Principle of Water &

Wastewater Treatment
KKKR4873 POLLUTION CONTROL AND CLEANER PRODUCTION

Lecturers:
Dr. Rosiah Rohani (Set 1)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hassimi Abu Hasan (Set 2)
Topic outcomes
• Understand the principle of water treatment processes
• Understand the principle of wastewater treatment processes
• Understand the unit operations of water and wastewater
treatment
Water classification by source
• Potable water: groundwater or surface water.
• Groundwater: source from deep or shallow
wells. High concentration of Ca, ion, Mn, Mg
• Shallow wells: recharge by nearby surface
watercourse. Quality similar to deep well.
• Surface water: lake, reservoir, river. More
contaminated than groundwater (normally).
Quality influenced by pollutants.
Water treatment
• Drinking water treatment typically include
clarification, filtration and disinfection.
• Drinking water treatment should make water
both potable and palatable.
• Wastewater and drinking water treatment
processes are similar in several ways.
Drinking water treatment
• Clarification - primarily a physical process, but may be
aided by addition of chemicals.
• Filtration - also primarily physical, but chemicals may
aid the process.
• Disinfection - typically a chemical process that reduces
pathogenic microorganisms.
 Treatment Systems
• Simple disinfection, filter plants, softening plants.

screen
Surface Disinfection
water
supply Rapid sand
filter
Sedimentation
Rapid basin
mix To
distribution
Coagulation system
Storage
/Flocculatio
n basin
Pump

Sludge

Conventional surface water treatment plant

“filtration plant”
Coagulation
• To remove turbidity, color and bacteria
• A coagulant (chemical) added to water to
accomplish coagulation.
• Coagulant properties:
• Trivalent cation, nontoxic, Insoluble to neutral pH
• Commonly used: Aluminum (Al3+) and ferric ion
(Fe3+)
• Coagulation efficiency via jar test
• Coagulant aids: pH adjusters,
activated silica, clay and polymers.
Mixing and Flocculation
• Mixing or rapid mixing: chemical quickly and uniformly
dispersed in water
• Reaction of chemical to form precipitates
• Aluminum hydroxide or ion hydroxide (coagulation)
• Calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide (softening)
• Agglomeration of precipitates to form flocs
• Flocculation is a slow and gentle mixing process
Clarification of drinking water
• Clarification removes particulates that
contribute to turbidity and contamination of
water.
• Clarification is aided by chemicals which cause
particulates to aggregate, precipitate, and form
sediment (sludge).
 Sedimentation
• Particles settling within a reasonable time can be
removed in sedimentation basin (Clarifier)
• Rectangular or circular with radial/upward water
flow pattern Baffled chamber
flocculator
• Consist of inlet, settling, outlet, sludge storage

Typical solids-contact unit@upflow clarifier

Filtration
• Further reduction of turbidity from 1-10 NTU to 0.3 NTU
• Separate suspended or colloids (non-settleable) impurities
from water using a porous medium (sand, coal, mixed media
etc)
• Combined with coagulation/clarification, filtration can
remove 84%-96% turbidity, coliform bacteria 97-99.95%,
and >99% Giardia.
• Loading rate is the flow rate of water per unit area of filter.
Va = Q/As
Va = face velocity, m/d = loading rate, m3/d.m2
Q = flow rate onto filter surface, m3/d
As = surface area of filter, m2
 Hardness description
range
Softening 0-75 Soft
75-100 Moderately hard
• To reduce hardness
100-300 Hard
• Hardness – sum of all polyvalent
>300 Very hard
cations, mg/L as CaCO3 or meq/L
• Normal range targeted at 75-120 mg/L
• Softening plant have the same unit ops
as filtration plant
Surface Disinfection
water
supply Recarbonation
(hard) Settling tank
Rapid
mix To
distribution
Reaction system
Storage
basin
Rapid sand
filter Pump

Sludge

Water softening plant

Hardness removal by ion
exchange
• Require ion exchange materials to convert the ion in water
(hardness) with the ion exchange)
• Common ion is Na[R] – sodium base

• % Bypass = (100)(Hardness desired)/(Hardness initial)

