Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO
WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Water and Wastewater Treatment
Contents:
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Water pollution
2.3. Water treatment
2.4. Wastewater
2.5. Wastewater treatment
Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

What is wastewater
Definition of Wastewater
 According to Jensen (2015), wastewater can have a number of definitions. The

approach taken in this course is a very broad definition following that outlined in UNEP
document.
 Wastewater is defined as a combination of one or

more of:
- domestic effluent consisting of blackwater (toilet
waste) and greywater (clothes and bathing wastewater),
- water from commercial establishments and institutions,
including hospitals, industrial effluent,
- stormwater and other urban run-off and agricultural,
horticultural and aquaculture effluent, either dissolved
or as suspended matter.
 Composition of wastewater varies which is 99.9% water and 0.1% solids.

Definition of Wastewater
 Gray water is defined as "untreated household

wastewater that has not come in contact with
toilet waste and includes:
- wastewater from bathtubs
- showers
- washbasins
- clothes washing machines
- laundry tubs.
• Black water is defined as untreated household
wastewater that include wastewater from:
- kitchen sinks
- dishwashers
Figure. Schematic of typical household sources of - laundry water from washing of
greywater and black water
materials soiled with human excreta.
such as diapers
Sources of Wastewater
Point Source Non-Point Source

Point sources: single and identifiable source of wastewater (pipe or a drain).

 Domestic wastewater ( from homes): includes dishwashing or kitchen,
laundry, bathing, toilet flushing and others .

 Industrial wastewater: wastewater is the effluent discharged by manufacturing

units and food processing plants.
 Together, wastewater from places like factories, restaurants, stores, schools,
and hospitals, is called ICI (industrial, commercial, institutional) flow.

II. Non-point sources
 Non-point sources are diffuse and

generally occur from water runoff.
Because they are spread over large
areas, they tend to be more difficult
to control.
 Water often seeps into sewers
They are divided in to: through cracks in the pipe. This is
» agricultural, called infiltration.
» urban and
» atmospheric  Water can also enter the sewer from
sources. above ground, for example through
holes in maintenance covers
(manholes). This is called inflow.

 When water used for different purpose like domestic, commercial, industrial
etc., it’s receives impurities and become wastewater. Thus wastewater has
physical, chemical and biological impurities in it.
 Due to this reason wastewater tested with different physic-chemical and
biological parameters is very important before used for agricultural, industrial,
and urbane and others reuse applications.
 Selection of parameters for testing of wastewater is solely depends upon:
– for what purpose we are going to use that wastewater and
– what extent we need its quality and purity
 Wastewater contains different types of floating, dissolved and suspended as well
as bacteriological impurities (Sonune et al., 2015).

Characteristics of Wastewater
 Some physical test should be performed for testing of physical appearance of

wastewater such as:
» temperature
» color
» odor,
» turbidity
» total dissolved solid (TDS)
» total suspended solid (TSS) etc.

 Some chemical test should be performed for testing of chemical compositions of
wastewater such as :
» Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
» Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
» Oxygen Demand (DO)
» salinity
» pH
» alkalinity
» heavy metals
» hardness
» other characters
• Chemical characteristics of wastewater helps to indicate the stage of sewage

decomposition, its strength, and extent and type of treatment required for making it safe.

 Biological characteristics of sewage are due to the presence of bacteria and
other living microorganisms, such as:
» algae,
» fungi
» protozoa.
 Most of vast number of bacteria present in sewage (5-50 billion per liter of
sewage) is harmless non-pathogenic bacteria (WHO, 2006).
 They are useful and helpful in bringing oxidation and decomposition of

sewage.
 A little number of bacteria, however, is disease producing pathogens, and it is

they who constitute the real danger to the health of the public.

 Some contaminants in ww are.

» suspended solids: lead to the development of sludge deposits and
anaerobic conditions
» pathogens: cause diseases
» nutrients: essential for growth (N, P,…)
» refractory organics: resist conventional methods of wastewater

treatment.
» heavy metals: may have to be removed if the wastewater is to be

reused
» dissolved inorganic solids (calcium, sodium, and sulfate): may

have to be removed if the wastewater is to be reused

Wastewater
Biodegradable Non-Biodegradable

 Biodegradable wastewater:
– The wastes in general have a predominance of biodegradable organic

matter
– The stabilization of organic matter is accomplished biologically using a

variety of microorganisms.
– Based on bacterial relationship to oxygen the microorganisms can be:

» obligate aerobes: utilize oxygen
» obligate anaerobes: without oxygen
» facultative anaerobes: utilize oxygen if present and not if not

present
» denitrifiers

 Non-biodegradable wastewater:
– The wastewater are rich in non-biodegradable matter consisting of

solids and liquids in suspended or dissolved form, including various
inorganic and organic, many of which may be highly toxic.

