UNIT-1

Water quality and preliminary treatment

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms
of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has
a solid state (ice), and a gaseous state (water vapor or steam).
Water quality:
Definition: Water quality is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements
of one or more biotic species and/or to any human need or purpose.
Types of water quality parameters
Physical parameters Chemical Biological parameters
parameters
Turbidity pH Bacteria
Temperature Acidity Algae
Colour Alkalinity Viruses
Taste and odour Hardness Protozoa
Solids Dissolved oxygen
Biochemical
Electrical conductivity (EC) oxygen demand
(BOD)
Chemical oxygen
demand (COD
Salinity
TDS
Chloride
Sulphate
Nitrate
Fluoride
Copper
Zinc
Iron
Manganese

Physical parameters:
1. Turbidity:
Turbidity is the cloudiness of water. It is a measure of the ability of light to pass through water.
Causes:
It is caused by suspended material such as clay, silt, organic material, plankton, and other
particulate materials in water.
Effects:
Turbidity in drinking water is esthetically unacceptable, which makes the water look
unappetizing.
The impact of turbidity can be summarized in the following points:
(i) It can increase the cost of water treatment for various uses.
(ii) The particulates can provide hiding places for harmful microorganisms and thereby shield
them from the disinfection process.
2. Temperature:
For drinking purpose temp around 10˚c are highly desirable while temperature above 25˚c
are considered objectionable. Palatability, viscosity, solubility, odors, and chemical reactions
are influenced by temperature.
 Most people find water at temperatures of 10–15°C most palatable.
Causes:
The sedimentation and chlorination processes and biological oxygen demand (BOD) are
temperature dependent.
Effects:
 Affects the bio sorption process of the dissolved heavy metals in water.
3. Colour:
Color is graded on scale of 0 (clear) to 70 color units. Pure water is colorless, which is
equivalent to 0 color units.
Causes:
Materials decayed from organic matter, namely, vegetation and inorganic matter such as soil,
stones, and rocks impart color to water.
Effects:
 Exert toxicity to aquatic life
 Colored water is unsuitable for industries
 Restrict photosynthetic reaction(reoxygenation decreases)
 Increase the quantity of chlorine for disinfection of water.
4. Taste and odour: Odourless and good taste (Pure water)
Causes:
 Presence of dissolved gases like H2S, CH4, CO2, O2 etc.
 Dissolved organic matter like algae
 Mineral salts like NaCl, iron compounds, chemicals, industrial waste.
Effects:
 Environmental Pollution

Chemical parameters:
1. pH: pH is one of the most important parameters of water quality.
It is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration. It is a dimensionless
number indicating the strength of an acidic or a basic solution.
  Actually, pH of water is a measure of how acidic/basic water is.
 Acidic water contains extra hydrogen ions (H+) and basic water contains extra hydroxyl
(OH−) ions.
 Acidic water= 0 to 7
 Alkaline water= 7 to 14
 Pure water= 7
 Portable water= 6.5 to 7.5
Causes:
 Nature of the sources
 Domestic and Industrial waste
Effects:
 Most aquatic animals and plants have adapted to life in water with a specific pH and
may suffer from even a slight change.
 Even moderately acidic water (low pH) can decrease the number of hatched fish eggs,
irritate fish and aquatic insect gills, and damage membranes.
 Water with very low or high pH is fatal. A pH below 4 or above 10 will kill most fish,
and very few animals can endure water with a pH below 3 or above 11.
2. Acidity:
Acidity is the measure of acids in a solution. The acidity of water is its quantitative capacity
to neutralize a strong base to a selected pH level.
Causes:
Acidity in water is usually due to carbon dioxide, mineral acids, and hydrolyzed salts such as
ferric and aluminum sulfates.
Effects: Acids can influence many processes such as corrosion, chemical reactions and
biological activities.
3. Alkalinity:
The alkalinity of water is its acid-neutralizing capacity comprised of the total of all titratable
bases.
 The measurement of alkalinity of water is necessary to determine the amount of lime
and soda needed for water softening
Causes: It is mainly caused by the presence of hydroxide ions (OH-), bicarbonate ions
(HCO3-), and carbonate ions (CO32-), or a mixture of two of these ions in water.
Effects:
 Lowering of natural stomach acidity, which helps kill bacteria and expel other
undesirable pathogens from entering your bloodstream.
  An overall excess of alkalinity in the body may cause gastrointestinal issues and skin
irritations.
 Too much alkalinity may also agitate the body’s normal pH, leading to
metabolic alkalosis.
4. TDS
Solids

Solids occur in water either in solution or in suspension [22]. These two types of solids can be
identified by using a glass fiber filter that the water sample passes through [22]. By definition, the
suspended solids are retained on the top of the filter and the dissolved solids pass through the filter
with the water [10].