Hardness, mg/L as CaCO3

Influent
hardness

Saturation
of ion
exchange
material

Effluent
hardness

Time
Type of Filtration
• Rapid filtration - uses gravity (faster flow).
• Slow filtration - uses gravity [slower flow].
• Pressure sand filters-use water pressure.
• Diatomaceous earth (DE) filtration
• Microstraining - uses fine steel fabric
(sometimes used prior to other filtrations).
 Filter Media
• Filter media should be:
• coarse enough to retain large quantities of floc
• sufficiently fine to prevent passage of
suspended solids
• deep enough to allow relative long filter runs
• Granular-medium filters (Rapid
Sand Filters)
• Anthracite on the very top (least dense),
• fine sand on top of supporting coarse sand(less
dense), which lays on top of
• gravel layer (highest density).
 Cleaning (backwashing) filters
• Determination of how often to back-wash can be
made on the basis of:
• Head loss (pressure loss)
• Loss of water quality (e.g. increased turbidity)
Time since last backwash.
Backwashing process
• Water flow is reversed through the filter bed.
• The rate of backwash is designed to partially
expand (fluidize) the filter bed.
• Suspended matter is removed by shear forces
as the water moves through the fluidized bed.
• Additional cleaning occurs when particles of
the bed abrade(tear & wear away) against
each other.
Flow control through filters
• Constant-rate filtration
• Flow rate is controlled by limiting the
discharge rate, limiting the rate of
inflow by a weir, or
• by pumping or use of influent flow-
splitting weir.
• Declining-rate filtration
• Rate of flow declines as the rate of
head loss builds (influent- or effluent-
controlled).
Disinfection
• Treatment to reduce pathogens
• Disinfection is the destruction of microorganisms in
drinking water to safe levels.
• Disinfection techniques include physical (boiling,
ultraviolet light) and chemical methods (chlorine,
bromine, iodine, ozone).
• Chlorine
• Chlorine dioxide
• Ozonation
• Ultraviolet radiation
• Advanced oxidation processes(hydroxy radicals)
Types of disinfection
• Physical disinfection techniques:
• boiling and irradiation with ultraviolet light.
• Chemical disinfection techniques:
• adding chlorine, bromine, iodine, and ozone to
water.
Physical disinfection (boiling)
• Boiling kills vegetative bacterial cells, but spores,
viruses, and some protozoa may survive long
periods of boiling.
• Boiling may also volatilize VOC’s.
• Boiling is an effective method for small batches of
water during water emergencies.
• Boiling is prohibitively expensive for large quantities
of water.
Physical disinfection
(UV radiation)
• Ultraviolet radiation is an effective and relatively
safe disinfection method, but is relatively
expensive and not widely used.
• UV light disrupts DNA of microbial cells,
preventing reproduction.
• Specific wavelengths, intensities, distances, flow
rates, and retention times are required.
Chemical disinfection
• Chemicals added to water for disinfection
include chlorine, bromine, and iodine.
• Bromine is not recommended for drinking water
disinfection, but may be used for pool water.
• Iodine is sometimes used for drinking water
disinfection, but causes a bad aftertaste.
Chlorine disinfection
• Chlorination is a cheap, effective, relatively harmless
(and therefore most popular) disinfection method.
• Chlorine is added as a gas or hypochlorite solution.
• Hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ions form in
solution, which are strong chemical oxidants, and kill
microbes.
• Combined chlorine is the proportion that combines with
organic matter.
• Free chlorine is the amount that remains to kill microbes
in the distribution system (0.5 ppm, 10 min.)
• Total chlorine is the combined concentration of
combined and free chlorine.
 Disinfection By-Products (DBPs)
• Chlorine (or bromine or iodine) + “precursors”
(organic compounds) = THM(Trihalomethanes)
• eg. Chloroform (CHCl3), Bromoform (CHBr3),
Iodoform (CHI3), chlorobromoform (CHBrCl2),
Bromochloroform (CHBr2Cl), Bromoidodoform
(CHBr2I), etc.
• THMs are carcinogenic
• Chloroamine disinfection reduce THMs production
due to preferential reaction of chlorine with
ammonia
Ozonation
• Ozone (O3) is an effective, relatively harmless
disinfection method, but is expensive (and
therefore less popular than chlorine).
• Ozone is a strong oxidant, that produces
hydroxyl free radicals that react with organic and
inorganic molecules in water to kill microbes.
Exercise
• Define and give examples of types of disinfection
techniques for drinking water.
• Distinguish between physical and chemical disinfection
techniques.
• Evaluate the safety, cost, effectiveness, and popularity of
various disinfection techniques.
Adsorption
• Mass transfer of liquid to solids surface, either chemical or
physical forces
• Adsorbent is activated carbon, GAC, PAC
• Remove odour and taste, synthetic organic chemicals (SOCs),
VOCs etc
Membranes
• Thin layer materials capable of separating materials as a
function of physical & chemical properties
• Operates base on a driving force applied across the membrane
• Driving force can be from high pressure pump, membrane
type
• Efficiency by its selectivity named as flux
• Flux = volume/area.time (m3/m2.s)
• Selectivity, Retention = (Cp – Cf)/Cp x 100%
Membrane criteria
• Pore size
• Molecular weight cut off
• Membrane material and geometry
• Targeted materials to be removed
• Type of water quality to be treated
• Treated water quality
Water Plant Residual Management
• Solid/liquid residuals
• Alum/iron sludges
• Polymeric sludges
• Softening sludges
• GAC/PAC
• Liquid phase residuals
• RO reject
• Ion-exchange regenerant brine
• Gas stripping residuals
• Air stripping off gases
Sludge handling