Water and Wastewater Treatment
Contents:
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Water pollution
2.3. Water treatment
2.4. Wastewater
2.3. Wastewater treatment

Wastewater Treatment
 Wastewater should be collected and treated before its ultimate disposal or

discharged to environment.
 The objectives of wastewater treatment are:
» remove larger particles
» reduce organic content (reduction of BOD and COD)
» removal or reduction of nutrients (N, P)
» removal/inactivation of pathogenic microbes
» promote health concern and public hygiene
» preserve aquatic life and wildlife habitat
» reduce spread of communicable diseases
» prevent surface and ground water pollution

 Minimum goals of wastewater treatment plants in most countries (USA given

example) are:
» BOD5=30 mg/L
» Suspended solids=30 mg/L
» Fecal coliforms=200 CFU/100 mL
» pH =6-9

 Depending of process types, the spectrum of methods for treatment of wastewaters is
extremely broad (Ramalho, 2005). Currently, various:
» physical (mechanical)
» chemical
» biological treatment methods are used.
– biological and chemical methods involve the destruction of pollutants, whilst
– physical methods usually transfer the pollutant from one phase to another.
 Physical and chemical methods are technically feasible for treatment of textile
effluent, they have inherent drawbacks like:
» high operative cost
» formation of hazardous by-products
» intensive energy requirements

 As a viable alternative, biological treatment methods have received increasing

interest owning to their:
» effectiveness
» ability to produce less sludge
» ecofriendly environment (Chen et al., 2003; Jang et al., 2004).
 Biological processes have the potential to convert or degrade the pollutant

into:
» water
» carbon dioxide
» various salts of inorganic nature (Bowker, 2000; Harada, 2007).

 Methods of treatment in which the application of physical forces dominates
are called unit operation.
 Methods of treatment in which chemical or biological activity are involved
are known as unit process.
 WWT applies any of this operations, processes or combination of both.
– is the combination of physical, chemical and biological processes.

 Typical municipal wastewater system comprises of the following stages of
treatment:
» preliminary treatment-physical process
» primary treatment-physical process
» secondary treatment-biological
» tertiary treatment-disinfection-chemical process


Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
 It is a physical or mechanical way of treatment which helps to:
» protect moving mechanical equipment from abnormal wear.
» reduce formation of heavy deposits in pipelines, channels,

and conduits.
» reduce frequent digester cleaning caused by excessive

accumulations of grit.
 Preliminary treatment includes:
» Screens
» Comminutor
» Grit chamber

 Screening
– remove the floating matter, such as pieces of cloth,
paper, wood, cork, hair, fiber, kitchen refuse, fecal
solids, etc.
– what if floating materials not removed?
» will choke the pipes, or adversely affect

the working of the sewage pumps.
– depending upon the size of the openings, screens may be

classified as:
» coarse screens
» medium screens
» fine screens.

 Coarse Screening
– coarse screens (Racks): the spacing between the bars (i.e. opening size) is about 50
mm or more.
– coarse screens help in removing large floating objects.
– collects about 6 liters of solids per million liter of WW.
Fig. Fixed bar type fine screen

 Medium Screening
– the spacing b/n bars is about 6 to 40 mm.
– these screens will ordinarily collect 30 to 90 liters of material per million liter of
sewage.
– the screenings usually contain some quantity of organic material, which may
putrefy and become offensive,

 Fine Screening
– fine screening have perforations of 1.5 mm to 3 mm in size.
– the installation of these screens proves very effective, and remove 20% of the
suspended solids.
– get clogged very often, and need frequent cleaning.

Disposal of Screenings
– screenings is material separated by screens.
– it contains 85 to 90% of moisture and other floating matter.
– it may also contain some organic load which may putrefy, causing bad smells
and nuisance.
– to avoid such possibilities, the screenings are disposed of either by:

» burning
» burial
» dumping.
– the dumping is avoided when screenings are from medium and fine screens.

