Republic of the Philippines

Southern Luzon State University

College of Engineering
Lucban, Quezon

A PROPOSED DESIGN OF CENTRALIZED WASTEWATER TREATMENT

FACILITY IN SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS

In partial fulfillment for the requirements in

RESEARCH I

Jubelea, Ace Mikko B.

BSCE-IVGA
 CHAPTER I

Introductıon

Wastewater management is comprised of wastewater collection, treatment, and reuse or

disposal of effluent and sludge (Crites and Tchobanoglous, 1998). It is essential for several

reasons: (1) protecting public health and the well-being of the communities; (2) protecting the

water resources and the environment; and (3) in water-scarce regions for reuse purposes in order

to reduce the pressure from the potable resources (Bakir, 2001; Friedler, 2001).

Broadly, wastewater management strategies can be categorized as centralized or

decentralized systems. In the Philippines, decentralized sewage systems were more common. In

this case containers were placed beneath the seats of privies to collect human excrement and

once full-containers were emptied at a disposal location near the residence. On the other hand,

centralized wastewater management consists of: (1) centralized collection system (sewers) that

collects wastewater from many wastewater producers and transports it to (2) centralized

wastewater treatment plant, and (3) disposal/reuse of the treated effluent (Wilderer and Schreff,

2000; Crites and Tchobanoglous, 1998). Centralized wastewater management- as the preferred

choice of planners and decision makers, is often applied to smaller communities (Bakir, 2001).

As the world population, urbanization and economic activities rapidly increase – the

pressure on the fresh water resources increases. Steady increase in living standards, economic

development and piped water supply means an increase in water consumptions. These lead to

increasing volumes of wastewater and if left untreated- increasing volumes of pollution. In this

research, a proposed design of a centralized wastewater treatment facility, including its sewerage
system is to be executed through application of various principles in science, mathematics and

hydraulics.

Background of the Study

There is an enourmous problem in wastewater management in the Philippines, where

poverty is rampant and population is growing very rapidly over the past few years. Everyone is

affected by this catastrophy. The people, the environment, and even the government-owned

institutions are caught in the middle. Southern Luzon State University, a state university situated

at the foot of Mount Banahaw in Lucban, Quezon is not exempted from this problem. In fact, at

the present where its population is increasing by a considerable amount each year, the amount of

wastewater it produces is considerably high too. The problem lies with its poor wastewater

management. Just like a typical educational institution, it adapts a decentralized sewerage system,

without a wastewater treatment facility. Some areas inside the campus are suffering from the

effects of this poor management. Some sewage pipes are poorly designed, giving bad effects in

sanitary and ruining the overall aesthetics of the institution. And being in the 21st century

wherein everything is going centralized, SLSU is outdated.

Moreover, this institution is also an environment advocate. But the idea of keeping a

decentralized sewerage system voids their advocacies. This system is not environmentally-

friendly because the wastes collected from each building are being stored underneath for a long

period of time instead of being transported and treated for disposal or reuse. These effects are

just some of the many that an institution can acquire if it keeps on using a decentralized system.

Hence, the researcher thought of a concrete solution for this problem by shifting from a

decentralized to a centralized sewerage system through designing sewage pipe connections

leading to a water treatment facility located at a certain location near a body of water. This study

aims to promote proper sanitary through an appropriate wastewater management.

Objectives

The main objectives of this research are:

1. To design a centralized sewerage system inside the campus.

2. To design the wastewater treatment facility.

3. To estimate the cost of materials.

Significance of the Study

This study is of significance to the community inside the SLSU Main Campus. More

specifically, this study is of significance to:

1. The Students. Promote the health and overall well-being of the students through

utilization of clean facilities because of a proper wastewater management.

2. The Faculty and other Staffs. Health and convenience are just some of the main

purposes of the centralized system. Teachers would be able to teach conveniently without

the disturbance of unpleasant odor.

3. The Environment. Reduce land, air, and water pollution through proper treatment and

disposal or reuse of wastewater.

4. The Local Government of Lucban. This research could serve as a basis for the Local

Government in conducting a similar research in the whole town.

5. Other Researchers. This research could also serve as a basis for undergraduate or

graduate thesis with relevant topics.

Scope and Delimitations

This study is focused on designing a centralized sewerage system and a wastewater treatment

facility but is only limited to:

1. Determining the best location of the sewage pipes and the wastewater treatment facility.

2. Determining the technology that would be used in the system.

3. Providing essential data, and conducting data interpretation through utilization of

scientific and mathematical theories.

