Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

Abstract

Water is of fundamental importance for life on earth. The synthesis and structure of cell
constituents and transport of nutrients into the cells as well as body metabolism depend on
water. The contaminations present in water disturb the spontaneity of the mechanism and
result in long/short-term diseases. Continued research efforts result in some
processes/technologies to remove the contaminations from water.

There has been increasing research focus on the detection and occurrence of wastewater
contamination in aquatic environment. Wastewater treatment plants receive effluents
containing various chemical pollutants. These chemicals may not be fully removed during
treatment and could potentially enter the receiving water bodies. Detection of these chemical
pollutants and source identification could be a challenging research task due to the diversified
chemical and functional groups, concentration levels and fate and transportation mechanisms
of these pollutants in the environment.

Chemical markers such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, artificial sweeteners,
fluorescent whitening agents, sterols and stanols, and nitrate and nitrogen isotopics have been
widely used by most research as markers. These markers served as indicators of wastewater
contamination to the receiving bodies due to their frequent usage, resistance to
biodegradability and, more importantly, anthropogenic origin. These markers are commonly
used in combination to identify the contaminant source of different origins.

Also Nowadays many water resources are polluted by anthropogenic sources including
household and agricultural waste and industrial processes. Public concern over the
environmental impact of wastewater pollution has increased. Several conventional wastewater
treatment techniques, i.e. chemical coagulation, adsorption, activated sludge, have been
applied to remove the pollution, however there are still some limitations, especially that of high
operation costs. The use of aerobic waste water treatment as a reductive medium is receiving
increased interest due to its low operation and maintenance costs. In addition, it is easy-to-
obtain, with good effectiveness and ability for degrading contaminants. This paper reviews the
use of waste water treatment technologies to remove contaminants from wastewater such as
halogenated hydrocarbon compounds, heavy metals, dyes, pesticides, and herbicides, which
represent the main pollutants in wastewater.
 Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

Introduction
Availability of fresh water, the nature’s gift controls the major part of the world economy. The
adequate supplies of water are necessary for agriculture, human consumption, industry as well
as recreation. Ironically, sometimes, natural or added contaminations rob us of the gift and
making us confront a lot more challenging world. It is a wellknown fact that fresh water is an
important necessity for our health. With the advancement of technology and industrial growth,
fresh water resources all over the world are threatened.

Contaminated water causes problems to health and leads to waterborne diseases which can be
prevented by taking measures even at the household level. Providing safe water for all is a
challenging task.

Water contamination is a common problem to all over the world. These may be geological or
anthropogenic (man-made) (Fawell and Nieuwenhuijsen 2003). Higher levels of contaminants in
drinking water are seldom to cause acute health effects. Of course it depends on individual
susceptibility and mode of contact with the body.

The types and concentrations of natural contaminates depend on the nature of the geological
materials through which the groundwater flows and quality of the recharge water.
Groundwater moving through sedimentary rocks and soils may pick up a wide range of
compounds, such as magnesium, calcium, and chloride, arsenate, fluoride, nitrate, and iron;
thus, the effect of these natural contaminations depends on their types and concentrations.

Other contaminants are man-made by-products of industry, and agriculture, including heavy
metals like mercury, copper, chromium, lead, and hazardous chemicals, dyes and compounds
like insecticides and fertilizers.
 Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

Types of contaminants

1. Inorganic contaminants: The presence of contaminants can also be measured by its

chemical parameters. Hardness of the drinking water is a naturally occurring
contaminate, which basically depends on the geographical status. It is caused by
significant amounts of calcium or magnesium components; the hardness is classified
into carbonate or non-carbonate hardness depending on what molecules are combined
with calcium or magnesium. If they are combined with carbonate ions (CO3 -2), the
hardness is termed as ‘carbonate hardness’; if combined with other ions, it is non-
carbonate hardness. Generally, 300–400 mg/L hardness is suitable for drinking purpose.

2. Organic contaminants: The major anthropogenic sources of organic contamination are

pesticides, domestic waste, and industrial wastes, etc. Contamination through organic
materials can cause serious health problems like cancers, hormonal disruptions.

3. Biological contaminants: Biological contamination of water is caused by the presence of

living organisms, such as algae, bacteria, protozoan or viruses. Each of these can cause
distinctive problems in water Algae are in general single celled and microscopic. The
nutrients are generally from domestic run-off or industrial pollution. Bacteria are also
microscopic single celled. There are numerous pathogenic bacteria and can be
contaminated with water. Some nonpathogenic bacteria (viz. sulfur, crenothrix iron
bacteria), although not harmful, may cause taste and odor problems.

