coordinates to be used with spherical particles, it should be possible to use the general correlation for Monod kinetics shown in Figure 15.9 by using an appropriately modified Thiele modulus. This would allow external mass transfer resistance to be handled with little additional effort. Therefore, depending on the kinetic and mass transfer characteristics of the system, Eq. 18.20, Eq. 18.22, or Figure 15.9 can be used to calculate the substrate removal rate by bioparticles surrounded by substrate at a given concentration. This information can then be used to calculate system performance in the same manner as used in Chapters 15-17.