4. Exclusion of the wastewater treatment process.

Definition of Terms

Effluent- liquid (such as sewage or industrial chemicals) that is released as waste

Septic- used for sewage treatment and disposal

Sewage- waste material (such as human urine and feces) that is carried away from homes

and other buildings in a system of pipes

Sewerage- a system or process used for carrying away water and sewage

Sludge- thick, soft, wet mud

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter emphasizes the different concepts, topics, and principles gathered from

readings, unpublished materials, and online resources that is in relation to the present study.

Discussions of topics and findings from previously conducted researches also contribute in the

pursuit of this study.

Related Literature

Wastewater

Sewage sludges are residues resulting from the treatment of wastewater released from

various sources including homes, industries, medical facilities, street runoff and businesses.

Sewage sludges contain nutrients and organic matter that can provide soil benefits and are widely

used as soil amendments. They also, however, contain contaminants including metals, pathogens,

and organic pollutants (Harrison, E.Z., et. al., 2006). Land application of sewage sludge is one of

the important disposal alternatives. Characteristics of sewage sludge depend upon the quality of

sewage and type of treatment processes followed. Being rich in organic and inorganic plant

nutrients, sewage sludge may substitute for fertilizer, but availability of potential toxic metals

often restricts its uses. Sludge amendment to the soil modifies its physico-chemical and

biological properties. Crop yield in adequately sludge-amended soil is generally more than that

of well-fertilized controls. Bioavailability of metals increases in sludge amended soil at

excessive rates of application for many years. Plants differ in their abilities to absorb sludge-

derived metals from the soil (Singh, R.P., Agrawal, M., 2008).
 Sewage is a relatively dilute mixture of the numerous kinds of wastes from household

and industry. In combined sewers the washings from streets, roofs, and yard areas are added.

Some of the waste matters are carried in suspension; others go into solution; still others are, or

become, so finely divided that they are found in the colloidal (dispersedultramieroscopic) state.

A large proportion of the waste matters is organic in nature and is attacked by saprophytic

microorganisms, i.e., organisms that feed upon dead organic matter. By their foraging activities

the decomposable matter in sewage is gradually destroyed or stabilized. The organisms

responsible for decomposition originate in part in the water supply of the community in part in

the wastes discharged into the carrying water. Sewage treatment plants become populated with

additional organisms, and receiving waters contribute the seed of their indigenous flora and

fauna.

Wastewater Treatment

Burian S.J., et. al. (2010) stated that the management strategies can be categorized as

either centralized, where all the wastewater is collected and conveyed to a central location for

treatment or disposal, or decentralized, where the wastewater is primarily treated or disposed of

on-site or near the source. Historically, municipalities, consulting engineers, and individuals

have had the option of centralized or decentralized wastewater management and could have

chosen from a variety of collection and disposal technologies to implement the management

strategy. Although these options were available, the majority of engineers, public health officials,

policy makers, and members of the public typically preferred one management strategy and one

technology to the others. The reasons for a particular preference were based on a combination of

cost, urban development patterns, accepted scientific theories, tradition, religious attitudes,
prevailing public opinion on sanitation, the contemporary political environment, and many other

factors.

Wastewater treatment plants should be designed so that the effluent standards and reuse

objectives, and biosolids regulations can be met with reasonable ease and cost. The design

should incorporate flexibility for dealing with seasonal changes, as well as long-term changes in

wastewater quality and future regulations (Qasim S.R., 1998). Good planning and design,

therefore, must be based on five major steps: a.) characterization of the raw wastewater quality

and effluent, b.) pre-design studies to develop alternative processes and selection of final process

train, c.) detailed design of the selected alternative, d.) contraction and e.) operation and

maintenance of the completed facility.

Moreover, Muga, H.E. and Mihelcic, J.R. (2007) reiterated the sustainability of

wastewater treatment technologies. According to them, a set of indicators that incorporate

environmental, societal, and economic sustainability were developed and used to investigate the

sustainability of different wastewater treatment technologies, for plant capacities of <5million

gallons per day (MGD) or 18.9×103 cubic meters (m3/day). The technologies evaluated were

mechanical (i.e., activated sludge with secondary treatment), lagoon (facultative, anaerobic, and

aerobic), and land treatment systems (e.g., slow rate irrigation, rapid infiltration, and overland

flow). The economic indicators selected were capital, operation and management, and user

costs because they determine the economic affordability of a particular technology to a

community. Environmental indicators include energy use, because it indirectly

measures resource utilization, and performance of the technology in removing conventional

wastewater constituents such as biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus,

and pathogens. These indicators also determine the reuse potential of the treated wastewater.
Societal indicators capture cultural acceptance of the technology through public participation and

also measure whether there is improvement in the community from the specific technology

through increased job opportunities, better education, or an improved local environment.

