Eng.

Miral
 Wastewater: is the term we use to describe water that discarded
after being used (such as used dishwasher water from a
restaurant or bath water from your home ), or that has been used
to carry various wastes (such as human excreta from homes or
businesses).
 the flow of water from the environment (from any source e.g., a
lake, a river, an aquifer) to users in a city, and the flow of
wastewater from users back into the environment is shown in
figure 5.1.
 Design of a wastewater treatment plant begins with knowing
two types of information:

(1) Where you are (the flow rate and characteristics of the
wastewater that is received at the treatment plant)

(2) Where you want to go ( the regulatory and other standards

that must be achieved in the effluent)
 Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are also called publicly
owned treatment works (POTWs) .

 Large POTWs typically handle flows from ten million gallons

per day (MGD) to hundreds of (MGD).

 Figure 6.2 shows an aerial view of a large municipal WWTP

in Orange Country, Florida, whose capacity is 43 MGD. It is
the largest of three regional plants in Orange Country (the
other two have a combined capacity of 31 (MGD)
 In most cases, the major pollutants of concern in municipal
wastewater are total suspended solids (TSS),BOD, and
nutrients, although all of the pollutants mentioned in chapter 4
have been found in various wastewater at various times.

 Municipal wastewater is collected from residential, commercial

(stores, restaurants, hotels, etc,), and public facilities within the
city, whereas industrial wastewater comes from various
smaller, light industries that might be located within the city
(larger, heavy industries may have some on-site pretreatment or
may simply connect directly to municipal sewer system)
 In some suburban areas and in most rural areas, residential
wastewater may not collected at all; rather it treated on each
homeowner’s property via septic tanks and drain field located
in the back or front yard, usually just a few feet underneath the
surface of the ground.

 Some drain fields may be located above ground due to a very

high water table.
 The concentrations of pollutants of raw municipal (domestic)
wastewater may vary depending on:
1. Geographic location
2. The affluence of residential areas.
3. The presence or absence of various commercial
establishments
 Industrial and agricultural wastewater can extremely variable
in composition and flow.

 Industries often have very high concentration of BOD and

suspended solids, but also may have one or more specific
pollutants of concern

 Agricultural wastewater often have very high concentration of

suspended solids ( soil, etc.) and fertilizer nutrients (N and P),
but also may carry significant concentrations of BOD and
chemical pesticides.
 Municipal wastewater is about 99% water and only 1%
pollutants.

 So if all the concentrations of pollutants were added ,

wastewater (WW) is still about 99% water and only 1%
pollutants.

 Typical concentrations for “week”, “typical”, and “strong”

domestic WW are reported in table 6.1
 Infiltration: is the seepage of groundwater into the
underground sanitary sewer transport pipes that carry WW to
the WWTP.

 Infiltration enters through cracks in the pipes or open joints

between sections of pipe that have settled over time.

 Inflow: refers to stormwater getting into the collection system

through improper direct connection to the sanitary sewer
system sometimes greatly increasing the flow of WW to be
treated.
 We can classify municipal wastewater treatment into three
broad categories:

1. Primary

2. Secondary

3. Tertiary
 Primary treatment: plants were built with the main goal of
removing suspended solids, the disinfection of the effluent
prior to discharge was also significant benefit in controlling
waterborne diseases.
 Secondary treatment: removed more of the TSS and
utilized microorganisms and air to oxidize (in the
treatment plant) most of the organic compounds that
otherwise would consume oxygen in the receiving waters.

 Tertiary treatment: removed nutrients ( N and P ) that

were stimulating plant and algae growth and negatively
impacting the ecology of the receiving water.
 tables 6.2 & 6.3 show Secondary treatment standards and
advanced wastewater treatment (tertiary treatment) standards,
respectively.

 Actual numerical limits are site specific, depending on

receiving water characteristics, and maybe set lower than
those in table 6.2 by local regulators.
 The typical POTW combines and utilizes unit operations

and processes for primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment

as needed, some of which are very similar to those utilized

in potable water treatment.

 A generalized flow diagram of wastewater treatment is

shown in figure 6.4.

 Raw wastewater enters the treatment plant from the

collection system and is routed through bar screens whose

function is to remove large objects and floating materials (

such as plastic, wood, etc.)

 The Water flows into grit chamber where large dense

inorganic particles are removed.

 There may be an equalization basin (these are common at

industrial plants) whose purpose is to “smooth out” hourly

variation in flow and composition of wastewater to

maintain steadier flow to the rest of the plant.

 All of the treatment through equalization is called

pretreatment.
 The wastewater next may flow through a primary clarifier

where significant portion of the TSS (and BOD associated

with the organic solids) is removed. This is traditional

primary treatment.

 It is noted that many modern plants have eliminated the

primary clarifier, allowing the whole wastewater to enter

secondary treatment directly.

 In classic secondary treatment the wastewater flows into the

“heart of the process” the activated sludge treatment

process.

