ES 200

Environmental Studies: Science and Engineering

Module B: Water and Wastewater Management
Lecture 3: Wastewater Treatment

By Prof. Tabish Nawaz (Module B)

(tnawaz@iitb.ac.in)
Environmental Science and Engineering Department
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
 Recap
• A 25-mL water sample has been tested for its COD value by titrating it
with 25 mL 0.25 N K2Cr2O7 solution using the standard method. After
the sample has been digested with the dichromate solution, it
needed 10 mL of 0.1 N Ferrous Ammonium Sulphate solution for the
solution to become red in color from its initial green appearance.
Determine the COD of the sample. If the biodegradability ratio of the
sample is 0.6, find the BOD of the sample.
• Thermal pollution in a river will deplete its__________
• Organic matter release in a river may deplete its____________
• If phosphate concentration in a river is 47 mg/L as P, determine the
absolute concentration of phosphate in the river
 Wastewater
• Due to usage of water in various industrial, agricultural, domestic and other commercial
activities, the quality of water changes
• This water which is affected by such applications and produced as byproduct is called
wastewater
• In 2017, approximately 316 km3/year and 632 km3/year of municipal and industrial
wastewater respectively were generated worldwide
• The chemical compounds in the wastewater when released can pose ecotoxicological risks
to human beings and the environment.
• Wastewater treatment is a necessary environmental operation
• Industrial wastewater treatment operation can be of diverse nature since the wastewater
from industries are of diverse nature depending upon the industrial operation
• Municipal wastewater are more or less of similar nature worldwide, therefore a well-
established municipal wastewater treatment method is universally used
 Typical Municipal Wastewater
Quality parameters (mg/l, City of Davis
except as otherwise Raw wastewater • Typically municipal wastewater
indicated)
worldwide has a similar
Biochemical oxygen 112
demand,BOD5 composition
Total organic carbon 63.8 • BOD and TSS are high
Suspended solids 185 • Suitable for biological treatment
Total nitrogen 43.4 methods
NH3-N 35.6

NO-N 0

Org-N 7.8

Total phosphorus -

Ortho-P -

pH (unit) 7.7

http://www.fao.org/3/t0551e/t0551e05.htm

Shutterstock
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/603906/adbi-cs2020-1.pdf
 Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
Primary Treatment Secondary Treatment

Aeration tank
Influent PST SST

Screen Grit Chamber

Secondary sludge
Preliminary Treatment
Primary sludge
• The treatment may include mechanical, physical, biological, and chemical processes Gas holder
Digester
and is often an integrated system tank
• The integrated system consists of the conventional series of primary, secondary and
tertiary treatment processes Sludge
drying beds
• All wastewater treatments involve removal of Storage
tank
- solids
- bacteria
- algae
- plants
- organic & inorganic compounds
 Preliminary Treatment
• This includes mechanical processes such as screening, grit removal, grinding,
flow equalization, fat and grease removal
• Screening: This is the first unit operation used at WWTPs.
• It removes large chunks and objects such as rags, papers, plastics and metals
to prevent damage and clogging of downstream equipment, piping and other
accessories
• Both coarse and fine screen filters are used for screening
• Coarse screens remove large solids, rags and debris from wastewater.
Examples include mechanically and manually cleaned bar screens and trash
racks
 Preliminary Treatment

• Fine screens are used to remove fine material that may create
operational and maintenance problems in downstream processes,
particularly in WWTPs that do not employ primary treatment
• Typical opening size of fine screens are 1.5 to 6 mm; very fine screens
of opening size 0.2 – 1.5 mm are also used sometimes
 Grinders
• Comminutors/grinders reduce the size of coarser particles so that they can be
removed during downstream treatment operations
• Comminuting and grinding devices grind and shred material in the size range of
20 mm (0.75 inches)
• Grinders consist of two sets of counter rotating, intermeshing cutters that trap
and shear wastewater solids into a consistent typically 6 mm sized particles
 Grit Removal

• Grit includes sand, gravel or other heavy solid materials

that are “heavier” (higher specific gravity) than the organic
biodegradable solids in the wastewater
• The removal of grit prevents abrasion and wear of
mechanical equipment, grit deposition in pipelines and
channels, as well as the accumulation of grit in anaerobic
digesters and aeration basins.
• Grit removal is necessary as it also interferes with flow
measurement
• Grit removal facilities typically precede primary clarification
and follow screening and comminution
 Primary Treatment
• It involves the separation of suspended organic matter (or human waste) from the
wastewater
• This is done by putting the wastewater into large settlement tanks for the solids to sink or
settle down to the bottom of the tank by gravity. The settled solids are called ‘sludge’
• At the bottom of these circular tanks, large scrappers continuously scrape the floor of the
tank and push the sludge towards the pump away for further treatment
• The rest of the water is then moved to the secondary treatment