Sewerage System

The water-carriage system of sewerage provides a simple and economical means for

removing offensive and potentially dangerous wastes from household and industry. The solution

and suspension of waste matters in the transporting water produce sewage. The sewage of cities

and towns and the water-carried wastes of industries must eventually find their way into those

water courses, or bodies of water, that constitute either the natural drainage channels of a region

or the natural receivers of drainage waters. If sewage matters and industrial wastes are to be

kept-in whole or in part-out of rivers and other receiving waters, they must be unloaded from the

transporting water at the end of the sewerage system. This is done in sewage-treatment plants

that act as "unloading stations" for the water-carriage system. Unfortunately, the unloading

operation is complicated by the fact that some of the waste matters go into solution in water and

that others are, or become, colloidal or otherwise finely divided in the course of their flow

through the sewerage system. Ordinarily, less than half of the waste matters remain in suspension

in such size or condition that they can be separated by being strained out, skimmed off, or settled

out. The remainder must either be precipitated out by chemical means, filtered out mechanically,

or subjected to biological treatment whereby they are either removed from the water or so

changed in character as to be rendered innocuous (Imhoff, K. & Fair, G.M., 1940). Sewage

treatment and disposal have as their primary objective the prevention of damage to receiving

waters, whether these are rivers and canals, ponds and lakes, or tidal estuaries and coastal waters.

The damage that may be done includes: contamination or pollution of water supplies, bathing
places, shellfish layings, and ice supplies; creation of conditions offensive to sight or smell;

destruction of food fish and other valuable aquatic life; and other impairment of the usefulness of

natural waters for recreation, commerce, or industry.

Sewage Disposal or Reuse

A small amount of kitchen refuse, or garbage, has always found its way into municipal

sewerage systems. Employment of sewers for the full water-carriage of garbage and offal from

kitchens and markets appears to be a logical forward step in municipal cleansing, provided that

simple and cheap means can be devised for so comminuting this refuse that it will not cause

stoppage in the sewers; also provided that the receiving waters for the sewage can tolerate the

added pollution load. Garbage grinders, however, are as yet not within the reach of all users.

House-to-house collection of garbage followed by its discharge into sewers after grinding at

central stations has, therefore, been instituted in certain communities and grinding at the sewage-

treatment works at others. Digestion of garbage with sewage sludge appears to offer the safest

utilization of this waste.

Related Studies

Wastewater

A study conducted by Feng L., et. al. (2015) discussed about the characteristics of

wastewater and how vast its effects to a community in China is. According to them, sewage

sludge, the most important byproduct of biological wastewater treatment, is considered an

important source of secondary pollution in aquatic environments, linked to health problems and

even deaths in humans. In 2012, China generated more than 68.5 billion metric tonnes of

wastewater, and this is expected to rise to 78.4 billion metric tonnes in 2015.(1) The amount of
sewage sludge would increase accordingly, from 30 million metric tonnes (at a moisture content

of 80%) in 2012 to 34 million metric tonnes in 2015.(2) Historically, over 80% of the sludge has

not been treated and disposed of effectively and safely, and this poses a great threat to the

environment, particularly because of the ubiquitous use of combined systems for municipal

wastewater, industrial wastewater, and rainwater treatment. Thus, it is extremely important to set

up separate drainage systems to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of sludge treatment and

disposal.

Wastewater Treatment

A study conducted by Wu, H., et. al., (2015) entitled Bioresource Technology reiterated

the importance of Constructed Wetlands. Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been used as a green

technology to treat various wastewaters for several decades. CWs offer a land-intensive, low-

energy, and less-operational-requirements alternative to conventional treatment systems,

especially for small communities and remote locations. However, the sustainable operation and

successful application of these systems remains a challenge.

The problems in wastewater treatment were discussed on a similar study conducted by

Ping Wang, Y. & Smith R. (1994) and says that problem with centralized effluent treatment is

that combining two waste streams that require different treatment technologies leads to a cost of

treating the combined streams which is virtually always more expensive than individual

treatment of the separate streams. On the other hand, if two waste streams require exactly the

same treatment it is sensible to combine them for treatment to obtain economies of scale. The

design of effluent treatment systems should in the first instance segregates the streams for

treatment and only combines them if it is appropriate. If this policy is followed then the effluent
treatment system becomes distributed rather than centralized. Distributed effluent treatment can,

in the appropriate circumstances, lead to significantly lower capital and operating costs when

compared with centralized treatment.

