Determinación de factores de diseño específicos para sistemas de tratamiento de aguas residuales domésticas en urbanizaciones de la ciudad de Guayaquil

Abstract

Urban growth in the city of Guayaquil has driven the development of residential areas in peripheral zones where there is no coverage of sanitary sewer systems, which compels the implementation of decentralized domestic wastewater treatment systems. In practice, the design of these treatment plants is largely based on parameters derived from international literature and standards, without prior validation under local conditions and generally intended for large-scale systems. This situation creates uncertainty in the sizing of process units, in operational costs, and in the overall sustainability of the plants. The purpose of this research project is to determine specific design factors for activated sludge domestic wastewater treatment systems in housing developments in Guayaquil. Representative operating plants will be selected, where monitoring campaigns carried out by Interagua will be reviewed, including parameters such as flow, BOD₅, COD, mixed liquor suspended solids, dissolved oxygen concentration, and sludge volume index. The results will allow a comparison between the originally considered design values and the actual performance of the plants, identifying safety margins, overloads, or underutilization. In this way, the study aims to improve the efficiency of the sizing of domestic wastewater treatment systems. Keywords: domestic wastewater; activated sludge; design factors; sludge production