Geographic location

This conceptual design has been developed for the area that experiences severe water shortages
and/or no access to safe potable water. Such an area have been identified in the North-East of
Kazakhstan, specifically, Pavlodar Oblast. This province has water distribution system aging
more than 55 years now (Aryn M., 2003, p. 16). This province has 10 rural districts and the one
situated in the northwestern portion of the province named Irtysh district finds itself in serious
water crisis. This district has a total land area of 10.2 thousand square kilometers (Romanov I.,
2010, p. 393). There are a total of six small communities in the district, namely, Severnoye
Village, Kaymanachikha Village, Golubovka Village, Suvorovo Village, Kosagash Village and
Irtyshsk Village. The latter one serves as the administrative center for the entire district (ibid).
The following picture (Figure 1) shows the position of Irtysh district on the map.

Figure 1. Geographic location of the consumer residence (pavlodarstat.kz)

As of 2014, the population of the region constitutes 18.4 thousand people and is assumed to see a
steady population growth over the course of next couple of decades (Public census, 2014). This
is why the facility has been targeting a design objective of 30 thousand people in demand in
order to account for years of provisional population growth and the increases in potable water
demand related to the potential socio-economic development of the region. Also, the population
of the closely neighboring Kashyr, Aktogai and Zhelezin districts features 21.0 thousand, 13.3
thousand and 16.5 thousand people respectively (ibid). Therefore, even in a population decline
scenario the water treatment will stay relevant for long time for that portion of the province.

The province also happens to be the key transportation and communication junction for North
Kazakhstan. As such, it features South-Siberian and Mid-Siberian railroads, motorways, air
transport, electric power grid, pipeline and river transportation (Romanov I., 2010, p. 395). In
fact, different regions of Kazakhstan and Russia receive the electric power lines that originate in
the province (ibid). The river Irtysh serves as high traffic waterway for industrial purposes and
there is a unique channel Irtysh-Karaganda-Zhezkazgan that stretches for 450 kilometers. The
following picture (Figure 2) clearly demonstrates the aforementioned.

Figure 2. Infrastructure availability in Pavlodar Oblast (new.keden.kz).

The province features extremely continental climate with high winds year-round averaging 5 m/s
(Aryn M., 2003, p. 16) and annual rainfall standing at 220 to 300mm and temperatures on the
order of -18OC during long and cold winters and 21OC during short and hot summer periods
(Romanov I., 2010, p. 389). Winter times come for 160 days with snow standing at 25 cm and
the frost line as deep as 1 m (Aryn M., 2003, p. 15).
This conceptual design suggests situating the water treatment facility on the Irtysh River bank in
the vicinity of the district’s administrative center, Irtyshsk Village. It is expected to claim less
than 5000 m2 for the construction and can be seen on the following picture (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Water Treatment Facility Site allocation.

This location follows worldwide accepted practices (Randtke S., 2012, pp. 22.2 – 22.15) and is
optimal for the following reasons:

1. It is in close proximity to the water source intake point

2. It is in close proximity to the main consumer
3. Major highway, railroad and waterway are easily accessible
4. Power gridline of the community is accessible
5. The location allows serving multiple communities
6. The site is large enough to accommodate expansion if needed
7. The facility is far enough from the residential neighborhood
8. The site does not express archeological, historical and architectural value
9. The community have no record of susceptibility to flooding
10. The community have no history of earthquake activity
Water analysis
This study shows that the community to be served will require 4200m3 of treated water every
day. The target quality of the final product must comply with the following main state standards
(Figure 4) and strive to exceed these standards closest to the international standards from World
Health Organization (WHO).

Indicator Unit State Standard (SS) SS Value WHO Value

Turbidity ГОСТ 3351-74-Tr 1.5 3.5
Color ГОСТ 3351-74-C 20 15
ГОСТ 26449.1-85-
pH level 6.5-8.5 6.5-8.5
pH
Oxidability ГОСТ 26449.1-85-O 5.0 5.0
Taste ГОСТ 3351-74-Ts 2 0
Odor ГОСТ 3351-74-O 2 0
Hardness СТ РК 1514-2006-H 7.0 5.0
Salt
СТ РК 1514-2006-S 1000 1000
content
Figure 4. State Water Standards.