 Comminutors or shredder
– are the patented devices, which break the larger sewage solids to about
6mm in size.
– a typical comminutor consists slotted cylindrical screen with cutting

blade.
Figure of comminutor and shredder

 Grit removal Basins (grit chamber, detritus tank..)
– are the sedimentation basins placed in front of the wastewater treatment plant.
– the grit chamber remove the inorganic particles (specific gravity about 2.65 and nominal
diameter of 0.15 to 0.20mm or larger) such as:
» sand,
» gravel,
» egg shells,
» bones, and other
» non-putresible materials
– grit may clog channels or damage pumps due to abrasion, and to prevent their accumulation
in sludge digesters.
– these inorganic materials is removed by the process of sedimentation due to gravitational
forces.
– the organic material is not allowed to settle in this process, as they cause septicity of sewage.

Primary Wastewater Treatment

 The tank may be called a sedimentation tank or primary clarifier
 Consists in removing large suspended organic solids.
 This is usually accomplished by sedimentation in settling basins.
 What is sedimentation?
– when flow velocities & turbulence minimal, particles >H2O settle
– this process of gravity settlement is called sedimentation
– layer of accumulated solids at the bottom of the tank is called sludge
which needs disposal
 The process of removal in primary treatment is physical type.
 Some times chemicals may added to promote removal of colloidal particles.

There are different types of settling tanks:
» rectangular
» vertical
» circular

Settling tank design
– Inlets and outlets must be designed carefully to prevent currents that

could resuspend sludge
– Short-circuiting of the flow should be avoided
– Important design parameters are:
» detention time (Hydraulic retention time=HRT)
» flow rate (Q)
» surface area/total volume of the tank (V)



 Primary treatment removes only either float or settle out pollutants by gravity.
 Purpose of secondary treatment is to remove pollutants that pass the primary
treatment.
 Primary effluent enters to the aeration tank using pressurized pump.
 Secondary treatment process is almost use biological systems and biological

treatment of sewage involves the use of microorganisms.
∞ Micro-organisms are important in the treatment of WW.
∞They (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and crustaceans) play an essential role in the
conversion of organic waste to more stable or less polluting substances.

Secondary Wastewater Treatment
 How?
– Waste from humans is a useful food substrate for the micro-organisms.
– And they require cellular building blocks, such as:
» Carbon, C
» Hydrogen, H
» Oxygen, O
» Nitrogen, N
» Phosphorus, P and minerals for growth.
– These can be obtained through consuming organic substances containing these
elements, or from inorganic materials, such as carbon dioxide, water, nitrate and
phosphate.

 Micro-organisms also require energy and they obtain this through respiration.
– in this process organic carbon is oxidized to release its energy.
– Oxygen or other hydrogen acceptors is needed for the respiration process.
 Algae and photosynthetic bacteria utilize energy from sunlight, while certain
types of bacteria can utilize energy from chemical reactions not involving
respiration.
– building blocks and
– energy are used to synthesize more cells for growth and also for
reproduction.
 Finally new die-off and settle down/removed by other means.

 To represent the conversion of organic wastes by micro-organisms. Three types of
processes:
1. Aerobic oxidation: utilize oxygen to oxidize organic substances to obtain energy

for maintenance, mobility and the synthesis of cellular material.
2. Anaerobic oxidation: utilize nitrates, sulphates and other hydrogen acceptors to

obtain energy for the synthesis of cellular material from

– Methane (CH4) is a source of heat but, if released to the atmosphere
without being combusted, it contributes to the greenhouse gas effect.
– Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) contributes to WW odour.
3. photosynthetic.

 Microbial Growth Kinetics
– Growth of a microbial population is defined as an increase in numbers or

an increase in microbial mass.
– Growth rate is the increase in microbial cell numbers or mass per unit
time.
– Microbial populations can grow as:
» batch cultures (closed systems) or
» continuous cultures (open systems).

 Batch Cultures
– When a suitable medium is inoculated with cells, the growth of the microbial population
shows four distinct phases.

 Biological treatment system must provide comfortable home to microbes
 To keep microbes happy and productive in task of WWT, they must get:
» enough DO
» adequate contact with organic material in the sewage
» suitable temperature
» suitable pH etc.

 To introduce WW contact with bacteria (cells) which feed organic matter in WW and
the purpose of biological treatment is BOD reduction.
 Overall removal efficiency of secondary treatment system are:
– BOD = 85%
– TSS = 85%
– Microbial = 80-99% (sunlight, temperature, antagonistic microorganisms, predation
by ciliated protozoans, competition rom other bacteria, adsorption to sludge solids)
– Viruses = 90-99% (Solids settling, but also bacterial antiviral products & predation)

 The common methods of biological wastewater treatment are:
– Aerobic processes such as:

» trickling filters,
» rotating biological contactors,
» activated sludge process,
» oxidation ponds and lagoons,
» oxidation ditches,
» constructed wetland
– Anaerobic processes such as:
» anaerobic digestion, and
– Anoxic processes such as:
» denitrification.

