Environmental Science

and Engineering

Ahmed Abdelhakam

Lecture #5
Water Treatment I

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Water Treatment
o If the characteristics of the water from its source do not match
the standard specifications, it must be treated and raised its
quality in order to fulfill the specified specifications
o Any water quality - regardless of its pollution - can be raised by
treating to any desired quality
o Water treatment can be defined as: raising or improving the
quality of water from its source to match the standard
specifications required.

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Water Treatment
o Groundwater contains dissolved pollutants and cannot be
removed by simple physical processes
o The suspended matter is controlled through filtering,
sedimentation and disinfection processes
o As for colloidal substances, they are treated through coagulation
and flocculation stages
o The choice of treatment stages depends entirely on the quality
of the raw source water and the requirements or specifications
required for the user.

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Water Treatment

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Screening

o This process aims to get rid of suspended

or floating objects of large size with the
purpose of:
➢ Protection of mechanical devices such
as pumps
➢ Avoid sedimentation in pipes or
closures
➢ Reducing contaminants in the later
stages of treatment

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Screening
❑ Types of Screens
▪ It can be divided based on the size of the
openings into:
➢ Coarse Screens (cm size)
➢ Fine Screens (mm size)
➢ Micro Screens (micro size)
▪ Based on the material into:
➢ Parallel bars Screens
➢ Rods Screens
➢ Wires Screens

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Screening

▪ Screens are generally provided in front of pumps or suction works, to

exclude large particles, such as debris, animals, trees and bushes.
▪ Coarse screens are sometimes placed in front of fine screens. They
consist of parallel iron bars placed vertically or on a slight slope,
about 2.5 to 5 cm apart
▪ Coarse screens are also usually kept diagonally (45.0 to 60.0), so as
to increase the surface area to reduce the flow velocity, thus making
the screens more efficient.
▪ In the design of the screens, the openings must have a sufficient total
area, so that the velocity through them is not more than 0.8 to 1 m / s.

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Screening

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Screening

▪ The material collected on the upside is removed either manually or

mechanically. It can also be cleaned from front or back
▪ Manual cleaning: It is primarily used on small particles

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Screening
▪ Mechanical cleaning:
➢ More used because labor and rash are greatly reduced
➢ A side channel should also be provided with hand cleaning. A
mechanically cleaned channel can also be provided
➢ The purpose of the side channel is to provide a replacement in
the event of a mechanical failure

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Screening
❑ Velocity
▪ The velocity of the flows varies in front of and through the screen
and affects the operation
▪ The lower the speed through the screen, the more residue will be
removed from the water
▪ However, the lower the velocity, the greater the amount of solids
deposited in the channel
▪ Thus, it should be the design speed that allows 100% removal to
remove materials of a given volume without unnecessary
deposits.

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Screening
❑ Velocity
▪ Velocities of 0.6 to 1.2 m / s are
used across the flow openings
during the peak flows.

▪ Moreover, the velocity at lower

flows in a channel should not
be less than 0.3 m / s to avoid
sedimentation of solids

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Sedimentation
▪ This process aims to get rid of large settable particles
▪ This stage can be defined as the process of separating liquids
from solids, and this process takes place inside the
sedimentation basin
▪ The separation process is carried out according to the type of
flow inside the pelvis (laminar - turbulent)
➢ In the case of laminar flow, Stoke's law is used, and in the
case of turbulent flow we use Newton's law
▪ Chemicals (coagulants) can be used that make colloids stick to
each other in order to facilitate the sedimentation process

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Sedimentation
❑ settling velocity
▪ Particle settling unhindered at constant velocity through water

Newton’s Law

Terminal Settling Velocity = Vs =?

➢➢Nonspherical shape

➢➢Temperature

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Sedimentation
❑ settling velocity

Constant velocity when the gravitational and drag forces

are equal
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Sedimentation
❑ settling velocity

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Sedimentation
❑ settling velocity
Laminar range 24
Re < 1 CD =
Re
24 3
Transition range
Re = 1-104
CD = + + 0.34
Re Re

Turbulent range
Re > 104
CD ~ 0.4

Re =
s d
Reynolds number

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Sedimentation
❑ settling velocity
▪ for spherical particles under laminar flow conditions
4 d  g (s − ) 24
s = CD =
3 CD  Re

g  d 2 (  s − )
Stokes Law: s =
18
where vs = settling velocity m/sec
g = acceleration of gravity, m/sec2
s = density of particle, kg/m3
 = density of water, kg/m3
 = dynamic viscosity, kg/m·sec
d = particle diameter
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Sedimentation
❑ settling velocity
▪ Example
Calculate the terminal settling velocity for a sand particle in water
at 10 C. Assume that the sand particle has a diameter of 25 m
and a density of 2,650 kg/m3. For water at 10 C:
 = 0.001307 N·s/m2 and  = 999.7 kg/m3

Check again with particle 200 m in size.