Waste source Thickening Conditioning Dewatering Disposal

•Softening unit •thickening •Lime •Dewatering lagoon •Direct discharge
•Coagulant clarifier •Gravity thickening •Alum recovery •Centrifuge •Landfill
•Filter backwash •Pressure/vacuum •Land application
filter •Wastewater plant
•Belt filter press
Wastewater
Treatment
Why treat wastewater?
Causes a demand for dissolved oxygen (lower DO
levels of streams)

Adds nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) to cause

excessive growth

Increases suspended solids or sediments in

streams (turbidity increase)
Justification for wastewater
treatment
• Pollution from sewage is a primary
environmental health hazard (wastewater
effluent).
• The purpose of municipal wastewater
treatment is to limit pollution of the receiving
watercourse.
• The receiving watercourse may also be a
source of drinking water.
Wastewater Treatment
Purpose:

To manage water discharged from homes,

businesses, and industries to reduce the threat of
water pollution.
Goals of wastewater treatment
• Reduction of organic load of the
wastewater effluent to limit eutrophication
(BOD, COD limits)
• Reduction of microbiological contamination
that may transmit infectious disease.
Wastewater Treatment

• Water discharged from homes, businesses, and

industry enters sanitary sewers
• Water from rainwater on streets enters storm
water sewers
• Combined sewers carry both sanitary wastes and
storm water
• Occurs in business or industry prior to discharge
• Prevention of toxic chemicals or excess nutrients
being discharged in wastewater
Example of industrial WW
concentrations for BOD5 and SS
Industry BOD5, mg/L Suspended solids, mg/L

Ammunition 50-300 70 – 1,700

Fermentation 4,500 10,000
Slaughterhouse (cattle) 400-2,500 400-1,000
Pulp and paper (Kraft) 100-350 75-300
Tannery 700-7,000 4,000-20,000
Example of industrial WW concentration
for nonconventional pollutants
Industry Pollutant Concentrations, mg/l

Coke by-product (steel Ammonia (As N) 200

mill) Organic nitrogen (As N) 100
Phenol 2000
Metal plating Chromium VI 3 - 550
Nylon polymer COD 23,000
TOC 8,800
Polywood plant glue COD 2,000
waste Phenol 200 – 2,000
Phosphorus (as PO4) 9 - 15
Wastewater Treatment
• Preliminary treatment
• Primary treatment
• Secondary treatment
• Sludge (biosolids) disposal
Water & Wastewater Treatment
Processes
Preliminary Primary Secondary Tertiary
treatment treatment treatment treatment
Wastewater treatment processes
• Preliminary treatment is a physical process that
removes large contaminants.
• Primary treatment involves physical
sedimentation of particulates.
• Secondary treatment involves physical and
biological treatment to reduce organic load of
wastewater.
• Tertiary or advanced treatments.
Wastewater Treatment Scheme
Disinfectant