The community that has no centralized access to potable water of reasonable quality faces the
following options:

1. Buy bottled water from the local convenience store

2. Establish ground water supply facility
3. Establish surface water supply facility from a natural reservoir
4. Establish surface water supply facility from the River Irtysh

Obviously, the first option manifests profound lack of sustainability for the community and
greatly limits its developmental and even living potential, which is why this state of the art
necessitates urgent involvement such as a water supply facility.

The second option, groundwater as the water supply, is always the first one that must be
considered as the water source. Ground water as the source appears to be the most promising and
perfect solution because of the superior quality of the ground water to the surface water
(Kawamura S., 2000, p. 15). However, available safe yield from a ground water reservoir is
generally limited. For the case of this particular concept design, it has been identified that,
currently, throughout the entire Pavlodar Oblast, there are six groundwater fields that have been
explored and utilized to the date (Aryn M., 2003, p. 17). However, the safe available yield from
these groundwater deposits constitutes 118.5 m3 per day (ibid). Therefore, this option currently
has not reached the potential to satisfy the needs of the community of Irtysh district that requires
4200m3 of treated water every day.
Next one in line is the water from natural reservoirs, ponds and lakes of Pavlodar province. The
region has around 1200 small lakes, only 90 of which have fresh water feed from snow/ice
melting (Aryn M., 2003, p. 17). These fresh water lakes are very small, scattered irregularly
throughout the region and dry out completely every summer (ibid). Therefore, only two lakes of
reasonable water volume residing within Irtysh district were considered as the potential water
source, namely Kyzylkak Lake and Zhalauly Lake. However, both of these lakes express the
tendency to accumulate large volumes of water with high salinity (ibid). For this reason these
large water bodies never served as potable water sources and there are no communities anywhere
near them. Their distant location from the consumer and major infrastructure, along with their
brackish water content makes these lakes unviable water sources that would require very
expensive construction, development, expensive treatment process and long distance
transportation.

Finally, the last water source option that has been considered for this concept design of a water
treatment facility is the River Irtysh itself. The portion of the river Irtysh flowing through the
territory of the region constitutes around 500 kilometers in length (Romanov I., 2010, p. 389).
The width of the river varies averaging 350 meters and the average depth of the river is 4 meters
(Aryn M., 2003, p. 16). It has an elevation around 100 -200m (Romanov I., 2010, p. 386) on a
landscape sloping 0.006% and flows at average speed of 1.2m/s (Aryn M., 2003, p. 15).
Therefore, it appears that Irtysh River is capable of providing sufficient water supply to the cause
of this treatment facility design.

Also, the community to be serviced with water resides right on the river bank of Irtysh, within
1km reach. As a river originating in Altai mountain range, Irtysh relies on glacial feeding and
rainfall runoff (Aryn M., 2003, p. 17). The temperature regiment of the river features highest
values to be 22OC and lowest to be 3OC (State Water Cadastre, 2000). However, due to cold
winters ice cover of 20cm thick could form and cause floating glacial masses in some parts of the
river for up to 26 days of winter (ibid). The glaciers are not of major concern as they do not
hinder water intake process.

Therefore, taking all of the aforementioned into account, these characteristics make the river
Irtysh the single most valuable water source for all the communities that reside on its bank, and,
based on this evaluation, the river has been selected as the water source for the people of Irtysh
district. It is the water of this river that will be treated by the water treatment facility central to
this project. Finally, it is worth specifying the state of the art of the chosen water source. The
chemical composition of the river water should aid the design and optimization of the necessary
treatment processes for the water treatment facility.

The following table demonstrates the generic level of contamination of Irtysh River (Figure 5).
The table shows a number of Organoleptic, Chemical and Generic indicators in milligrams per
liter. From the table, it can be observed that the water in the river requires rigorous treatment in
order to qualify as drinking water by the Kazakhstan Republic State Standards for drinking. The
 State standards are also compared to the standards from World Health Organization (WHO).
From this table it can be clearly observed that the levels of Zinc contamination of Irtysh river are
completely outrageous, averaging at 50 milligrams per liter. Most harmful elements are
highlighted in the table. Therefore, for the water to be safe for drinking this water requires a
treatment beyond conventional treatment processes.