If the filtered portion of the water sample is placed in a small dish and then evaporated, the solids as a
residue. This material is usually called total dissolved solids or TDS [10].
Total solid(TS)=Total dissolved solid(TDS)+Total suspended solid(TSS)Total solidTS=Total dissolved
solidTDS+Total suspended solidTSSE2

Water can be classified by the amount of TDS per liter as follows:

 freshwater: <1500 mg/L TDS;

 brackish water: 1500–5000 mg/L TDS;
 saline water: >5000 mg/L TDS.

The residue of TSS and TDS after heating to dryness for a defined period of time and at a specific
temperature is defined as fixed solids. Volatile solids are those solids lost on ignition (heating to
550°C)

5. Hardness

Hardness is a term used to express the properties of highly mineralized waters. The dissolved minerals
in water cause problems such as scale deposits in hot water pipes and difficulty in producing lather
with soap.

Calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) ions cause the greatest portion of hardness in naturally
occurring waters. They enter water mainly from contact with soil and rock, particularly limestone
deposits.

These ions are present as bicarbonates, sulfates, and sometimes as chlorides and nitrates. Generally,
groundwater is harder than surface water. There are two types of hardness:

 Temporary hardness which is due to carbonates and bicarbonates can be removed by boiling,
and
 Permanent hardness which is remaining after boiling is caused mainly by sulfates and
chlorides

Water with more than 300 mg/L of hardness is generally considered to be hard, and more than
150 mg/L of hardness is noticed by most people, and water with less than 75 mg/L is considered to be
soft.
From health viewpoint, hardness up to 500 mg/L is safe, but more than that may cause a laxative effect.
Hardness is normally determined by titration with ethylene diamine tetra acidic acid or (EDTA) and
Eriochrome Black and Blue indicators. It is usually expressed in terms of mg/L of CaCO3.
Total hardnessmg/LasCaCO3=calcium hardnessmg/LasCaCO3+magnesium hardnessmg/LasCaCO3
Total hardnessmg/LasCaCO3=calcium hardnessmg/LasCaCO3+magnesium hardnessmg/LasCaCO3

Water classification Total hardness concentration as mg/L as CaCO3

Soft water <50 mg/L as CaCO3
Moderately hard 50–150 mg/L as CaCO3
Hard water 150–300 mg/L as CaCO3
Very hard >300 mg/L as CaCO3

6. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)

Bacteria and other microorganisms use organic substances for food. As they metabolize
organic material, they consume oxygen. The organics are broken down into simpler
compounds, such as CO2 and H2O, and the microbes use the energy released for growth and
reproduction.
When this process occurs in water, the oxygen consumed is the DO in the water. If oxygen
is not continuously replaced by natural or artificial means in the water, the DO
concentration will reduce as the microbes decompose the organic materials. This need for
oxygen is called the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). The more organic material there
is in the water, the higher the BOD used by the microbes will be. BOD is used as a measure
of the power of sewage; strong sewage has a high BOD and weak sewage has low BOD

7. Chemical oxygen demand (COD)

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) is a parameter that measures all organics: the
biodegradable and the non-biodegradable substances. It is a chemical test using strong
oxidizing chemicals (potassium dichromate), sulfuric acid, and heat, and the result can be
available in just 2 h. COD values are always higher than BOD values for the same sample

Biological parameters:
1. Bacteria: Bacteria are considered to be single-celled plants because of their cell structure
and the way they ingest food.
 Bacteria occur in three basic cell shapes: rod shaped or bacillus, sphere-shaped or
coccus, and spiral-shaped or spirellus.
 In less than 30 min, a single bacterial cell can mature and divide into two new cells.
Causes:
 sewers
 Septic systems
 Animal wastes
Effects:
Bacteria, namely:
 Typhoid and paratyphoid fever,
  leptospirosis,
 tularemia,
 Shigellosis
cholera.
 gastroenteritis outbreaks of one or more of those diseases

