Hello, everyone.

Welcome to attend Water and Wastewater Treatment Engineering of

MOOC. Today we will learn the second chapter, the first part of aerobic biological
treatment process, activated sludge process. This chapter has seven parts, which
are the basic concept of activated sludge process, activated sludge multiplication
rules and their application, the operation of the activated sludge process the
reaction kinetics of activated sludge process, and the principles, methods and
equipment of aeration, the process design of activated sludge process, and the last
part is about the operation management of the activated sludge process. First,
let's start with the first part, the basic concept of activated sludge process. It
includes the technological process and composition of activated sludge process the
properties of the activated sludge and its performance indexes; the basic technical
parameters of activated sludge process. Firstly, let’s take a look at the typical
technological process of a domestic sewage treatment plant. The domestic wastewater
collected by sewage pipe enters the bar room. After raised by sewage pumps, the
water will go through the aerated grit chamber and the primary sedimentation tank.
After it has got a preliminary treatment, the water will then enter the aeration
tank, and the secondary sedimentation tank. After this process most of the
contaminants in the water are removed, and the water is purified. The water can be
directly discharged to the receiving water after proper disinfection, or can be
reused, after certain advanced treatment. But during the process of sewage
treatment, primary sedimentation tank produces primary sludge and secondary
sedimentation tank produces excess sludge. The primary sludge and excess sludge
will go through a process of sludge thickener, sludge anaerobic digester, sludge
dewatering equipment, and finally leave sewage treatment plant in the form of
dewatered sludge solid waste. The solid waste needs further treatment and disposal.
We can see that the secondary sedimentation tank and aeration tank are important
contents of activated sludge process. The wastewater enters the aeration tank after
primary treatment. Here, I want to account that the aeration pond is in Chinese
means distributing air, and is pronounced as Pu Qi. But, in the water treatment
industry, most of people are used to calling it Bao Qi (blasting air). In the
aeration tank there are many microorganisms with high biological activity. Under
aerobic condition in which oxygen is provided continuously, these microorganisms
oxidize and degrade the contaminants in the wastewater. Or turn them into gaseous
or solid products and remove them from the water, thus make the wastewater
purified. Here, we see a running aeration tank if we take a measuring cylinder of
mixture from the aeration tank, we can see that the mixture contains a large amount
of brown or yellow sludge. Actually it is the activated sludge. The large amount of
microorganism in it is responsible for the removal of pollutants in the wastewater.
After simple sedimentation, the sludge will settle and get separated from the
water. The upper layer clear water is the treated clean water. If we drain the
mixture in the aeration tank we can see that, at the bottom of the aeration tank,
there are a lot of aerators. The aeration standpipes convey compressed air to the
bottom of the aeration tank. The compressed air is split into tiny bubbles by the
aerators and released into the mixture to provide DO for the aerobe. So we can see
that in the process of activated sludge method, Activated Sludge System is made of
five parts. They are aeration tank, secondary sedimentation tank, sludge recycling
system, excess sludge discharge system, oxygen supply or the aeration system.
Aeration tank is the core of the whole system and the main body of biochemical
reactions. Pollutants in the wastewater are mainly removed in the aeration tank.
Activated sludge will grow in it. And, the secondary sedimentation tank is also an
important part of activated sludge system It has two main functions. One is to
dewater the sludge, and in turn secure the quality of the water. The other is to
concentrate the activated sludge in the aeration tank mixture, secure the recycling
of sludge and maintain the sludge concentration of the aeration tank. the system of
sludge return is very important to maintain proper sludge concentration of the
aeration tank. The sludge concentration could also be adjusted by changing the
ratio of return sludge to the aeration tank within certain range. Then we can
control the aeration tank operating conditions. Excess sludge discharge system is
an efficient way to remove organics in the wastewater. Microorganisms in activated
sludge turn some organics in the wastewater into cellular material through
combination. The sludge and water are separated through precipitation. At last
through the discharge of excess sludge we can discharge the organics from the whole
system. Meanwhile, by discharging the excess sludge in time, we could keep the
system in stable operation state. The oxygen supply or aeration system is very
important to all the aerobic biological treatment systems. In the activated sludge
process, aeration can provide microorganisms with dissolved oxygen. At the same
time it can also keep activated sludge suspended in the aeration tank. And make
thorough contact with the pollutants in the middle of wastewater. So we can see
that in order to make the activated sludge system work stable we need those basic
conditions. First, there are adequate soluble and easily degradable organic matters
in the wastewater. Second, the mixture containing enough dissolved oxygen. Third,
activated sludge stays suspended in the tank. Fourth, activated sludge must be
continuously recycled and excess sludge must be discharged in time. In this way, we
could maintain the activated sludge concentration in the aeration tank. And the
final fifth, the water should not contain toxic or harmful substances to the
microorganisms.