An experimental study on the airlift pump with air jet nozzle and booster pump

The experiments for high head airlifting performance with vertical tube were examined for wastewater treatment. Comparing with the centrifugal pump and other pumps, the airlift pump has some problems and limited applications. However, an advantage of an airlift pump is in its geometrical simplicity, not having any moving parts, so it is suitable in lifting fluids including tiny pieces of metal or grit. In this study, for the purpose of high lifting head, an air jet nozzle was used. We have performed experimentally according to various characteristics of the airlift pump system such as the change of submerged depth, lifting head of liquid-air mixture (total head) and air flow rate. This work has verified through experiments that airlift pump shows lifting ability for 3 m (S_r = 0.3) in comparison with conventional height, 2 m (S_r = 0.4). Also, we suggested that the new airlift pump system with the air booster pump be used to improve the higher lifting head performance.