2. Algae:
Algae are microscopic plants, which contain photosynthetic pigments, such as chlorophyll.
 They are autotrophic organisms and support themselves by converting inorganic
materials into organic matter by using energy from the sun, during this process they
take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen
Causes:
 Runoff of Nutrients. An algal bloom is mostly caused by the presence of large amounts
of nitrogen and phosphorus present in water. ...
 High Temperatures
 Presence of Dead Organic Matter
 Slow-moving Water
 Turbidity
Effects:
 Nuisance organisms in the water supply because of the taste and odor problems they
create.
 Blue-green algae can kill cattle and other domestic animals if the animals drink water
containing those species.
3. Viruses:
Viruses are the smallest biological structures known to contain all genetic information
necessary for their own reproduction.
They can only be seen by a powerful electronic microscope.
Viruses are parasites that need a host to live.
They can pass through filters that do not permit the passage of bacteria.
Causes:
 Human and animal urine and feces that contain pathogenic microorganisms.
Effects:
 infectious hepatitis and poliomyelitis
 diarrhoea

Portable water standards: Waste water effluent standards:

Water quality indices:
Definition: Water quality index/indices (WQI) is a single number which can be calculated
easily and used for overall description of the quality of water bodies used for different
purposes.
Steps involved:
Three steps to compose a WQ Index:
1. Selection of the parameters
2. Determination of the quality scores per parameter: the sub-indices
3. Determination of the WQ Index by aggregation of the sub-indices

Water purification systems in natural systems

 When wastewater is discharged into the river or stream, the BOD of mix increases
initially and DO level starts falling.
  As river water travels further BOD gradually reduces and DO increases and reaches
its saturation level.
 Thus river gets purified on its own.
 This phenomena is known as self-purification of stream.

Conventional wastewater treatment

 Conventional wastewater treatment consists of a combination of physical, chemical,
and biological processes and operations to remove solids, organic matter and,
sometimes, nutrients from wastewater.
General terms used to describe different degrees of treatment, in order of increasing
treatment level, are
 Preliminary
 Primary
 Secondary
 Tertiary and/or advanced wastewater treatment
PRIMARY TREATMENT:
Primary treatment of wastewater involves sedimentation of solid waste within the
water.
 This is done after filtering out larger contaminants within the water.
 Wastewater is passed through several tanks and filters that separate water from
contaminants.
 The resulting “sludge” is then fed into a digester, in which further processing takes
place.
 This primary batch of sludge contains nearly 50% of suspended solids within
wastewater.

SECONDARY TREATMENT:
Secondary treatment of wastewater makes use of oxidation to further purify
wastewater. This can be done in one of three ways:
Bio filtration:
This method of secondary treatment of wastewater employs sand filters, contact filters,
or trickling filters to ensure that additional sediment is removed from wastewater. Of the three
filters, trickling filters are typically the most effective for small-batch wastewater treatment.
Aeration:
Aeration is a long, but effective process that entails mixing wastewater with a solution of
microorganisms. The resulting mixture is then aerated for up to 30 hours at a time to ensure
results.
Oxidation Ponds:
Oxidation ponds are typically used in warmer places. In addition, this method utilizes natural
bodies of water like lagoons. Wastewater is allowed to pass through this body for a period of
time and is then retained for two to three weeks.
 Trickling Filter
  Activated Sludge Trickling
 Anaerobic Lagoons
Facultative Lagoons

TERTIARY TREATMENT:
This third and last step in the basic wastewater management system is mostly
comprised of removing phosphates and nitrates from the water supply. Substances like
activates carbon and sand are among the most commonly used materials that assist in this
process.

Unit operations and process:

Waste water treatment is any operation / process or combinations of operations and
processes that can reduce the objectionable properties of waste water and render it less
dangerous.
Waste water treatment is a combination of physical, chemical and biological processes.
 Methods of treatment in which application of physical forces predominate, are
known as unit operations.
 Methods of treatment in which chemical or biological activities are involved, known as
unit processes.
Physical unit operations

Chemical unit operations

Treatment-methods
Mixing:
Mixing process makes it easier to trap harmful substances by increasing a contact
area between a flocculants and an undesirable substance.

Clarification:
Clarification is an essential step in a water or wastewater treatment process to remove
suspended solids through gravity settling, providing a clarified liquid effluent.
Sedimentation:
Sedimentation is the process by which suspended particles are removed from the water by
means of gravity or separation.

