Seventeenth lecture Water Reuse

Water Reclaimed Technologies

Constituents in reclaimed water:-

Mostly, the main components in household or municipal wastewater is classified into

three main categories:

1. Conventional (TSS, BOD, COD, TOC, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphorus,

Bacteria, etc ).
2. Non – Conventional (Volatile organic compounds VOCs ).
3.Emerging (Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) ).

The main traditional components are removed by conventional processing that is

done using conventional techniques. The advanced techniques in processing are most
commonly used for removing non-conventional components. As for the emerging or new
components, they are removed through both the conventional and advanced processes, but
the levels of removal of the components depend on the individual estimate for each case
and there is no specific definition for it.

Conventional Wastewater Treatment Process Flow:-

The three main processes are:
1. Full treatment.
2. Direct filtration.
3. Contact filtration.

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1. Full treatment:-
In this treatment, the flow chart shows that the main processes that take place are:
coagulation, flocculation, purification, filtration and disinfection.The required
effectiveness of this treatment is achieved through the elimination of bacteria and viruses
and the disposal of solid materials, and the disadvantage of this process is the high cost.

Fig. 1: Conventional Water treatment process.

2. Direct filtration:-
The conventional filtration process generally includes chemical mixing, coagulation,
flocculation, sedimentation (or dissolved air flotation) and rapid granular filtration. The
direct filtration process includes coagulation and flocculation; however, no sedimentation
or flotation is used, and flocculated water proceeds directly to filtration. While

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conventional filtration can be used on a wide variety of source water quality, direct
filtration is typically limited to source water with turbidity that is below.
In conventional and direct filtration processes, particles are removed by
physicochemical filtration. Chemical pretreatment using coagulants, pH adjustment and
polymers is essential to conventional and direct filtration processes, destabilizing the
negatively charged colloidal particles, such as clays, algae, cysts and viruses. This
destabilization allows aggregation of particles to occur via chemical and van der Waals
interactions, and the resulting particles are removed during sedimentation and/or
filtration.
Conventional and direct filtration systems are capable of producing water with a
turbidity of less than 0.3 NTU. Well-operated, optimized treatment plants have
demonstrated that producing water with a turbidity of less than 0.1 NTU is achievable on
an ongoing basis . These studies also indicated that maintaining a maximum filtered
turbidity level below 1.0 NTU is also readily achievable for conventional and direct
filtration plants.

Fig. 2: Direct filtration.

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3. Contact filtration:

Advanced Wastewater Treatment

Any treatment of sewage that goes beyond the secondary or biological water
treatment stage and includes the removal of nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen
and a high percentage of suspended solids.

Some advanced processing operations:-

 Adsorption.
 Ion Exchange.
 Membranes –RO, electro dialysis.
 Oxidation Reduction (Advanced Oxidation).

Fig 3: Advanced Wastewater Treatment Flow Diagram.

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Definitions:-

1. Anaerobic process: Biological process that occurs in the absence of oxygen and
oxidized compounds.

2. Anoxic process: Biological treatment process that occurs in the absence of free
dissolved oxygen, where oxidized compounds such as nitrate and sulfate are used to
drive metabolic reactions.
3. Denitrification: The biological process by which nitrate is reduced biologically to
nitrogen gas under anoxic conditions.

+
4. Nitrification: The two-step biological process by which ammonia (NH4 -N) is
converted first to nitrite (NO2 – -N) and then to nitrate (NO3 – -N).

5. Recarboation: The re-carbonization process for CO2 in water usually occurs after
softening the limestone. This process is also used to convert the precipitated calcium
carbonate (CaCO3) into dissolved bicarbonate {Ca (HCO₃)₂} to prevent the pipes from
being clogged.

6. Decarbonator: is a device using which reduction of carbon dioxide concentration in

water is achieved by blowing air at CO2 distribution between the liquid (water) and
gaseous (air) phases. It is used to remove dissolved alkaline materials in water by
converting them to CO2 before air stripping.

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7. Stripping: is a physical separation process where one or more components are

removed from a liquid stream by a vapor stream. In industrial applications the liquid
and vapor streams can have co-current or countercurrent flows. Stripping is usually
carried out in either a packed or trayed column.

8. Air stripping: removes chemicals called "volatile organic compounds" or "VOCs."

VOCs are chemicals that easily evaporate which means they can change from a liquid
to a vapor (a gas).

9. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs): are compounds that have a high vapor
pressure and low water solubility. Many VOCs are human-made chemicals that are
used and produced in the manufacture of paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants.
Health effects may include:
 Eye, nose and throat irritation
 Headaches, loss of coordination and nausea
 Damage to liver, kidney and central nervous system
 Some organics can cause cancer in animals, some are suspected or known to
cause cancer in humans.

Fig 4: Packed Column Air Stripper

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Fig 5: Tray Column Air Stripper