WW effluent
WW
influent
Preliminary Primary Secondary Tertiary

sludge Sludge Treatment

and Disposal
Types of treatment
• Mechanical treatment
• Influx (Influent)
• Removal of large objects
• Removal of sand and grit
• Primary Sedimentation
• Biological treatment
• Trickling bed filter
• Activated sludge process
• Chemical treatment
• Coagulation/flocculation
• Disinfection
Sewage Wastewater Treatment
Sewage treatment plant
Degrees of treatment

2nd
Bar Grit Equalizati 1st Biological Tertiary
settin
rack chamber on basin settling treatment treatment
g

pretreatment

Primary treatment

Secondary treatment

Tertiaty treatment
Wastewater moves to WW
Plant
1) Water moves toward the wastewater plant
primarily by gravity flow

2) Lift stations pump water from low lying areas

over hills
Preliminary Treatment
• removes large objects and non-degradable
materials
• Ex: sticks, rags, toilet paper, diapers
• protects pumps and equipment from damage
• bar screen and grit chamber
• Clog equipment in sewage treatment plant
Preliminary Treatment
• Measurement and sampling at the inlet structure
• A flow meter continuously records the volume of
water entering the treatment plant
• water samples are taken for determination of
suspended solids and BOD
• Measurements of Suspended Solids and BOD
indicate the effectiveness of treatment processes
• Both SS and BOD decrease as water moves through
the wastewater treatment processes
• 2 main parameters measured in STP
Preliminary Treatment
Bar Screen/Rack
• catches large objects that
have gotten into sewer
system such as bricks,
bottles, pieces of wood,
etc.
• Using mechanical, manual
cleaning
• 15 to 150 mm openings
• Require 2 channels with
racks for servicing and
repair
Grit chambers
• Grit = inert dense material i.e.
sand, silt, pebbles, broken
glass
• Types: vortex grit chamber,
aerated grit chamber
• The difference in the
movement of air/stir to
remove the grit from WW
Preliminary Treatment
(Screen & Grit Chamber)
Primary treatment
• A physico-chemical process
• Addition of coagulant and flocculant
• Combination of coagulation/flocculation with
clarification/sedimentation
• Wastewater flow is slowed down and suspended
solids settle to the bottom by gravity
• The material that settles is called chemical
sludge
Primary treatment
• Typical materials that are removed during
primary treatment include
• fats, oils, and greases (aka FOG)
• sand, gravels and rocks (aka grit)
• larger settleable solids including human waste,
and floating materials
• Sludge from the primary sedimentation
tank/clarifier is pumped to the sludge thickener.
• More settling occurs to concentrate the sludge
prior to disposal
Primary Treatment
• Primary treatment reduces the SS, COD and the
BOD of the WW.
• From the primary treatment tanks water is
pumped to the secondary treatment (biological
treatment).
• Secondary treatment will further reduce the SS,
COD and BOD.
Secondary Treatment
– Biological process

• Conventional Sewage/WW Treatment Processes

• Uses bacteria to removed organic and inorganic
matters
• Provide dissolved organic beyond what is achieved
in primary treatment
• The two most common conventional methods
• attached growth processes
• suspended growth processes
• ponds (oxidation ponds or lagoons)
Common Methods
• Suspended growth processes
• Aeration basin/ponds
• Sequencing batch reactor

• Attached growth processes

• Trickling filter
• Rotating biological filter
• BOD removal, nitrification and denitrification
Oxidation ponds: low-tech solutions

• Aerobic ponds
• Facultative ponds
• Anaerobic ponds
• Easy to build and manage
• Accommodate large fluctuations in flow
• Provide treatment that approaches the effectiveness of
conventional systems (producing a highly purified
effluent) at a much lower cost
Aerobic ponds
• Shallow ponds (<1 m deep)
• Light penetrates to bottom
• Active algal photosynthesis
• Organic matter converted to CO2, NO3-, HSO4-,
HPO42-, etc.
Facultative ponds
• Ponds 1 - 2.5 m deep
• td = 30 - 180 d
• not easily subject to upsets due to fluctuations in
Q, loading
• low capital, O&M costs
Aerobic

