Notre Dame University Louaizeh-Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering

CEN 365: Environmental

Engineering Lab
Module 2: Wastewater Treatment Project
Introduction to the project + handouts
(synthetic) wastewater characterization

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

 6 Settling Column Test: Determining sedimentation retention time Data analysis (session 5): Waste
Storage of settling column effluent (valve 2) for jar test characteristics
Test: TS

7 Jar Test: Defining optimum dosage Data analysis (session 6): Settling
Using settling column effluent (valve 2) column test
Test: Turbidity

8 Collect new sample of (synthetic) wastewater Data analysis (session 7): Jar test
Settling in bucket (HRT based on column test results)
Coagulation/Flocculation in Jars (using supernatant)
Tests: TS, turbidity, BOD, coliforms (possible storage of samples)
Collection of supernatant water for filtration

9 Preparation of filter medium (sand 0.4-0.8 mm) Report introduction

Filtration test + analysis of stored samples
Tests: TS, turbidity, BOD, coliforms

10 Final effluent tests: TSS, TDS

11 Coagulation/flocculation/filtration application Data analysis (sessions 8,9,10):
Visual inspection of raw and filtered wastewater Treatment results
Site visit of NDU wastewater treatment plant

12 Presentation of project outcomes Complete report

Anaerobic digestion of sludge: analysis of VFA and pH
Prepared by: Layla Chaaya
Wastewater treatment

 Waste water treatment process consists of the

removal of contaminants and impurities from waste

water before being discharged back into the

environment (sea, acquifiers, rivers…) or for direct

reuse
Prepared by: Layla Chaaya
Water Treatment process is divided to 4
stages
 Preliminary treatment: large material removal

 Primary treatment: reduce the biological oxygen demand by 30 and total suspended solids

by 60%

 Secondary treatment: wastewater is pumped into an aeration tank, and microorganisms are

added to break down the remaining organic matter into harmless by-products

 Tertiary treatment: improve water quality by filtration and disinfection

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Purpose of module 2

 Design and assess a PRIMARY wastewater treatment process

 The effluent is to be discharged into the sea or used for irrigation

 Components of the system:

1. Design for the Coagulation, Flocculation and Sedimentation phase.
2. Design for the Filtration phase.
3. Analysis of each treatment phase and comparison of the final quality to
applicable standards.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation

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Filtration

 The supernatant effluent

water from the sedimentation
tank will enter the filtration
stage through which the
wastewater will pass through a
series of layers stacked from
fine to coarse.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

A. Design a primary wastewater
treatment process

 Two experiments will be conducted:

1. Settling column test

2. Jar test

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Settling column test

 Pouring waste water into the top of the column and leave it for

specific amount of time

 The aim of conducting this experiment is to find the hydraulic

retention time when the percentage removal of the total solids is 70%

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Jar test

 Adding different types of coagulants at various concentrations to

deduce the optimum coagulant and its dose

 Aluminum sulfate and ferric chloride

 Its objective is to remove Turbidity

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

B. Assessment of the treatment process
 By measuring nine parameters: Total solids, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids,

pH, turbidity, biological oxygen demand, total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and Escherichia

coli.

 Initial wastewater, wastewater after sedimentation, and that after filtration, are

evaluated to observe how the concentration of the contaminants vary with further

treatment.

 This is done by measuring the parameters (TS, BOD, Coliforms, and Turbidity) of each

treatment phase and comparing the final effluent to the applicable standards.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya
 TSS are particles that are retained on a water filter, TDS are the ones that pass through
the filter. TS = TSS + TDS
 pH expresses the acidity or basicity of the wastewater
 Turbidity is the cloudiness of a fluid caused by fine suspended particles in the
wastewater, which prevent the passage of light.
 BOD is the amount of oxygen needed by microorganisms to break down the organic
material present in wastewater over a specific time period.
 Coliforms are a large group of several types of bacteria from the same family.
 Coliform bacteria originate from human or animal fecal sources.
 Fecal coliform is a subgroup of coliform bacteria, which live and reproduce in the gut of
humans.
 E. coli is a subgroup of fecal coliform bacteria that indicates sewage or animal waste
contamination. Its presence in water indicates direct contamination with fecal matter
and the potential presence of other dangerous pathogens of fecal origin, such as
Salmonella, Shigella and others.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

 The quality
assessment of
wastewater
 The tests focuses on 4 categories:
 1. organics: determination of organics
(carbon-based)
 2. solids: particulate solids that are
either dissolved or suspended
 3. nutrients: nutrients that contribute
to eutrophication
 4. physical properties: directly impact
wastewater treatability

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

What is the relation between tests?

