Unit 2 : PRIMARY TREATMENT OF SEWAGE

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 Objectives

• Treatment of Sewage
• Unit Operations and Unit Processes

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 Treatment of Sewage
• Before disposal to the environment, sewage
must be treated to make it safe.
• The degree of treatment depends on the
characteristics of source of disposal
– Exposure to people
– Aesthetics
– Fish and wildlife
– Self cleansing properties of the river or stream
– Nature of land

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 Preliminary Treatment
• Separation of floating materials like dead
animals, tree branches, rags, paper, wood,
construction materials etc.
• Removal of oils and greases
• Reduces BOD by 15 to 30%
• Process used
– Screening
– Grit Chamber
– Skimming Tanks
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 Primary Treatment
• Removal of large suspended organic matter
• Organic matter settled in primary settling basins
• The sludge from settling basin are stabilized by
– Anaerobic digestion (secondary treatment)
– Incineration
– Disposed of in landfills or for soil stabilization
• The effluent from primary treatment may have
high BOD (60% of original) and large amount of
small suspended organic matter

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 Secondary Treatment
• Further treatment of sewage
• Biological decomposition of organic matter in aerobic or anaerobic
conditions
• Microbes will breakdown the fine organic matter and produce clearer
effluent
• Aerobic biological units
– Filters
• Sand Filters
• Trickling filters
– Aeration tanks
– Oxidation ponds and aerated lagoons
• Anaerobic biological units
– Anaerobic lagoons
– Septic tanks and Imhoff tanks
• Not classified as secondary treatment as they use raw sewage
• Effluent contains low BOD ( 5 to 10 % of original)
• Organic sludge decomposed in anaerobic digestion tanks before
disposal 6
 Tertiary Treatment
• Treatment of effluent from secondary treatment
• Final polishing of treated sewage
• Required for recycling and disposal to sensitive
streams
• Generally disinfection and filtration
• Distinction between primary, secondary and
tertiary arbitrary in modern plants as both unit
process and unit operations occur in same units

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 Unit Operations and Processes
• Unit Operation
– Unit operations are the physical operations to
remove the impurities present in the water and
waste water
• Unit Process
– Unit processes are the chemical and biological
conversion on the status of the impurities that
they will be converted to a form that can be easily
separated