Facultative
Anaerobic
Anaerobic Ponds
• Primarily used as a pretreatment process for
high strength, high temperature wastes
• Can handle much high loadings
• 2 stages:
• Acid fermentation: Organics  Org. acids
• Methane fermentation Org. Acids  CH4 and
CO2
Activated Sludge
• Process in which a mixture of wastewater and activated
sludge is agitated and aerated
• Activated sludge is called mixed liquor suspended solid
(MLSS)
• Leads to oxidation of dissolved organics
• After oxidation, separate sludge from wastewater
• Effluent leaves primary sedimentation tank and is
pumped to an aeration tank
• Effluent is mixed with air and sludge loaded with
bacteria (“activated sludge”)
• Activated sludge contacts with raw wastewater, and
bacteria in the sludge then decompose the raw
sewage, lowering BOD
 Activated Sludge
w/w

Return Mixed
Activated Liquor Air
Sludge
(RAS)
Treated
Waste Secondary w/w
clarifier Discharge to
Activated River or Land
Sludge Application
(WAS)
Activated sludge

East Lansing WWTP

Aeration tanks
Secondary Clarifier

East Lansing WWTP

Oxidation Ditch
Oxidation Aeration Brushes
Ditch
Final
Clarifier

Brushes

Return
Activated
Q Sludge

Waste
Activated
Sludge
Trickling Filters
• A fixed-film biological treatment method designed to remove
BOD and SS
• Normally 3 to 6 meter
• Rotating distribution arm sprays primary effluent over circular
bed of rock or other coarse media
• Water runs over a plastic media and organisms clinging to the
media remove organic matter from the water
• Air circulates in pores between rocks
• Cleaner water trickles through pipes at bottom of filter for
additional treatment
• “Biofilm” develops on media and microorganisms degrade
wastes as they flow past
• Fixed media, Plastic media, Stone media
Trickling Filters

Rotating arm

Rocks

Influent

Effluent
Trickling Filter
Qr  10% Q

Primary Secondary
Sludge Sludge

Preliminary Primary
Treatment Clarifier Trickling Final
Filter Clarifier

Recycle (optional)
 Rock media trickling filter

Synthetic media trickling filter

 Rotating Biological Contactors
• Called RBCs
• Consists of series of closely spaced discs mounted on a
horizontal shaft and rotated while ~40% of each disc is
submerged in wastewater
• Discs: light-weight plastic
• Slime is 1-3 mm in thickness on disc

Aeration

Film Shearing of excess

mixes with microorganisms
wastewater

Attached microorganisms
pick up organics
Rotating Biological Contactors

Primary
Settling

Secondary
Settling
Sludge
Treatment

Sludge Treatment
Primary & Secondary Treatment
Tertiary treatment
Stronger and more advanced treatment systems

• Additional treatment beyond secondary

• Can remove more than 99 percent of all the impurities
from sewage, producing an effluent of almost drinking-
water quality
• Removes stubborn contaminants that secondary
treatment was not able to clean up.
• Common treatment system
• Membrane filtration
• Activated carbon adsorption
• Ion exchange system
• Phytoremediation
Tertiary Treatment
• Physical and chemical processes that specific pollutants
left in wastewater after primary and secondary
treatment
• Extremely costly
• It cost twice as much to build a tertiary treatment
plant compared to a secondary treatment plant
• Bleaching to remove coloration
• Disinfection to kill pathogens
• Adsorption using activated charcoal
• Electrodialysis for salt removal
Secondary W/W Treatment
• Are removed? • Are not removed?
• BOD to ~ 20 - 50 mg/L • Nitrogen
• SS to ~ 20 mg/L • Phosphorus
• Soluble COD
• Heavy Metals
• Non-biodegradable
organic chemicals
• Antibiotic resistant
organisms
Membrane Filtration
• Very effective
• Slow rate of transfer across the membrane
• High pressure drops
• Large membrane areas needed
• Can be used to separate colloidal and dissolved solids
that are much smaller than those removed by other
filtration processes
• Types
• Reverse Osmosis
• Nanofiltration
• Ultrafiltration (UF)
• Microfiltration (MF)
 PRESSURE PORE
GRADIENT DIAMETER
REMOVAL
MEMBRANE EFFICIENCY
DESIGNATION

1 bar = 100kPa
• Plate-and-frame
• Tubular
• Spiral-wound
• Hollow fiber
Carbon Adsorption
• Refractory (non-biodegradable) organic
chemicals are present as soluble COD
• Secondary effluent COD values of ~ 30 to 60
mg/L
 Adsorption vs. absorption

