THENI KAMMAVAR SANGAM

PUBLIC SCHOOL
KODUVILARPATTI, THENI.

BIOLOGY PROJECT

SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT

-VISALATCHI.S
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. /Ms. _____________________________________of

class XII of Theni Kammavar Sangam Public School ,Theni, has completed
his/her project work entitled,_______________________________________
under my supervision and guidance. He/She has taken proper care and shown
utmost sincerity in completing this project.
I certify that this is up to my expectations and as per the guidelines issued
by CBSE.

Place: Theni ________________________

Date: _________ (Name & Signature of the teacher incharge)

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am extremely thankful to our Principal, Mrs.A.Chitradevi and

My Biology teacher Mrs.S.Sabeshini for giving me this
opportunity to accomplish this important project on the topic:
“SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT.”Iam highly obliged and
gratified for their continuous support and guidance during the
completion of this project. I extend my hearty thanks to my parents
and friends for their support and encouragement while this project
was being made, and who helped me to complete this wonderful
and challenging task in the limited time period. I have learnt a lot
while researching on the given topic for this project. I am thankful
to all those, because of whose support, guidance and
encouragement, this project was possible to complete.
 Abstract

A sewage treatment plant is quite necessary to receive the domestic

and commercial waste and removes the materials which pose harm
for general public. Its objective is to produce an environmentally-
safe fluid waste stream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste (or
treated sludge) suitable for disposal or reuse (usually as farm
fertilizer). The growing environmental pollution needs for
decontaminating waste water result in the study of characterization
of waste water, especially domestic sewage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS SEWAGE?
 ORIGINS OF SEWAGE
 GENERAL PROCESSES
 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
 MICROBIAL PROCESSES
 KEY MICROORGANISMS
 MICROBES IN SEWAGE TREATMENT
 SEWAGE TREATMENT
 PROCESS STEPS
 PRETREATMENT
 PRIMARY TREATMENT
 SECONDARY TREATMENT
 TERTIARY TREATMENT
 FOURTH TREATMENT STAGE
 SLUDGE TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL
 CONCLUSION
 WEBLIOGRAPHY
 INTRODUCTION

Sewage treatment is a process in which the pollutants are removed.

The ultimate goal of sewage treatment is to produce an effluent that
will not impact the environment. In the absence of sewage
treatment, the results can be devastating as sewage can disrupt the
environment.
 WHAT IS SEWAGE?

Waste material (such as human urine and faeces) that is carried

away from homes and other Buildings in a system of pipes. Waste
matter from domestic or industrial establishments that is carried
away in sewers or drains for dumping or conversion into a form
that is not toxic.
 ORIGINS OF SEWAGE

Sewage is generated by residential, institutional, commercial and

industrial establishments. It includes household waste liquid from
toilets, baths, showers, kitchens, and sinks draining into sewers. In
many areas, sewage also includes liquid waste from industry and
commerce. The separation and draining of household wast0e into
greywater and black water is becoming more common in the
developed world, with treated greywater being permitted to be used
for watering plants or recycled for flushing toilets. Sewage may
include storm water runoff or urban runoff. Sewerage systems
capable of handling storm water are known as combined sewer
systems.Industrial waste water include Toxic chemical, Organic
wastes, Heavy metals.
 GENERAL PROCESSES

The general processes of sewage treatment are primary, secondary

and tertiary treatment.
 Primary treatment involves physical separation of sewage
into solids and liquid by using a settling basin.
 The liquid sewage is then transferred to Secondary
treatment which focuses on removing the dissolved biological
compound by the use of micro-organisms. The micro-
organisms usually use aerobic metabolism to degrade the
biological matter in the liquid sludge.
 Then Tertiary treatment is required to disinfect the sewage
so that it can be released into the environment.
The solid sewage separated from primary treatment is transferred to
a tank for sludge digestion which involves anaerobic degradation
using micro organisms.
 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The environment of the sewage treatment plant has to be controlled

precisely because bacteria are sensitive to the oxygen level, pH
level, temperature, and level of nutrient. In order for efficient
degradation of biological matter to occur, these factors are
controlled manually.

Sewage composition:
Sewage is composed of organic matter such as carbohydrates, fats,
oil, grease and proteins mainly from domestic waste. It also
contains dissolved inorganic matter such as nitrogen species and
phosphorous species mainly from agricultural waste . Microbes is
essential to remove the nutrients before they are released to the
environment because it interferes natural habitats by altering the
chemical composition such as pH or oxygen level both directly and
indirectly.