 Trickling Filters
Figure of Photographic view of trickling filter with its rotary distributors

Figure of Photographic view of trickling filter with its rotary distributors

Figure Photographic view of a conventional circular trickling filter with rotary distributors

 Activated Sludge Process

 Oxidation ponds
Photo of Kaliti Ponds (A.A)WSP

 Constructed Wetland

 Constructed Wetland

 Anaerobic digestion

Tertiary Wastewater Treatment

 Tertiary Wastewater Treatment
– is a final treatment stage.
– removes over 99% of pollutants, but very high cost
– the purpose of tertiary treatment is to raise the effluent quality before it is

discharged to the receiving environment (sea, river, lake, ground, etc.).
– more than one tertiary treatment process may be used at any treatment
plant.
– it is also called effluent polishing.

 Filtration
– sand filtration removes much of the residual suspended matter.
– filtration over activated carbon, also called carbon adsorption, removes residual
toxins
 Lagooning
– provides settlement and further biological improvement through storage in large
man-made ponds or lagoons.
– these lagoons are highly aerobic
 Nitrogen removal
Then, N2 gas is released to the atmosphere and thus removed from the water.
– sand filters, lagooning and reed beds can all be used to reduce nitrogen,

 Phosphorus removal
– phosphorus can be removed biologically
– phosphorus removal can also be achieved by chemical precipitation, usually
with salts of iron (e.g. ferric chloride), aluminum (e.g. alum), or lime.
– this may lead to excessive sludge production as hydroxides precipitates and the
added chemicals can be expensive.
 Disinfection
– is a process of killing/deactivating the microorganisms in wastewater.
– common methods of disinfection include ozone, chlorine, ultraviolet light, or
sodium hypochlorite.
– chlorination remains the most common form of WW disinfection due to its low
cost and long-term history of effectiveness.

 There are different disinfection processes:

 Odour Control
– Odours emitted by sewage treatment are typically an indication of an

anaerobic or "septic" condition.
– odours is treated with carbon reactors, a contact media with bio-slimes,

small doses of chlorine, or circulating fluids to biologically capture and
metabolize the obnoxious gases.
– Other methods of odour control exist, including addition:
» iron salts,
» hydrogen peroxide,
» calcium nitrate, etc. to manage hydrogen sulfide levels.


Chapter Two - 3. Wastewater & Wastewater Treatment

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Chapter Two - 3. Wastewater & Wastewater Treatment

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter Two - 3. Wastewater & Wastewater Treatment

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT

2.2. Water pollution

2.3. Water treatment

2.5. Wastewater treatment

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 According to Jensen (2015), wastewater can have a number of definitions. The

 Wastewater is defined as a combination of one or

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 Gray water is defined as "untreated household

Point Source Non-Point Source

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

Point sources: single and identifiable source of wastewater (pipe or a drain).

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 Industrial wastewater: wastewater is the effluent discharged by manufacturing

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

II. Non-point sources

 Non-point sources are diffuse and

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 Some physical test should be performed for testing of physical appearance of

» total dissolved solid (TDS)

» total suspended solid (TSS) etc.

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

» Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)

» Oxygen Demand (DO)

• Chemical characteristics of wastewater helps to indicate the stage of sewage

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 They are useful and helpful in bringing oxidation and decomposition of

 A little number of bacteria, however, is disease producing pathogens, and it is

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 Some contaminants in ww are.

» pathogens: cause diseases

» nutrients: essential for growth (N, P,…)

» refractory organics: resist conventional methods of wastewater

» heavy metals: may have to be removed if the wastewater is to be

» dissolved inorganic solids (calcium, sodium, and sulfate): may

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

– The wastes in general have a predominance of biodegradable organic

– The stabilization of organic matter is accomplished biologically using a

– Based on bacterial relationship to oxygen the microorganisms can be:

» obligate anaerobes: without oxygen

» facultative anaerobes: utilize oxygen if present and not if not

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

– The wastewater are rich in non-biodegradable matter consisting of

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

2.2. Water pollution

2.3. Water treatment

2.3. Wastewater treatment

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 Wastewater should be collected and treated before its ultimate disposal or

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20

 Minimum goals of wastewater treatment plants in most countries (USA given

» Suspended solids=30 mg/L

» Fecal coliforms=200 CFU/100 mL

Environmental Engineering // Chapter 2:Water and Wastewater Treatment // Year:2019/20