PHASE I
Adsorption
“PHASE” 2

Absorption
PHASE I (“partitioning”)

Pgas  K H caq
PHASE 2
Henry’s Law
Typical Adsorbents
• Activated carbon (typical)
• Adsorption of organics (esp. hydrophobic)
• Chemical reduction of oxidants
• Metal oxides (rare)
• surface charge depends on pH)
• Adsorption of natural organic matter (NOM)
• Adsorption of inorganic compounds (both cations &
anions)
• Ion exchange resins (rare)
• Cations and anions
• Hardness removal (Ca2+, Mg2+)
• Arsenic (various negatively charged species), NO3-, Ba2+
removal
Typical properties of media
 Adsorptive Equilibration
Pore
Early

Later

Laminar
Boundary
Layer GAC Particle
Equilibrium
Adsorbed Molecule
Diffusing Molecule
 Packed Bed Adsorption
Q,
Cin Engineered Packed Bed-
granular activated carbon

EBCT = empty-bed contact time

(Vbed/Q)

Adsorptive capacity is finite (fixed

amount of adsorbent in bed)

Process operates at unsteady state,

Q, Cout Cout must increase over time
 Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC)
PAC +
Coagulants Settled
Water

Sludge Withdrawal
PAC particles may
or may not be
equilibrated
PAC + Flocculated
Coagulants Water

Process Operates at Steady-State, Cout = constant in

time
Granular Activated Carbon
• Carbon becomes exhausted
• removal of material ceases
• effluent pollutant level too high
• replace carbon in system
• regenerate carbon
• on-site or off-site
Phytoremediation
• Technology that use plants to clean up
contaminated sites.
• Green technology that uses plants systems for
remediation and restoration.
• encompasses microbial degradation in
rhizosphere as well as uptake, accumulation and
transformation in the plant.
How does it works?
Plants in conjunction with bacteria and fungi in the
rhizosphere
• transform, transport or store harmful chemicals.

Plants attributes make them good candidates

• root system surface area to absorb substances and
efficient mechanisms to accumulate water, nutrients
and minerals.
• selectively take up ions
• developed diversity and adaptivity to tolerate high
levels of metals and other pollutants.
Constructed wetland to treat
domestic wastewater in Bulgaria
Disinfection - Chlorination
• Most common
• Advantages: low cost &
effective
• Disadvantages: chlorine
residue could be
harmful to environment
 Disinfection - UV light radiation
• Damage the genetic
structure of bacteria,
viruses and other
pathogens.
• Advantages: no chemicals
are used
• water taste more natural
• Disadvantages: high
maintenance of the UV-
lamp
Disinfection - Ozonation
• Oxidized most pathogenic microorganisms
• Advantages: safer than chlorination
• fewer disinfection by-product
• Disadvantage: high cost
Sludge Disposal
• Landfills
• Incineration
• Land application
• Anaerobic digestion
Disposal of Sludge or Biosolids
• The sludge undergoes lime stabilization (pH is
raised by addition of lime) to kill potential
pathogens

• The stabilized sludge is land applied by injection

into agricultural fields
Sludge Treatment
• Primary sludge usually have strong odors
• Secondary sludge have high concentration of
microorganism
• Goals of treatments are:
• Reduce odors
• Remove water reduce volume
• Decompose organic matter
Sludge Treatment
• Untreated sludge are about 97 % water
• Settling can reduce about 92 to 96 % of
water
• Dried sludge is called a sludge cake
3 Different Sludge Treatments
• Aerobic digestion
• Anaerobic digestion
• composting
Sludge Treatments - Aerobic
digestion
• Bacterial process
• Need oxygen
• Consume organic matter
• Convert into carbon dioxide (CO2)
Sludge Treatments - Anaerobic
Digestion
• Bacterial process
• Do not require oxygen
• Consume organic matter
• Produce biogas, which can be used in generators
for electricity
Sludge Treatments - Composting
• Aerobic process
• Requires the correct
mix of carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen and water with
sludge
• Generate large amount
of heat
Sludge Disposal
• Superheat sludge and convert into small
granules that are rich in nitrogen
• Sell it to local farmer as fertilizer
• Spread sludge cake on the field
• Save landfill space
Summary