Conceptual Framework

INPUT OUTPUT

1. Construction plan 5. Improved

and map of SLSU wastewater
Main Campus management
PROCESS
2. Survey of the site for 6. Clean water ready
the possible location 1. Preliminary Survey for disposal or reuse
for the sewerage and Observation 7. Efficient centralized
system and water 2. Actual Survey and sewerage system
treatment facility Gathering Data
3. Determining the 3. Designing procedure
appropriate water 4. Computing the
treatment facility capacity of sewer
4. Specifications of pipes
materials to be used
 CHAPTER III

Methodology

This chapter represents and discusses the procedures that the researcher followed in

conducting the study. İt includes the research design, research locale, procedures for data

collection, and data analysis.

Research Locale

The proposed study is to be conducted in Southern Luzon State University Main Campus

where the researcher would select an area that best fits the said facility. İt is focused on the

design of the centralized wastewater treatment facility including the sewage pipes and other

hydraulic structures.

Topography

Southern Luzon State University Main Campus is located in Lucban, a second class

municipality in the province of Quezon. Lucban has a total land area of 130.46 squared

kilometers, situated 433.5 meters above sea level.

Demography

Lucban’s population is determined to be 51,475 by the 2015 census. This presented

2.77% of the total population of Quezon province, or 0.36% of the overall population of

CALABARZON region. Based on these figures, the population density is computed at 395

inhabitants per square kilometers or 1,022 inhabitants per square mile.

Unit of Analysis

Structural analysis is used in designing the the sewage pipes that connect all the

structures to a centralized water treatment facility. All the necessary data-gathering procedures

like survey, soil-bearing analysis, discharge analysis and the likes are taken for the researcher to

perform the structural analysis.

Research Design

The study is focused with the design of a centralized wastewater facility wherein the

method of research to be used is descriptive research. Descriptive method is defined as a research

method that describes the characteristics of the population or phenomenon that is being studied.

This methodology focuses more on the “what” of the research subject rather than the “why” of

the research subject. İt is concerned with the measures of the data trends conducts comparison,

and validates existing conditions.

Research Instrument

1. Gathered quantitative and qualitative information from the SLSU Administrative office

that mainly focuses on the structural composition of the said institution.

2. Books like NSCP and the likes that deal with hydraulic structures, Manuals and Online

Sources.
 Project Development Flow Chart

RECONNAISSANCE

PROJECT CONCEPTION AND INITIATION

DESIGN PHASE

IS IT
SAFE?

COST ANALYSIS

CONSTRUCTION PHASE

Procedures/ Data Collection

1. The researcher will identify first the information and data needed from the locality in

the study to make the procedure easier.

2. The researcher gathered mapping and survey of the location where the proposed

centralized water treatment facility is to be built.

3. The researcher would go to the library to gather some references, related books,

technical papers and reading materials to collec important facts and formulas in

relation with the study.

4. By using the gathered data, the researcher would begin designing in accordance with

the National Structural Code of the Philippines for the computations of the required

structure.

5. After determining the required data, the researcher would estimated the materials to

be used and the costing of the said materials.

References

Crites, R., Tchobanoglous, G., (1998), Small and Decentralized Wastewater Management

Systems, Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Bakir, H.A., (undated), Sanitation and Wastewater Management for Small Communities in EMR

Countries, Technical Note on Environmental Health

Friedler, E., (1999), Water Reuse- an Integral Part of Water Resources Management: Israel as a

Case Study, Water Policy, 3, 29-39.

Burian S. J., et. al. (2010), Urban Wastewater Management in the United States: Past, Present,

and Future, Journal of Urban Technology, Volume 7, Number 3, pages 33-62

Qasim S.R. (1998), Wastewater Treatment Plants: Planning, Designing, and Operation

Feng, L., et. al. (2015), Dilemma of Sewage Sludge Treatment and Disposal in China

Muga, H.E. and Mihelcic, J.R. (2007), Sustainability of Wastewater Treatment Technologies

Harrison, E.Z., et. al., (2006), Organic Chemicals in Sewage Sludges

Singh, R.P., Agrawal, M., (2008), Potential Benefits and Risks of Land Application of Sewage

Sludge

Imhoff, K. & Fair, G.M., (1940), Sewage Treatment

Wu, H., et. al., (2015), A Review on the sustainability of constructed wetlands for wastewater
treatment: Design and operation

Ping Wang, Y. & Smith R. (1994), Design of Distributed Effluent Treatment Systems