Oxygen level:
Oxygen level is an important factor to secondary and tertiary
treatment processes. Secondary treatment, oxygen is required as a
terminal electron acceptor in organic matter degradation. For
example, nitrification by Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter species
requires dissolved oxygen to occur . Oxygen in secondary treatment
is provided manually by pumping oxygen into the sewage
continuously which occurs in an aeration tank . In tertiary
treatment, the removal of excess organic matter is enhanced by
settling the sewage in a lagoon. This process is also aerobic, but it
depends on the diffusion of oxygen because most organic matter
has been degraded by secondary treatment.

pH:
Acidity plays a crucial role in the breakdown of organic matter
because pH affects the solubility of compounds which indirectly
affect the accessibility by bacteria. Also, bacteria responsible for
organic matter degradation are sensitive to the pH of the
environment. Extremely high or low pH levels are able to kill
bacteria, deposition of organic matter occurs due to lack of
degradation. Hence, the pH of sewage treatment is controlled to be
around 7. A nitrifier in secondary treatment, Nitrosomnas requires a
pH between 6-9 in order to be viable .

Temperatur :
eThe effect of temperature is influential for secondary treatment, but
it is not important in primary treatment. Bacterial growth is
sensitive to temperature because high temperature can increase the
fluidity of the phospholipid bilayer which leads to cell lysis.
However, bacteria are known to have higher enzymatic activity at
higher temperature because of increased thermal energy.
Nutrients for microbes:
There are a lot of nutrients available in the sewage because of
human waste and agricultural runoff. Bacteria can harvest the
electron from organic matter and transfer it to a terminal electron
acceptor which results in the breakdown of organic matter and
energy conservation.
 MICROBIAL PROCESSES

Aerobic
After primary treatment, liquid and solid phases are physically
separated. The liquid phase is treated with aeration to allow aerobic
degradation of the nutrients. The two important microbial processes
at this stage are nitrification and phosphorous removal. Nitrification
occurs in two discrete steps. First of all, ammonium is oxidized to
nitrite by Nitrosomonas.spp, and nitrite is further oxidized to nitrate
by Nitrobacter.spp .

Anaerobic
In the liquid component of sewage, denitrifying bacteria reduce
nitrate into dinitrogen gas which liberates nitrate from the sewage .
The solid component of the sewage separated in primary treatment
is fermented by bacteria anaerobically.
 KE MICROORGANISMS
Y
Microorganisms in aerobic process
Members of the Nitrosomonas genus is a gram negative bacterium
responsible for the first stage of nitrification in sewage. They
oxidize ammonium into nitrite. This bacterium prefers a pH around
6-9 and nitrify optimally at 20-30°C . Members of the Nitrobacter
genus is a gram negative bacterium responsible for the second stage
of nitrification in the sewage. It oxidizes nitrite to nitrate using
oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor. The bacteria has an
optimum pH of 6~8, and an optimum temperature of 0~40°C .

Microorganism in anaerobic process

Members of Pseudomonas genus is a gram negative denitrifying
bacteria that use the chemical energy in organic matter to reduce
nitrate into dinitrogen gas . Also, members of the bacteroidetes
phylum are the gram negative bacteria responsible for the anaerobic
fermentation of the solid sludge .
 SEWAGE TREATMENT
Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from
wastewater, primarily from household sewage. It includes physical,
chemical, and biological processes to remove these contaminants
and produce environmentally safe treated waste water (or treated
effluent). A by-product of sewage treatment is usually a semi-solid
waste or slurry, called sewage sludge, that has to undergo further
treatment before being suitable for disposal or land application.
Sewage treatment may also be referred to as wastewater treatment
 PROCESS STEPS

Treating waste water has the aim to produce an effluent that will do
as little harm as possible when discharged to the surrounding
environment, thereby preventing pollution compared to releasing
untreated waste water into the environment. In highly regulated
developed countries, industrial effluent usually receives at least
pretreatment if not full treatment at the factories themselves to
reduce the pollutant load, before discharge to the sewer. This
process is called industrial wastewater treatment.
Sewage treatment generally involves three stages, called
 primary treatment.
 secondary treatment.
 tertiary treatment.

PRETREATMENT
Pretreatment removes all materials that can be easily collected from
the raw sewage before they damage or clog the pumps and sewage
lines of primary treatment clarifiers.
Objects commonly removed during pretreatment Include trash, tree
limbs, leaves, branches, and other large objects. The influent in
sewage water passes through a bar screen to remove all large
objects like cans, rags, sticks, plastic Packets etc. carried in the
sewage stream. The solids are collected and later disposed in a
landfill, or incinerated.
Pretreatment may include
 Grit removal
 Flow equalization
 Fat and grease removal.