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Filtration

▪ This stage can be defined as the process of separating

liquids from solids as well
▪ When water that contains suspended particles in a
layer or layers for filtering passes, these particles are
trapped, thus filtering the water
▪ On the other hand, impurities in the filter layer cause a
decrease in the free space of the pores and an
increase in the hydraulic resistance of water flow
through the filter layer.
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Filtration
❑ Filter classification
▪ It is classified according to the filter medium
➢ Canvas filters.
➢ Mesh filters.
➢ Granular filters (sand, anthracite ...)
➢ Diatomic Filters: They are very fine-grained diatomic sand
filters used to filter pool water.
▪ We will talk about sand filters, which are one of the types of
granular filters as they are most commonly used in purification
plants.

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 Filtration
❑ Sand filters can be classified according to
several indicators
▪ Depending on the filter operating pressure
➢ Pressurized filters
➢ Gravity filters
▪ According to the filtering speed: ▪ By the number of layers:
➢ Slow Filters: 0.1-0.2 m / hr ➢ Single layer
➢ Rapid Filters : 5-10 m / hr ➢ Two or multi layers
➢ Ultra-rapid filters: 36-100 m / hr

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters

▪ The raw water reaches a side chamber (side pocket) and from
there to the filter or directly to the filter, the height of the water
above the sand layer must reach 2 meters
▪ Filtration layer:
➢ This layer of river quartz sand was formed with a gradient of
0.5 - 2.0 mm
➢ This layer could be (ground anthracite or ground alabaster)
➢ Layer thickness is 0.7 - 2.00 meters

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters

▪ Gravel layer (support):

➢ Its mission is to hold the filter layer (sand) and prevent it
from coming out with the leaky water.
➢ This layer shall be gravel or different stone crusher
➢ The diameter of the granules of this layer increases from
top to bottom 2-40 mm
➢ Layer thickness is 0.5 -0.45 meters

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters

▪ Bottom Distribution Network:

➢ It is a network of tubes located under the support layer.
➢ Pipes are perforated with holes or slits with a diameter less
than (0.1) mm of the diameter of grains of sand
➢ The distribution of these cracks or holes is chess
➢ The total area of holes or cracks ranges between (1.5-
2.0)% of the filter surface

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters
▪ Backwash process:
➢ The yield of the filtration process begins to decrease after a
certain period. This period increases or decreases according to
the turbidity of the water.
➢ The process of returning the filter yield to the designed value
requires getting rid of the waste that have been trapped in the
filter material, this process is called (filter backwash)
➢ The washing is done opposite to the filtration process from
bottom to top and is done either with water only or water with air

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters
▪ Backwash process(cont.):
➢ The washing water is pumped through the network of lower
pipes, so that the flow velocity in it is (7-10) times the speed
of filtration
➢ The washing water is drained through channels placed in the
filter, as shown in the previous figure
➢ The backwash discharge is (12-18 l / s. Sq.m.)
➢ Filtered water can be used in the washing process

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters
▪ Design:
➢ Choose the filter medium.
➢ Calculation of the number of filters and their dimensions.
➢ Number and dimensions of washing channels.
➢ Dimensions of the lower distribution network elements
➢ The total area of the group of filters

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Filtration
❑ Single-layer Rapid Gravity filters

where
Q = plant yield m3/day
T = The operating period of the treatment plant hr
n= the number of times the filter is washed per day.
qp = specific discharge of water consumed in one
wash m3 / m2
tp= The stoppage time for filter during washing.
vH= Filtration velocity

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Filtration
❑ Rapid Pressurized Filters
▪ In industry, these filters are used for water with turbidity of less than 50 mg/l
▪ These filters are metal or fiber-class sealed tanks(Horizontal or vertical)
▪ These filters operate at a pressure of 6 bar
▪ These filters work similarly to the Gravity Filters mentioned previously.
▪ In general, the gravel backing layer is not used in this type of filter.
▪ Since these filters are pressurized, it is possible to take advantage of
this pressure to transfer the water to a distance or height proportional
to the control of the water coming out of the filter.
▪ Capacity of vertical filters:
➢ (50-90 m3 / h) depending on the raw water quality.
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Filtration
❑ Rapid Pressurized Filters
▪ Diameters of vertical filters : 1.0-2.5 m
▪ These filters are used for water plants with productivity of 5000
m3
▪ When the daily discharge of the water required to be purified
exceeds this value, horizontal pressurized filters are used
➢ Its diameter is about (3) m
➢ With a length of (10) m
➢ Filtration surface up to (27) m2
➢ The thickness of the filter layer (sand) is (1) m

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Filtration
❑ Rapid Pressurized Filters

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Filtration
❑ Slow Sand filter (biofilter)
▪ Consist of :
▪ Diameters of vertical filters : 1.0-2.5 m
▪ Supernatant water
▪ Sand bed
▪ Vital layer
▪ Under-drainage system)
▪ Filter control

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Filtration
❑ Slow Sand filter (biofilter)
▪ Consist of :
➢ Diameters of vertical filters : 1.0-2.5 m
➢ Supernatant water
➢ Sand bed
➢ Vital layer
➢ Under-drainage system)
➢ Filter control

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Filtration
❑ Slow Sand filter (biofilter)
▪ Washing filter:
▪ The filtration process may become almost stopped even though
the control valves are completely open causing the water to stop
pumping.
▪ The sand layer is removed and cleaned (scraping)
▪ This process is performed by skilled labor.
▪ The period between the cleaning process and the next (weeks -
6 months)

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 Questions

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