Input State WHO Input State WHO

Indicator Unit Irtys Standar Standar Indicator Unit Irtys Standar Standar
h d d h d d
Organoleptic indicators
50-
Turbidity 1.5 3.5 Taste 2 2 0
150
25-
Color 20 15 Odor 0 2 0
150
Generic indicators
pH level 7.6 6.5-8.5 6.5-8.5 Hardness 2.13 7.0 5.0
Salt
Oxidability 10-12 5.0 5.0 N/D 1000 1000
contain
Chemical indicators
0.3- Magnesiu
Aluminum 0.5 0.2 8-9 20-85 150
0.6 m
Ammoniu Manganes
3.83 0.5 0.5 1.1 0.1 0.1
m e
Boron N/D 0.5 0.2 Nitrates 2.9 45 10
Cadmium N/D 0.001 0.005 Nitrites 0.55 3.0 1.0
Calcium 22-23 30-140 200 Plumbum 0.36 0.03 0.03
Chlorides 15.3 350 250 Sulphates 100.2 500 400
Cuprum 10 1.0 1.0 Sulphides N/D 3.0 0
Ferrum 6.58 0.3 0.3 Zinc 50 5.0 5.0
Figure 5. River Irtysh water quality against State and International Standards (Water Resources,
2004).
Plant Architecture

This portion of the conceptual design delivers the design considerations of some important
processing units. Those units are Storage Tank, Flash Mixing Chamber and Flocculation Basin.

Water Demand

Peak Demand Coefficient (SniP, 2010, p. 5):

Кmax = 1.1

Water Demand in rural areas is above 100 l/p/d (ibid).

Design Estimate for Irtyshsk district:

q = 127 l/p/d;

- where p is the projected maximum population for the Irtyshsk district.

Plant total area estimate (Randtke S., 2012, p.22.8):

Storage Tank

This amount of treated water in the clear well storage tank should be sufficient to the needs of
the community for 24 hours. This amount of water can be accommodated in a cylindrical storage
vessel with the minimum dimensions of:

H = 12 500mm, D = 21 000mm.

Thus, the final design dimensions of the storage tank can be accepted as:

H = 13 000mm; D = 21 000mm;

Flash Mixing Chamber

This processing unit is designed to be situated at the very head of the water treatment plant. As
such the unit is responsible for Coagulation Phase. Flash Mixing Chamber houses double blade
vertical Flash mixer and a certain volume of water. The dimensions of the processing unit are as
follows:
 Volume = 1.458m3;

Width = Length = 1m;

Height = 2m.

These dimensions have been carefully proportioned to suit the design cause and deliver
maximum performance efficiency.

This has been achieved with the help of the most fundamental parameters for Coagulation
process, namely, mixing intensity, residence time and hydraulic loading (Kawamura S., 2000, p.
23). Acceptable headloss for the Flash mixer ranges from 0.6 m to 0.9 m (ibid, p. 80). The other
two controlling parameters for this process are the Velocity Gradient, also known as the G value
(sec-1) or mixing intensity, and the Detention Time, also known to be interchangeably called
Retention Time or Residence Time. The velocity gradient is essentially indicative of the degree
of agitation in the mixing unit, or mixing intensity (Qasim S., 2000, p. 354). The velocity
gradient is a result of differences of velocity created by stirring of water (Binnie C., 2002., p.
63). A high G denotes violent mixing and low G denotes gentle mixing (ibid). The coagulation
itself demands very high-energy mixing and, consequently, unattainably short time of one or two
seconds (Binnie C., 2002, p. 64).

That holds for the following reason; for the solution to perform, the Flash Mixer must intensely
blend the inflowing coagulant solution into the main water processing stream to achieve
reasonably uniform distribution of the coagulant additive throughout the Flash Mixing Chamber
in a very short time (Randtke S., 2012, p. 7.4). This is because the coagulant chemical reacts
very fast, typically within less than 5 seconds, and its charge neutralization function must be
executed homogenously for optimal results of Coagulation Phase (ibid).This short period of time
for the coagulant to perform its function is the residence time parameter. However, this residence
time is unachievable because the Mechanical Mixers require much longer residence time to make
allowance for short-circuiting (Ratnayaka D., 2009, p. 277).