 Determine the overall efficiency of waste water treatment facility

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 1. BOD: Biological Oxygen Demand

 Determine the relative strength of a wastewater sample by establishing the

concentration of organics in mg/L or ppm
 BOD is based on the principle that if sufficient oxygen is available for aerobic
biological decomposition

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

BOD 5 test
 The BOD test “BOD5” is based on the accurate measure of DO (dissolved
oxygen) at the beginning and end of a five-day period in which the sample is
held in dark, incubated conditions.

 This change in DO concentration represents the “oxygen demand”

for respiration by the aerobic biological microorganisms in the sample.

 To ensure that meaningful results are obtained, the sample must be suitably
diluted with a dilution water so that adequate nutrients and oxygen will be
available during the incubation period

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

BOD 5 test procedure
 Prepare dilution water by adding the dilution water of 500 ml
 Add the following solutions to the BOD beaker
1. 1 mL phosphate buffer
2. 1 mL magnesium sulfate solution
3. 1 mL calcium chloride solution
4. 1 mL ferric chloride solution
 Add 5 ml of wastewater, thus our dilution factor is 1/100.
 Measure the initial DO1 of each diluted using a DO probe.
 Incubate for 5 days at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius
 Measure the day 5 DO2 after incubation.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Why dilute the sample?
DO test measures the concentration of oxygen dissolved in a water or wastewater
sample.

Temperature effects the saturation levels of DO and for case the max DO is 9.1
mg/L for a 20 degrees temperature incubation.

But BOD values could reach 1000 mg/L therefore, dilution is important.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya
BOD5 Test Calculations

 For each test bottle should meet the 2.0-mg/L minimum DO depletion and the
1.0-mg/L residual DO
 Calculate BOD5 as follows:

1/100

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

2. Particulate and Dissolved Solids

 Solids in wastewater can be viewed in two basic ways: particulate size or

particulate composition measured in mg/L .

 The total solids (TS) used in the design and process control of wastewater
treatment facilities such as determining the sizing of the primary tanks and
secondary tanks used in wastewater treatment.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Total Solids (TS) Calculations

 The total solids concentration of a sample can be found directly by weighing

the sample before and after drying at 100 degrees Celsius.
 Take a sample of volume; V= 50 mL

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Total Suspended & Dissolved Solids

 TS in a wastewater sample
can be separated based on
particulate size into TSS
and TDS fractions.

 To accomplish this
separation, a laboratory
bench scale filtration
system is performed.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

2. Total Suspended & Dissolved Solids
 Procedure: Add sample here

1. Prepare a 50 ml Sample.
2. Setup the Filtration Apparatus and add a filter Vacuum pump Filter
disc with size 0.45 µm.
3. Add the sample into the Upper part of the flask
and turn on the vacuum pump to siphon the
sample thorough the filter.
4. Weight the filter before and after oven to obtain
TSS
5. Pour the sample that passed through the filter
into a beaker and weight it before and after oven
to obtain TDS.
Collect for TDS
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2. TSS and TDS Calculations

 TSS in mg/L;
50 ml

 TDS in mg/L;
50 ml

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3. Physical Properties: Turbidity

 Procedure:

Fill a clean sample cell to the mark with the test sample and place it in the cell holder.

The sample cell must be clean, dry and free of fingerprints.

The digital readout is in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU).

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4. Bacteriological Analysis: Coliforms

 Bacteria are common organisms in nature, most are harmless to human

health; however, some are "pathogenic," capable of causing disease.

Therefore it is important to remove such pathogens from wastewater.

 Coliform are a large group of several types of bacteria from the same family.
Coliform bacteria originate from human or animal fecal source.

Source: https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=C858-7&title=Coliform%20Bacteria%20in%20Your%20Water
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4. Bacteriological Analysis: Coliforms

 Fecal coliform is a sub-group of coliform bacteria,

which live and reproduce in the gut of humans.
 Escherichia coli, a genus and species of bacteria.
The presence of E. coli in water indicates direct
contamination with fecal matter.
Indicates the potential presence of other dangerous
pathogens of fecal origin that are health threats, such as
Salmonella, Shigella and others.

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4. Bacteriological Analysis: Coliforms

 The density of the coliform group of bacteria is often used as an indicator for
water quality.
 And thus, a bacteriological test is conducted to determine the number and
types of colonies that exist at each stage of the wastewater treatment.
 This allows determine the efficiency of the overall treatment facility and if
any additional tertiary treatment is needed.

