Sedimentation Tank Details

Sedimentation tanks may be rectangular, circular, or square. Rectangular basins

employ a horizontal flow pattern with the flow along the long axis. Such a flow
pattern minimizes the effect of inlet and outlet disturbances. Sludge removal
equipment in such basins consists of horizontal scrapers which drag the solids to a
hopper at one end from which they are removed intermittently or continuously by
gravity, or buckets. Typical designs are shown in Figure 1.In circular basins the
flow may enter either at the periphery as in Figure 2, or at the center as in Figure 3.

Figure 1 Rectangular clarifiers

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Figure 2: Peripheral flow clarifier

Figure 3: Center flow clarifier

Pre-sedimentation
Some cities obtain water from rivers which are highly turbid at times. Some rivers
have turbidities which frequently, but temporarily, reach 10,000 to 40,000 mg/L.
Much of this suspended matter is coarse and will settle rapidly without chemical
treatment. Additionally, it is desirable to prevent this high concentration of
material from entering and overloading coagulation and filtration systems. For
these reasons some cities employ preliminary sedimentation with detention times
of 3 to 8 hours before coagulation.

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Coagulation
The object of coagulation is to unit several colloidal particles together to form
bigger sized settleable flocs. The floc ions are found to possess the positive electric
charge while all the colloidal particles have negative charge. Therefore the flocs
attract the colloidal particles and cause their removal by settlement at the bottom of
the tank.

Typical colloidal characteristics for water and wastewater:

 Size range: 10-3- 1 micron. (somewhere in the range between a molecule
and bacteria in size).
 50 – 70 % of the organic matter in domestic wastewater is composed of
colloidal matter.
 In water treatment color, turbidity, viruses, bacteria, algae and organic
matter are primarily either in the colloidal form or behave as colloids.
 Colloidal particles, as a result of their small size, have a very large ratio of
surface area to volume. For example, 1 cm3 of material, if divided into cubes
0. 1 mm on a side, (the size of fine sand ), will have a surface area of 0.06
m2 , while if divided into cubes 10-5 mm on a side, will have a surface area
of 600 m2.

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Figure 4: size characteristics for particulates in water and wastewater.

Factors influencing the coagulation and flocculation process

1. Water quality
2. The quantity and characteristics of colloidal matters.
3. pH value of water
4. Temperature
5. Fast of mixing, flocculation time, and speed of paddles.
6. Characteristics of ions in water.

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Common coagulants used
1. Alum and lime

Treatment with lime produces non carbonate hardness

2. Alum and soda ash

In this case hardness is not produced, but soda ash is more expensive.
3. Ferrous sulfate and lime

Ferrous hydroxide is soon oxidized by the dissolved oxygen in water,

yielding:

Flocs of ferrous hydroxide are dense and settle quickly.

4. Ferric chloride
Soft and highly colored water are not effectively treated with alum, when
ferric chloride is added to such water, insoluble ferric hydroxide flocs are
formed.

5. Ferric sulfate

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 6. Chlorinated copperas

The optimum pH ranges for each of the coagulants are:

Jar Test
The jar test is a common laboratory procedure used to determine the optimum
operating conditions for water or wastewater treatment. This method allows
adjustments in pH, variations in coagulant or polymer dose, alternating mixing
speeds, or testing of different coagulant or polymer types, on a small scale in order
to predict the functioning of a large scale treatment operation.
Jar Testing Apparatus
The jar testing apparatus consists of six paddles which stir the contents of six 1
liter containers. A rpm gage at the top-center of the device allows for the uniform
control of the mixing speed in all of the containers.

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Jar Test Procedure
Determination of optimum pH
 Fill the jars with raw water sample (1000 mL)
 Adjust pH of the jars using H2SO4 or NaOH (pH: 5.0; 5.5; 6.0; 6.5; 7.0; 7.5)
 Add same dose of the selected coagulant (alum or iron) to each jar
(Coagulant dose: 5 or 10 mg/L).
 Rapid mix each jar at 100 rpm for 1 minute. The rapid mix helps to disperse
the coagulant throughout each container
 Reduce the stirring speed to 25 to 30 rpm and continue mixing for 15 to 20
mins (This slower mixing speed helps promote floc formation by enhancing
particle collisions which lead to larger flocs)
 Turn off the mixers and allow flocs to settle for 30 to 45 mins
 Then measure the final residual turbidity for the supernatant in each jar

The pH with the lowest residual turbidity will be the optimum pH

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Figure 5: Residual turbidity Versus pH

Determination of optimum coagulant dose

 Repeat all the previous steps.

 This time adjust pH of all jars at optimum (6.3 found from first test)
while mixing using H2SO4 or NaOH/lime.
 Add different doses of the selected coagulant (alum or iron) to each
jar (Coagulant dose: 5; 7; 10; 12; 15; 20 mg/L)
 Rapid mix each jars at 100 rpm for 1 minute. The rapid mix helps to
disperse the coagulant throughout each container
 Reduce the stirring speed to 25 to 30 rpm and continue mixing for 15
to 20 mins
 Turn off the mixers and allow flocs to settle for 30 to 45 mins
 Then measure the final turbidity for the supernatant in each jar
 Plot residual turbidity against coagulant dose

The coagulant dose with the lowest residual turbidity will be the optimum
coagulant dose (12.5 mg/L)

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Figure 6: Residual turbidity Versus coagulant dose

Coagulant Aids

Coagulant aids are chemicals which are added to water during coagulation to
improve coagulation by:

• building a stronger, more settleable floc;

• overcoming slow floc formation in cold water;

• reducing the amount of coagulant required;

The agents used include
 oxidizing agents such as chlorine (oxidation of organic compounds).
 weighting agents such as clay, activated carbon, powdered silica, and
limestone.
 activated silica.
 polyelectrolytes.

Example 1:

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Find out the quantity of alum required to treat 18 million liters of water per day.
The dosage of alum is 14 mg/L. Also work out the amount of CO2 released per liter
of treated water.

Solution:

Quantity of alum/day= 14x18x106/106 = 252 Kg

The chemical reaction is as follow:

Molecular wt. of alum = 2x26.97 +3x32.066+ 18x2x1.008+ 30x16

= 53.94+96.198+36.288+480

=666

Molecular wt. of CO2 = 1x12 + 2x16

=44

666 mg of alum releases 6x44=264 mg of CO2

14 mg of alum will release = (14x264)/666 = 5.55 mg of CO2

Example 2:

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What is the amount of natural alkalinity (as CaCO3) required for coagulation of
raw water with dosage of 15.0 mg/L of ferric chloride?

Solution:

Step 1. Write the reactions equation and calculate MW

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