Western Sydney University

Sydney City Campus

School of Engineering

Environmental Engineering Laboratory (Wastewater treatment)

Introduction
Welcome to this interactive experiment in which you can learn about the
conventional wastewater treatment processes and plot out the data obtained during
activated sludge treatment process. The video for this lab is available in vUWS site.
Please view that video to answer the questions.

Tasks
You will do mainly two exercises as detailed below:
o Exercise 1 involves measuring the dissolved oxygen (DO) in wastewater
every 3 minutes after introducing organic carbon (acetate) into the water
samples.
o Exercise 2 involves calculation of carbon removal during activated sludge
treatment process and compare this result with actual DOC removal.

Typical conventional wastewater treatment process for organic

carbon removal

Primary Treatment
The primary treatment involves three different steps; Screening, Grit Removal and
Sedimentation. Screening is employed to remove objects that are large enough to be
caught in a series of screens. This is followed by grit removal especially for the
removal of dense material such as sand, dirt, or broken glass. Afterwards, it is sent
through primary sedimentation tanks to settle sludge while grease and oils rise to
the surface are skimmed off.

Secondary Treatment (Activated Sludge Process)

The primary treated wastewater is blended with the microbiological biomass, to
form mixed liquor in an aeration tank. The diffused air is applied to provide oxygen
for the microbiological process that breaks down the organic compounds in the
primary treated wastewater. Then, biologically active sludge that settles in these
tanks is continually removed and returned to the aeration tanks to sustain
microbiological population there and the overflow from the sedimentation tanks is
the final treated secondary wastewater. The general arrangement of an activated
sludge process for removing carbonaceous compounds includes following items.

1. Aeration tank where oxygen is diffused into the biomass

2. Sedimentation tank to allow the biomass to settle

1
Western Sydney University
Sydney City Campus
School of Engineering

Fig 1: Flow Chart of Wastewater Treatment Plant (Beenyup Wastewater Treatment

Plant)

The overall goal of the activated-sludge process is to remove substances that have a
demand for oxygen from the system. This is usually accomplished by the biochemical
processes mediated by the microorganisms. To achieve high activities of
microorganisms following steps need to be taken.
• Supply of sufficient amount of oxygen
• Maintenance of appropriate water temperature
• pH adjustment
• Agitation to increase the opportunity for contacting microorganisms,
substrate and oxygen
• Addition of nutrients

The conversion of organic matter to gaseous end products and cell tissue can be
accomplished aerobically (in the presence of oxygen). A portion of the organic

2
Western Sydney University
Sydney City Campus
School of Engineering

material is oxidized to end products. This process is carried out to obtain the energy
necessary for the synthesis of new cell tissue. In the absence of organic matter, the
cell tissue will be endogenously respired to gaseous end products and a residual to
obtain energy for maintenance. In most biological treatment systems, these three
processes occur simultaneously. Stoichiometrically, three processes as follows
represent for an aerobic process (oxygen demand):

Oxidation process:

COHNS (organic matter)+ O2 + bacteria → CO2 + NH3 + other end products +

energy

Synthesis:

COHNS + O2 + bacteria + energy → C5H7NO2 (new bacterial cells)

Endogenous respiration:-
C5H7NO2 + 5O2 → 5CO2 + NH3 + 2H2O + energy

Tertiary Treatment (Nutrient Removal)

The secondary effluent still contains a high level of nutrients such as dissolve organic
carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous that eventually leads to the eutrophication. This
provides a platform for the growth of weeds, algae and cyanobacteria resulting into
algal boom.

Objectives
The major objective of this experiment is to achieve fundamental knowledge of
convectional wastewater treatment particularly activated sludge process. This will be
done by examining the improvement in wastewater quality through synthetic
wastewater experiments in the laboratory using following steps.

o Measuring selected heavy metal levels of treated drinking water and

wastewater samples
o Measuring DOC levels of synthetic wastewater before and after the
experiment.
o Measuring ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphorous levels of synthetic
wastewater before and after the experiment
o Measuring DO of original synthetic wastewater immediately after
aeration
o Tracking DO continuously in fixed time interval
o Calculation of carbon removal resulted due to DO consumption and
compare the calculated value with the actual DOC removal

3
Western Sydney University
Sydney City Campus
School of Engineering

Experimental procedure
1. Prepare synthetic wastewater by maintaining carbon, nitrogen and
phosphorous ratio of 100:15:1
2. Mix synthetic wastewater with biomass collected form wastewater treatment
plant
3. Supply oxygen and maintain temperature at 24°C to enhance microbial
activities
4. Then measure the DO of the sample continuously by putting it into air tight
container.
5. Calculate the respective carbon removal using the following equation

C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6H2O

For example, carbon consumption during 1mg/L DO depletion can be calculated

using above equation as follows;

32 × 6mg/L oxygen is required to remove 12 × 6mg/L carbon

i,e. 192mg/L oxygen is required to consume 72mg/L Carbon
1mg/L oxygen is required to consume 72/192 = 0.375mg/L carbon

Thus, this equation can be used to calculate carbon consumption for all residual DO
in synthetic wastewater tracked during the experiment.

Report and Analysis

The following should be included in the report (500 words, excluding tables and
graphs).

● Introduction
● Discussion on result obtained from the experiment and the related
calculations
● Calculate carbon removal assuming initial dissolved oxygen concentration is
Last digit of your Student ID+7 and every three minutes 10% of DO will
decrease. The initial carbon concentration is 200 mg/L (in video initial carbon
concentration is 300 mg/L). Please write down your ID in the remarks table.
● Graphical presentation to explain your lab result
● Conclusions

4
Western Sydney University
Sydney City Campus
School of Engineering

Table 1: DO and Carbon Consumption

Time (minutes) DO(mg/L) Carbon Removal (mg/L) Remarks
Last digit of your
0
Student ID+7
3

12

15

18

21

24

27

30

33

36

39

42

45

48

51

54

57

60

5
Western Sydney University
Sydney City Campus
School of Engineering