High Risk Helminths

(high incidence of excess infection) (Ancylostoma, Ascaris, Trichuris and Taenia)
Medium Risk Enteric Bacteria
(low incidence of excess infection) (Cholera vibrio, Salmonella typhosa, Shigella and possibly others)
Low Risk Enteric viruses
(low incidence of excess infection)
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 • Membrane filter, 0.45 micron

4. Bacteriological
Analysis: Test
Procedure
 m-ColiBlue24 Broth represents the
percentage of red and blue colonies that is
equivalent to the Coliforms, Total and E.
coli.

 Rosalic broth ampoules are used to

represent the fecal coliforms that are
counted by the red spots.

3/23/2022 • Petri dish with absorbent pad, 47-mm 31

Primary Wastewater Treatment
 Characterization of untreated wastewater according to Food and Agriculture
Organization (FOA): units are in mg/L
Parameter Strong Medium Weak

Total solids 1200 700 350

Dissolved solids (TDS)1 850 500 250
Suspended solids 350 200 100
Nitrogen (as N) 85 40 20
Phosphorus (as P) 20 10 6
Chloride1 100 50 30
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 200 100 50
Grease 150 100 50
BOD52 300 200 100

Source: M.B. Pescod, Wastewater treatment and use in agriculture - FAO irrigation3/23/2022
and drainage paper
32
47, ISBN 92-5-103135-5
Preliminary
Treatment
Stage
 Objective of
preliminary
treatment is the
removal of coarse
solids and other large
materials often found
in raw wastewater.
 Includes coarse
screening and grit
removal

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Primary Wastewater Treatment

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Coagulation, Flocculation and
Sedimentation Effluent Testing
 For this stage of treatment;
 We will add to the
wastewater the optimum
dosage of the coagulant
obtained form the jar test
and then run the coagulation
for 2 mins and flocculation
for the HRT obtained.
 The supernatant water is
collected and then analyzed
for the required water quality
assessment parameters

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Filtration

 The supernatant effluent water from the

sedimentation tank will enter the filtration stage
through which the wastewater will pass through a
series of layers stacked from fine to coarse.
 Filtration is used to remove small flocs that the
sedimentation didn’t remove thus removing the
smallest finer particles.

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Filtration

 Filtration collects the suspended impurities in

water and enhances the effectiveness of
disinfection.

 The designed filter has a filter height equal to 120

cm.
 Gravel is positioned on the bottom.
 Sand is positioned on the top.
 Thus, layers are from fine at the top to coarse at
the bottom.

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What are the requirements for the data
analysis report
1. Show the values of the results obtained for each stage of the wastewater
treatment process.
2. Calculate the parameters showing the equations each parameter and then
represent the results in a table for each stage.
3. Summarize the quality parameter results of the influent and the 2 effluents
in a table.
4. Plot on the same graph the values for all the parameters for each stage

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What are the requirements for the data
analysis report
5. Obtain the removal efficiency of each parameter for each stage of the two
stages of the treatment process.
6. Show the results in a Table
7. Analyze and discuss the results taking into account the task 3,4,5,6 showing the
efficiency of the developed treatment process.
8. Compare the results of the final effluent (i.e effluent form the filtration stage to
the recommended standards in Lebanon for wastewater discharge into the sea.
Source 1
9. It is also beneficial to compare it to the requirements for irrigation reuse. Source
2
Check: Hernández-Sancho, F., & Molinos-Senante, M. (2015). Wastewater management and reuse. Handbook of
Water Economics, January, 239–261. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781782549666.00021
Margane;, A., & Steinel, A. (2011). Proposed National Standard for Treated Domestic Wastewater Reuse
for Irrigation

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Aim of the project

 Compare the characteristics of the final effluent

wastewater to the applicable standards to check

whether this water quality is acceptable to be

discharged into the sea or reused for irrigation.

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Measuring the parameters (TS, BOD, Coliforms, and Turbidity)
of each treatment phase and comparing the final effluent to
the applicable standards
Assessment Influent waste After sedimentation After filtration
parameters water
TS (mg/L)
TDS (mg/L)
TSS (mg/L)
PH
Turbidity (NTU)
BOD (mg/L)
Total coliforms
(colonies/mL)
Fecal Coliforms
(colonies/mL)
E.Coli (colonies/mL)
Prepared by: Layla Chaaya