This design challenge has been solved by balancing out the two parameters towards the optimal
outcome. Here is how the conflicting design requirements were dealt with. The following design
trade-off had to be applied for this portion of the Water Treatment plant;

- first off, following a worldwide accepted practice, the range of 20 to 60 seconds of

detention time is adopted for this particular design in the flash mixing chamber (Ratnayaka D.,
2009, p. 277),

- secondly, since the detention time has been increased, the G value should be shifted
down to a range of 300 to 600 sec-1 (Ratnayaka D., 2009, p. 279). The above values are as the
boundary conditions of the controlling parameters for this mechanical rapid mixer design.
As this particular design deals with moderate water demands, the civil engineer in charge has
identified the residence time of 30 seconds as a reasonable design value that lies within the
previously established boundary conditions. This value, along with the known water flow rate,
provides the following estimate for the Mixing Chamber design:

- where V is the chamber volume

- Q is the water demand flow rate across the unit (48.6 l/s)
- and t is the residence time (30s)

From the known required volume for the mixing chamber its dimensions are designed with
popular practice considerations in mind.

The mixing chamber will be a regular box shaped aqua vessel with a square base and a height to
base ratio of two:

V = 1.458m3;

w = 1m;

hw = 1.458m;

h = 2m;

- where w is the side of the square base

- hw is the operating water level in the chamber
- h is the actual height of the vessel.

The headloss across the unit has been set to the widely acceptable by common practice value:
Hmixing = 0.8m ;

The mixing arrangement that is requested from the manufacturer is one propeller-type double
blade mechanical mixer with the G = 600 sec-1 and efficiency = 60% on the spec sheet.
Therefore, the energy required for this process is calculated as follows:

- where E is the energy required in units of metric horsepower

- P is the power input to the water
- e is the mixing unit efficiency.

The power input to the water is derived from the following equation (Randtke S., 2012, p. 7.8):
 - where is the absolute (dynamic) viscosity of water.

Therefore,

As the normal operating temperature for the process is T = 100C , .

This yields,

And further on,

The following picture (Figure 6) illustrates the mixing unit arrangement required from the
manufacturer for the Coagulation Phase. The expected performance of the flash mixing unit is
100 revolutions per minute.

Figure 6. Propeller-type mechanical flash mixer (Randtke S., 2012, p. 7.9).

Flocculation Basin

This processing unit immediately follows the Flash Mixing Chamber. It is responsible for
Flocculation Phase of the treatment process. This process specific to this project employs tapered
flocculation that is designed to utilize mechanical stirrers for the gentle mix that should
encourage particle collisions and floc formation (Qasim S., 2000, p. 354). This particular design
involves paddle wheels mounted on a horizontal axis in a cross flow arrangement. As such, the
paddle tip speed can reach 3m/s in a high energy flocculation (Ratnayaka D., 2009, p. 281).
Flocculation requires much lower energy input than coagulation and, consequently, water takes
greater time to pass through this treatment stage (Binnie C., 2002, p. 64). High energy
flocculation requires high G value, 50 sec-1, and is applied only for the high strength flocs at the
very beginning of the flocculation phase (ibid). Larger and fragile flocs further downstream
require low G value, 10 sec-1. This is because high energy mixing can break up the large flocs,
and that is highly undesirable. Also, for this same reason minimum floc shear is preferable and,
therefore, flow velocity will be limited to 0.25m/s (Ratnayaka D., 2009, p. 281). In order to
minimize short-circuiting the tapered flocculation chamber are engineered to be made up of three
equal size compartments with counter-rotating stirrers (ibid). The paddle wheels in each
compartment are projected to operate at different speeds, in a fashion of descending speed,
upstream to downstream as the floc size increases (ibid). It is a popular practice to set the
flocculation velocity gradient, G, to vary from 20 to 50 sec-1 (Qasim S., 2000, p. 354). This
specific flocculation phase design suggests the three compartments to be separated by over-and-
under baffles organized to facilitate diagonal flow in the compartments (Ratnayaka D., 2009, p.
282). As short circuiting is reduced, three paddles of the horizontal shaft type mounted on each
diametrical arm in sinuous channels is expected to yield enhanced performance (ibid). Fro cross
flow, tapered flocculation can be provided by:

- varying paddle size

- varying diameter of paddle wheels
- varying number of paddles
- varying the rotational speed of the various shafts.