• The tank can be circular or rectangular

• Detention time: 2-3 hours
• TSS removed: 50-65%
• BOD removed: 25-35%
• N & P removed: 5-10%
• Trace metal, organic contaminant & pathogens removed
• These species are sorbed on settleable solids and removed
with it
 Secondary Treatment
• In secondary treatment step, one of biological methods such as activated
sludge (most common), trickling filter, or the rotating biological contactor
(RBC) (least common) is utilized where roughly 85% of the organic matter in
the sewage is removed
Trickling Filters
• These are beds of stones ranging between 3 – 6 feet in depth through which
sewage passes
• Trickling filters are examples of attached media bacterial growth
• Air is circulated upward through the crevices among the stones to provide
sufficient oxygen required for metabolic activities.
• The partially treated sewage coming out of trickling filters is pumped to
another sedimentation tank (called secondary clarifier) to remove excess
bacteria
Trickling Filter
 Conventional Activated Sludge Process
• Microorganisms are grown in suspension within the media (suspended growth)
• Conventional activated sludge process is the most widely utilized method in
secondary treatment processes
• Compressed air is injected through the porous diffusers located in the bottom of
the aeration tank to provide oxygen and a rapid mixing action to the mixture.
• Mechanical propeller can also provide aeration
• Detention time: 6 hours
• TSS removed: 80-90%
• BOD removed: ~85%
• Microbes flocculate & settle as biosolid (secondary sludge)
• Approximately 30% of the sludge is recycled back
• Trace metal, organic contaminant & pathogens removed
• These species are sorbed on settleable solids and removed
with it
 Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC)
• In RBC, a series of large plastic disks are mounted on a horizontal
shaft and partially submerged into the primary effluent.
• The shaft rotates and exposes the disks alternately to air and
wastewater, which facilitates a layer of bacteria to grow on the disks
(biofilms) and remove BOD of the wastewater
 Tertiary Treatment
• Many existing WWTPs were built for primary and secondary treatment
only, but now tertiary treatment processes are added on beyond secondary
treatment in order to remove specific type of residuals.
• The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final treatment stage to
raise the effluent quality to the desired level by removing more than 99 per
cent of all the impurities from wastewater, producing an effluent of almost
drinking-water quality.
• This advanced treatment can be accomplished by a variety of methods
such as coagulation sedimentation, filtration, reverse osmosis, and
extending secondary biological treatment to further stabilize oxygen-
demanding substances or remove nutrients. In various combinations, these
processes can achieve any degree of pollution control desired.
 Coagulation - Sedimentation
• Used to increase the removal of solids
from effluent after primary and
secondary treatment.
• The solids heavier than water settle out
of wastewater by gravity in the primary
and secondary sedimentation tanks but
the lighter particles are made to settle
down with the addition of specific
chemicals, like alum Al2(SO4)3, lime
(CaO), or ferric salts of iron (Fe3+)
• With the addition of these chemicals,
the smaller particles clump or 'floc'
together into large masses
 Filtration
• A variety of filtration methods are available to ensure high quality water
• Sand filtration, which consists of simply directing the flow of water through
a sand bed, is used to remove residual suspended matter.
• Filtration over activated carbon results in the removal of: non-
biodegradable organic compounds, absorbable organic halogens, toxins,
color compounds and dyestuffs, aromatic compounds
• In tertiary treatment the most advanced is pressure driven membrane
filtration
• This relies on a liquid being forced through a filter membrane with a high
surface area and small pore size (0.02- 0.2μm) to remove bacteria, viruses,
pathogens, metals, and suspended solids.
Sand Filtration

Activated Carbon Filtration

Membrane Filtration
 Reverse Osmosis
• In the reverse osmosis
process, pressure is used
to force effluent through a
membrane that retains
contaminants on one side
and allows the clean water
to pass to the other side.
• It can remove ions,
molecules and larger
particles of size greater
than 10 Angstrom
 Nutrient Removal
• The nutrients in the form of Nitrogen and
Phosphorus present in the treated water are also
needed to be removed to prevent “Eutrophication”
of the water bodies where the water is discharged.
• Nitrogen present as ammonia can be toxic to
aquatic life and therefore should be removed
• Nitrifying bacteria is used to convert ammonia to
non-toxic nitrate via nitrification
• Nitrification should be sufficient to nullify the
toxicity of ammonia, but nitrate is a nutrient and
can contribute to eutrophication
 Nutrient Removal
• Denitrification converts nitrate to nitrogen gas
• Effluent with nitrate is placed into a anoxic tank, where carbon-containing
chemicals, such as methanol, are added. In this oxygen-free environment,
bacteria use the oxygen attached to the nitrogen in the nitrate form releasing
nitrogen gas.
• Since nitrogen gas comprises almost 80% of the air in the earth's atmosphere, its
release into the atmosphere does not cause any environmental harm.
 Phosphorus Control
• Phosphorus can be removed either through chemical or biological processes.
• In biological process, specific bacteria, called polyphosphate accumulating
organisms (PAOs), are selectively enriched in sludge
• They can accumulate large quantities of phosphorus within their cells (up to
20% of their mass) and these biosolids after their separation from the treated
water have a high fertilizer value.
• Phosphorus removal can also be achieved by chemical precipitation, usually
with salts of iron, alum, or lime
• This may lead to excessive sludge productions as hydroxides precipitates and
the added chemicals can be expensive.
• Despite this, chemical phosphorus removal requires a significantly smaller
equipment footprint than biological removal, is easier to operate, and often
more reliable than biological phosphorus removal.
 Assignment 3

• Look at the outline of an

industrial wastewater
treatment unit. Based on
your understanding of a
STP (sewage treatment
plant) classify them as
preliminary, primary,
secondary etc. and
explain the rationale of
their application or simply
answer why each
component has been
used?