GRIT REMOVAL FLOWEQUALIZATION

FAT AND GREASE REMOVAL

 PRIMARY TREATMENT

It consists of temporarily holding the sewage in a quiescent basin

where heavy solids can settle to the Bottom while oil, grease and
lighter solids float to the surface.
The settled and floating materials are removed and the remaining
liquid may be discharged or subjected to secondary treatment.
Some sewage treatment plants that are connected to a combined
sewer system have a bypass arrangement after the primary
treatment unit. This means that during very heavy rainfall events,
the secondary and tertiary treatment systems can be bypassed to
protect them from hydraulic overloading, and the mixture of
sewage and storm water only receives primary treatment.

PRIMARY
TREATMENT
 AERATION TANK

Wastewater aeration is the process of adding air into wastewater to

allow aerobic bio-degradation of the pollutant components. It is an
integral part of most biological wastewater treatment systems.
Unlike chemical treatment which uses chemicals to react and
stabilize contaminants in the wastewater stream, biological
treatment uses microorganisms that occur naturally in wastewater
to degrade wastewater contaminants.
 SECONDARY TREATMENT

It removes dissolved and suspended biological matter. Secondary

treatment is typically performed by indigenous, water-borne micro-
organisms in a managed habitat. Secondary treatment may require a
Separation process to remove the micro-organisms from the treated
water prior to discharge or tertiary Treatment. It include Fixed-film
or attached growth, Suspended-growth, Secondary sedimentation.

SECONDARY TREATMENT
 TERTIARY TREATMENT
It is sometimes defined as anything more than primary and
secondary treatment in order to allow rejection into a highly
sensitive or fragile ecosystem (estuaries, low-flow rivers, coral
reef). Treated water is sometimes disinfected chemically or
physically (for example, by lagoons and microfiltration) prior to
discharge into a stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be
used for the irrigation of a golf course, green way or park. If it is
sufficiently clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge or
agricultural purposes. It is also called "effluent polishing. “The
purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final treatment stage to
further improve the effluent quality before it is discharged to the
receiving environment
 Filtration
 Lagoons or ponds
 Biological nutrient removal
 Nitrogen removal
 Phosphorus removal
 Disinfection
TERTIARY TREATMENT DISINFECTION
 FOURTH TREATMENT STAGE

Micro pollutants such as pharmaceuticals, ingredients of household

chemicals, chemicals used in small businesses or industries,
Environmental Persistent Pharmaceutical Pollutant (EPPP) or
Pesticides may not be eliminated in the conventional treatment
process (primary, secondary and tertiary treatment) and therefore
lead to water pollution.
Odour control
Odours emitted by sewage treatment are typically an indication of
an anaerobic or "septic" condition. Early stages of processing will
tend to produce foul-smelling gases, with hydrogen sulfide being
most common in generating complaints. Large process plants in
urban areas will often treat the odors with carbon reactors, a contact
media with bio-slimes, small doses of chlorine, or circulating fluids
to biologically capture and metabolize the noxious gases. Other
methods of odor control exist, including addition of iron salts,
hydrogen peroxide, calcium nitrate, etc. to manage hydrogen
sulfide levels.
Energy requirements
For conventional sewage treatment plants, around 30 percent of the
annual operating costs is usually required for energy. The energy
requirements vary with type of treatment process as well as waste
waterload
STEPS OF PROCESSES
 SLUDGE TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL

The sludge accumulated in a wastewater treatment process must be

treated and disposed of in a safe and effective manner. The purpose
of digestion is to reduce the amount of organic matter and the
number of disease causing microorganisms present in the solids.
The most common treatment options include anaerobic digestion,
aerobic digestion, and composting. Incineration is also used, albeit
to a much lesser degree. Sludge treatment depends on the amount
of solids generated and other site-specific conditions. Composting
is most often applied to small-scale plants with aerobic digestion
for mid-sized operations, and anaerobic digestion for the larger-
scale operations.
 CONCLUSION

With suitable technology, it is possible to reuse sewage effluent for

agriculture and drinking purpose, although this is usually done in
places with limited water supplies. With the emerging development
of technology in this 20th century, the process of wastewater
treatment can be still developed to recycle water that can be used
for drinking and other purposes. So I conclude that wastewater
treatment must be essential for a developing country.
 WEBLIOGRAPHY
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment
2. https://www.scribd.com/
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/sewage-
treatment-plant
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e85WmSODmk

BIBLIOGRAPH :
Y NCERT textbook
1. Class 12 BIOLOGY