The first three options appear to have higher potential to compromise the cost of the arrangement
while offering limited control and flexibility. This is why, this project anticipates controllable
variable speed paddle shafts.

Much like with coagulation, flocculation phase has velocity gradient and detention time in the
position of process controlling parameters. Typical water residence time in the flocculation
basin, however, could be as long as 10 to 30 minutes. For this design, residence time of 30
minutes has been selected as the design parameter. The G factor values for this design are those
recommended by American Water Works Association (Randtke S., 2012, p. 7.16):

- First compartment: G1 = 50 sec-1 ;

 - Second compartment: G2 = 20 sec-1 ;
- Third compartment: G3 = 10 sec-1 ;

The compartments are to be separated by slotted redwood fences and the floor of the basin is
level.

The total volume of the flocculation basin is calculated as follows:

- where V is the basin volume

- Q is the water demand flow rate across the unit (2.917 m3/min)
- and t is the residence time (30min)

From the known required volume for the flocculation basin its dimensions are designed with
popular practice considerations in mind. Each of the three basin compartments should be a
square in profile. Therefore, setting the basin width to five miters yields the basin profile
consisting of three squares with a total area of:

- where A is the total profile area of the water in the basin

- V is the total volume of the water in the basin
- w is the width of the basin.

One square profile,

Water in each compartment has a length and height of:

Total length of water in the basin,

With those internal dimensions needs in mind, the flocculation basin can be designed as follows:

Inner width of the entire basin, equal for all compartments:

W = 5.0 m;
Thickness of each of the two partitions:

d = 0.15 m;

Inner length of each of the three compartments:

l = 2.5 m;

That makes a total inner length of the entire basin:

Mean height of water in each of the compartments:

Real design height of the entire basin:

H = 3 m.

Basin design capacity:

A total headloss of 0.1m is adopted across the flocculation basin.

The power to be imparted to the water in each compartment:

As the normal operating temperature for the process is T = 100C, and

efficiency = 75% (base design criteria).

This yields,

And further on,

Total energy demand by these two process stages combined:

The following pictures (Figure 7 & 8) illustrate the concept of flocculation phase unit
arrangement.

Figure 7. Cross flow horizontal shaft flocculation basin (water.me.vccs.edu/).

Figure 8. Horizontal shaft flocculation basin cross-section (Kawamura S., 2000, p. 111).
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Aryn M. et al. (2003). Pavlodarskaya Oblast. Almaty: Evero

Binnie C., Kimber M., Smethurst G. (2002). Basic Water Treatment. 3rd Ed. London: Thomas
Telford Publishing

Cross flow horizontal shaft flocculation basin. [Figure 7]. Retrieved on 22 March, 2015 from
water.me.vccs.edu/

Geographic location of the consumer residence. [Figure 1]. Retrieved on March 17, 2015 from
pavlodarstat.kz

Horizontal shaft flocculation basin cross-section [Figure 8]. Kawamura S. (2000). Integrated
Design and Operation of Water Treatment Facilities. 2nd Ed. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Infrastructure availability in Pavlodar Oblast. [Figure 2]. Retrieved on March 29, 2015 from
new.keden.kz/

Kawamura S. (2000). Integrated Design and Operation of Water Treatment Facilities. 2nd Ed.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Propeller-type mechanical flash mixer [Figure 6]. Randtke S. and Horsley M. (2012). Water
Treatment Plant Design. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw Hill

Public census. (2014). Retrieved on February 7, 2015 from pavlodarstat.kz/

Qasim S. (2000). Wastewater Treatment Plants: Planning, Design, and Operation. 2nd Ed.
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Randtke S. and Horsley M. (2012). Water Treatment Plant Design. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw
Hill

Ratnayaka D., Brandt M., Johnson M. (2009). Twort’s Water Supply. 6th Ed. Burlington, MA:
Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier

Romanov I. and Zhandauletov V. (2010). Kazakhstan. Almaty: LTD Almatykitap baspasy

SNiP. (2010). СНиП_РК_4.01-02-2009_Водоснабжение. Наружные сети и сооружения (с

изменениями от 29.06.2010 г.).

State Water Cadastre. (1980). Гос. водный кадастр. ОГХ. Т. 15. 3rd Ed.

Water Resources of Kazakhstan in the new millennium. (2004) [Figure 5]. Almaty: LEM
Printhouse