Aeration:
It is the process of bringing water in intimate contact with air, so as to absorb oxygen and to
remove carbon dioxide gas. Oxygenation is one of the purposes of aeration. Others are
removal of volatile organic substances, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and volatile organic
compounds
The primary objectives of aeration of raw water are,
 To remove taste
 To increase dissolved oxygen content
 To remove hydrogen sulfide and due to it
 pH value
 To remove minerals
 bacteria killed
 mixing chemicals

Filtration
Once the floc has settled to the bottom of the water supply, the clear water on top will pass
through filters of varying compositions (sand, gravel, and charcoal) and pore sizes, in order
to remove dissolved particles, such as dust, parasites, bacteria, viruses, and chemicals.

Sanitization
After the water has been filtered, a chemical disinfectant (chlorine and/or ozone based) or
ultraviolet radiation will be applied in order to kill any remaining parasites, bacteria, and
viruses, and to protect the water from germs when it is piped to homes and businesses.

Fluoridation
This process is not mandatory for water processing plants in the United States. Around 72%
of public water systems have this chemical added in order to reduce dental issues.

Gas transfer:
A physical phenomenon, by which gas molecules are exchanged between a liquid and a gas
at a gas-liquid interface.
This leads to:
 An increase of the concentration of the gas in the liquid phase as long as this phase
is not saturated with the gas under the given conditions of e.g. pressure, temperature
(absorption of gas).

Flocculation: It is gentle stirring or agitation to encourage the particles thus formed to

agglomerate into masses large enough to settle or be filtered from solution

Coagulation process:
The coagulation process involves adding iron or aluminium salts, such as aluminium sulphate,
ferric sulphate, ferric chloride or polymers, to the water. These chemicals are called coagulants, and
have a positive charge.
The positive charge of the coagulant neutralizes the negative charge of dissolved and suspended
particles in the water. When this reaction occurs, the particles bind together, or coagulate (this process
is sometimes also called flocculation). The larger particles, or floc, are heavy and quickly settle to the
bottom of the water supply. This settling process is called sedimentation.
Coagulation and flocculation are often the first steps in water treatment. Chemicals with a
positive charge are added to the water. The positive charge of these chemicals neutralizes the negative
charge of dirt and other dissolved particles in the water. When this occurs, the particles bind with the
chemicals and form larger particles, called floc. Historically, dirty water is cleaned by treating with
alum, Al2(SO4)3.12 H2O, and lime, Ca(OH)2. These electrolytes cause the pH of the water to change
due to the following reactions:

Al2(SO4)3.12 H2O, -------------> Al3+(aq) + 3 SO42-(aq) + 12 H2O

SO42-(aq) + H2O -----------------> HSO4-(aq) + OH- (causing pH change)
Ca(OH)2 -----------------> Ca2+(aq) + 2 OH- (causing pH change)

The slightly basic water causes Al(OH)3, Fe(OH)3 and Fe(OH)2 to precipitate, bringing the small
particulates with them and the water becomes clear. Some records have been found that Egyptians and
Romans used these techniques as early as 2000 BC.
Suspension of iron oxide particulates and humic organic matter in water gives water the yellow muddy
appearance. Both iron oxide particulates and organic matter can be removed from coagulation and
flocculation. The description given here is oversimplified, and many more techniques have been
applied in the treatment of water. Coagulation is a major application of lime in the treatment of
wastewater.

Other salts such as iron sulfates Fe2(SO4)3 and FeSO4, chromium sulfate Cr2(SO4)3, and some special
polymers are also useful. Other ions such as sodium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, and potassium
also affect the coagulation process. So do temperature, pH, and concentration.

Disposal of coagulation sludge is a concern, however.

Removal of materials:
Coagulation can successfully remove a large amount of organic compounds, including some
dissolved organic material, which is referred to as Natural Organic Matter (NOM) or Dissolved
Organic Carbon (DOC). Coagulation can also remove suspended particles, including inorganic
precipitates, such as iron.

Stability of colloids
Stabilization serves to prevent colloids from aggregation.
 The presence and magnitude, or absence of a charge on a colloidal particle is an
important factor in the stability of colloids
Two main mechanisms:
1. Steric stabilization: surrounding each particle with a protective solvent sheath which
prevent adherence due to Brownian movement
2. Electrostatic stabilization: providing the particle with electric charge.

This is obtained by:

1. Addition of large amounts of electrolytes - Anions arranged in a decreasing order of
precipitating power: citrate > tartrate > sulfate > acetate > chloride> nitrate > bromide > iodide
- The precipitation power is directly related to the hydration of the ion and its ability to separate
water molecules from colloidal particles
2. Addition of less polar solvent - e.g. alcohol, acetone