 This is the biological based treatment part of the plant where

most of the BOD is converted by microorganisms, and then

most of microorganisms ( biomass) and remaining TSS are

separated from the water.

 The secondary clarifier separates the sludge ( biomass and

other suspended solids) from the effluent water.

 The effluent flows to either tertiary treatment or directly to

chlorination and discharge.

 Some of the sludge is removed from this part of plant and

sent for further treatment, but most is recycled back into

aeration tank.
 The sludge that is discharged from the system goes to

further treatment which can include thickening, anaerobic

or aerobic digestion, dewatering, incineration, or

gasification , with final disposal of the organic solid

residues.
 The bar screen or bar rack is simply a steel grate that is

designed to remove large objects that would damage

downstream equipment (such as pumps or valves)

 Large objects includes branches, plastic and other items

 It is often manually cleaned and the debris is land filled.

 Often, a finer screen is located after the first, coarser screen to

remove smaller floatable objects.

 The finer screen is cleaned automatically.

 The grit chamber is a relatively small detention tank where

heavy dense particles settle out as the flow slows down.

 Items removed by grit chamber include sand, pebbles,

broken glass, small metal objects like nails or screws, and

others.
 These chambers usually have a device such as a grit pump

that continuously removes the grit from the bottom of the

tank.

 Typical detention times (ɵ) or hydraulic residence times

(HRT) in the grit champers are about one minute or so.

 detention times (ɵ) or hydraulic residence times (HRT) is

defined in the below equation

ɵ = HRT = V/ Q

 Where:

θ = detention time, min

HRT = hydraulic residence time, min

V = volume of the tank, ft3or m3

Q = flow rate, ft3/ min or m3/min

 Most unit operations and processes run better and do more efficient

job if they are run at or near steady state conditions.

 For operations, if the equipment and biological processes can kept

at a nearly constant flow rate with nearly constant concentration, the

treatment plant is much easier to run and produces smoother and

better treatment than if they rabidly changing

 WW flows into equalization tank directly from the

grit chamber at the rate at which it is received, but it

is pumped out of the tank to the rest of plant at a

constant rate.
 If the tank is well mixed, the concentrations of all

pollutants in the WW will be smoothed out as well.

 Another reason to include equalization is the POTW must

be designed to handle the peak flows when they occur.

 Without equalization, the plant would have to be built with

larger tanks and equipments, caused a larger capital cost

 In great many POTWs, primary treatment is no longer

practiced, but in larger plants, it still can serve an important

function.

 A primary clarifier is settling tank, which may be

rectangular or circular,
 Primary clarifies do not have a significant effect on final

effluent quality but are used because they reduce oxygen

requirements and save operation cost.

 The solid that are removed have a substantial organic

components, so a sizable amount of BOD is removed ,thus

they reduce sludge production in the downstream activated

sludge process
 The sludge that is removed from the bottom of the primary

clarifier is sent for further treatment because it still obtain

objectionable organic waste material.

 Properly designed and operated primary clarifier can remove

roughly one-third of BOD and two-thirds of the TSS in the

WW.
 activated sludge process is the heart of the wastewater treatment

plant.

 The key parts of the activated sludge process are biological reactor

or aeration tank, and the secondary clarifier.

 Equipment to supply oxygen to the biological reactor, and facilities

to pump the recycle and waste sludge are also required.

 Biological processes depend on a diverse population of

microorganisms, principally bacteria, but also protozoa,

parasites, viruses, and others, which consume organic

material as part of their life processes.

 Aerobic bacteria need oxygen and will metabolize organics

much faster than anaerobic bacteria, which die in the

presence of oxygen.
 Microorganisms require food (BOD), nutrients, air( or the

absence of air), and controlled temperature and pH of their

environment to survive. If these conditions are met, these

microorganisms(biomass) in the activated sludge aeration

tank grow and convert particulate and dissolved BOD into

CO2, H2O and more biomass.

 Biomass (X) : the mass of all the cell of microorganisms

and it slightly denser than water, so it can be separated by

gravity settling.

 Most of BOD(substrate) (S) in the WW enters as dissolved

or colloidal matter. After most of the BOD has been

decomposed in the reactor (aeration tank), the WW is routed

to the secondary clarifies to settle and remove the biomass.

 The design of a secondary clarifier is very similar to a

primary clarifier.

 A secondary clarifier must handle a much higher flow rate

of solids than the primary clarifier .

 after clarification and before discharge, the effluent must be

disinfection.

 In the united states, the most common process to achieve

disinfection is chlorination

 After passing through the chlorine contact chamber, the disinfection

water may need to be dechlorinated (remove any residual chlorine)

to prevent later formation of THMs in natural water.

 Dechlorination, if required, is often achieved by adding

sulfur dioxide to the water.

 Alternative disinfection processes exits, including treatment

with alternative chlorine compounds such as bleach

( sodium hypochlorite-NaCl), chlorine dioxide (ClO2), or

calcium hypochlorite [Ca(OCl)2], or non-chlorine processes

such as ozonation or UV radiation.