Ventilation in Sewers Quantified by Measurements of CO2

Understanding and quantifying ventilation in sewer systems is a prerequisite to predict transport of odorous and corrosive gasses within the system as well as their interaction with the urban atmosphere. This paper studies ventilation in sewer systems quantified by measurements of the natural occurring compound CO2. Most often Danish wastewater is supersaturated with CO2 and hence a potential for stripping is present. A novel model was built based on the kinetics behind the stripping process. It was applied to simulate ventilation rates from field measurements of wastewater temperature, pH, alkalinity and sewer-air CO2 concentrations. An intercepting sewer was studied and an average sewer-air retention time of approximately 1.5-2.5 hours was found at CO2 levels around 4-6 times the natural background. Also an upstream sub-catchment was studied. In this part of the sewer system the level of CO2 was found to be 1-4 times the natural background level.