4. Radiological contaminants: Radiological contaminants are caused by radioactive

elements. Sources of radioactive material could be soils or rocks the water moves
through or some industrial waste. Radiological elements (viz. U226, Ra226, Ra228 and
Rn228) tend to be a greater problem in groundwater than in surface water. All types of
radiological contamination increase the risk of cancer.
 Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

In addition to the well-known water pollutants, water contamination is caused

by many other factors, Figure 1.

Sewage &
wastewater

Industrial waste Marine

Dumping

Water Underground
Oil pollution
pollution storage leakage

Atmospheric Radioactive
Deposition Waste

Global Warming

Figure 1. Sources of water contamination

Wastewater Treatment Methods

1. Physical Methods

They engage all the physical forces that applied to remove contaminants. They still figure the
basis of most process flow systems used for wastewater treatment [20,21,22,23,24].

Flow equalization: This technique is applied to improve the effectiveness of secondary and
basic wastewater treatment processes by leveling out operation parameters such as flow,
pollutant levels, and temperature over a period.
 Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

Sedimentation: Sedimentation, a fundamental and widely used unit operation in wastewater

treatment, involves the gravitational settling of heavy particles suspended in a mixture. This
process is used for the removal of grit, particulate matter in the primary settling basin,
biological flock in the activated sludge -settling basin, and chemical flow when the chemical
coagulation process is used

Flotation: In this method, air bubbles are introduced to expel solid or liquid particles from a
liquid. The gas bubbles either hold on the liquid or are trapped in the particle structure of the
suspended solids, enhancing the buoyant force of the combined particle and gas bubbles. Some
environmental applications of flotation are given in Table 1.

Table 1: Some environmental and industrial applications of flotation

1 Treatment of effluent with heavy metal and anions

2 Water recycle: Anions and calcium ion removal.
3 Treatment of acid mine drainage and water reuse.
4 Treatment of soil
Industrial applications:
1 Treatment of water for industrial and domestic use.
2 Treatment of sewage
3 Removal of microorganisms.

2. Mechanical Methods

Screening: This method is one of the oldest treatment methods. It removes gross pollutants
from the waste stream to protect downstream equipment from damage, evade interference
with plant operations and prevent obnoxious suspended materials from entering the primary
settling tanks .

Filters: The filters can be classified as biological methods rather than mechanical methods. It
can be considered the most commonly encountered aerobic attached-growth biological
treatment process used for the removal of organic matter from wastewater.
 Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

3. Biological Methods

Biological unit processes are utilized to alter the finely divided and dissolved organic matter in
wastewater into flocculent organic and inorganic solids . In these processes, microorganisms,
particularly bacteria, adapt the colloidal and dissolved carbonaceous organic matter into a
mixture of gases which is then removed in sedimentation tanks. It includes the following
operations:

Disinfection

It can be defined as any process aims to destroy or prevent the growth of microbes. It intends
to inactivate the microbes by physical, chemical, or biological processes. This inactivation is
achieved by altering or destroying essential structures or functions within the microbe [43]. The
most commonly used ways of disinfection include the following:

1. Physical agents such as heat and light;

2. Mechanical means such as screening, sedimentation, and filtration.

3. Radiation, mainly gamma rays;

4. Chemical agents.

Dechlorination

Dechlorination is the subtraction of free and total combined chlorine residue from chlorinated
wastewater effluent before its reuse or discharge to receiving waters. Dechlorination is carried
out by the use of activated carbon, or by the addition of a reducing agent such as sulfur dioxide
(SO2), sodium sulfite (Na2SO3) or sodium metabisulfite (Na2S2O5). It is important to note that
dechlorination will not eliminate toxic by-products that have already been produced.
 Drinking water contamination and treatment techniques

4. Chemical Methods

This section discusses the main chemical unit processes, including chemical precipitation,
adsorption, and other applications .

Chemical Precipitation

The precipitation of heavy metals takes place by reaction with certain of chemicals to form
insoluble precipitates. The resultant precipitates can be removed from the water by
sedimentation or filtration. The treated water is then decanted and appropriately discharged or
reused. Among the chemical coagulants that are commonly used in wastewater treatment:
alum (Al2(SO4)3 H2O), ferric chloride (FeCl3.6H2O), ferric sulfate (Fe2(SO4)3), ferrous sulfate
(FeSO4.7H2O) and lime (Ca(OH)2) [49,50].

Adsorption with Activated Carbon

Adsorption is the process of collecting soluble substances within a solution on a proper surface
[51,52,53]. In wastewater treatment, adsorption with activated carbon a solid interface usually
follows normal biological treatment, and is aimed at removing a portion of the remaining
dissolved organic matter

Advanced Techniques for Wastewater Treatment

Recently, researchers developed numerous techniques for achieving maximum efficiency and
minimum cost. They include:

Membrane Filtration ,Ultrafiltration

Reverse Osmosis

ion-exchange

electrolysis

adsorption