MEBS6000 Utility Services

Sewage Treatment

2021 - 2022
Contents
• Legislation on wastewater
• Content of wastewater
• Wastewater Treatment Methods
• Sewage Treatment Equipment and Plants

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Legislation on Wastewater

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Legislation
• Wastewater collected from communities must
ultimately be returned to the water cycle
• In Hong Kong, wastewater is finally going to the
harbour or inland water (the rivers which finally lead
to the sea)
• To ensure that the wastewater is not hazardous to the
environment, wastewater is treated in sewage
treatment plants before discharge

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• Control of waste water disposal is executed by the
Environmental Protection Department (EPD) under
the Water Pollution Control Ordinance (CAP358)
and the Waste Disposal (Livestock Waste) Ordinance
(CAP 354A).
• The technical requirement from EPD is stated in the
‘Technical Memorandum Standards for Effluents
Discharged into Drainage and Sewerage Systems,
Inland and Coastal Waters’
(http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/sites/default/files/epd/engli
sh/envir_standards/files/GN2014P240-1991c-e.pdf) 5
• Effluents are mainly discharging to sewers with a
destination under the following categories:
• foul sewers leading into Government sewage treatment
plants (managed by DSD)
• foul sewers leading into Government sewage treatment
plants with microbial treatment (higher standard on toxic
metals)
• Group A, B, C, D inland waters
• coastal waters, inshore waters and marine waters of Water
Control Zones (WCZ)

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• Inland Waters

• Water Control Zones

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• The amount of biological matters (BOD), suspended
solids (SS), and other materials that can be
discharged into the sewer depend on where the
effluent will be going and how they will be treated.

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• More stringent copper standard requirement (lower
concentration of copper is required)

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• A higher standard for BOD and SS when discharging
effluent into Water Control Zones
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(Source: dsd.gov.hk) 12
Content of Wastewater

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Physical, Chemical and Biological

To Government Sewage
Treatment Plant To Inland Waters To Coastal Waters 14
• Physical properties
• usually include total solids content which is composed of floating
matter settleable matter, colloidal matter, and matter in solution.
• other characteristics include odour, temperature, density, colour, pH
and turbidity
• Measured in Suspended Solids (SS) in mg/L
• Chemical properties
• organic matter, inorganic matter and gases
• wastewater from industrial plants : 75% of suspended solid and 40% of
the filterable solid are organic in nature
• other elements such as sulphur, phosphorus and iron may also be
present
• principal groups of organic substances found in wastewater are
proteins (40-60%), carbohydrates (25-50%), and fats and oils (10%) 15
• laboratory methods commonly used to measure gross
amounts of organic matter in wastewater include:
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD),
• Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and
• Total Organic Carbon (TOC)
• most widely used parameter of organic pollution is
the 5-day BOD (BOD5)
• measurement of the dissolved oxygen consumed by micro-
organisms in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter
in the 5-day period

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BOD
• Determine the approximate quantity of oxygen that will be
required to biologically stabilize the organic matter present
• A higher BOD implies more organic matter present
• The difference in oxygen concentration before and after
the 5-day period (indicating the amount of O2
consumed)
• In units of mg/L
• Determine the capacity of waste treatment facilities
• Measure the efficiency of some treatment processes
• Determine compliance with wastewater discharge permits

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COD
• Used to measure the content of organic matter
• Oxygen equivalent of the organic matter that can be
oxidized is measured by using a strong chemical oxidizing
agent in an acidic medium
• COD test can also be used to measure the organic matter in
industrial and municipal wastes that contain compounds
that are toxic to biological life

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TOC
• Measure the organic matter present in water,
especially those in small concentrations.
• The test is performed by injecting a known quantity
of sample into a high-temperature furnace or
chemically-oxidizing environment.
• The organic carbon is oxidized to carbon dioxide and
is measured quantitatively

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Wastewater Treatment Methods

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Wastewater Treatment Methods
• The contaminants in wastewater are removed by
physical, chemical and biological means.
• The individual methods are classified as physical unit
operations, chemical unit processes, and biological
unit processes.

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Physical Unit Operations
• The application of physical forces in treatment
methods are known as physical unit operations.
• Screening, mixing, flocculation, sedimentation,
flotation, filtration, and gas transfer are typical unit
operations.

YouTube videos!
• Flocculation - https://youtu.be/5uuQ77vAV_U
• Coagulation Flocculation Basics - https://youtu.be/qV_1jfmhpnA

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Physical Unit Operations

Sedimentation
Tank

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Chemical Unit Processes
• Treatment methods in which the removal or
conversion of contaminants is brought about by the
addition of chemicals or by other chemical reactions
• E.g. Precipitation, adsorption, and disinfection

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Biological Unit Processes
• Treatment methods in which the removal of contaminants is
brought about by biological activity
• The treatment is used primarily to remove the biodegradable
organic substances in wastewater.
• Basically, these substances are converted into gases that can
escape to the atmosphere and into biological cell tissue that
can be removed by settling.

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Processes in Sewage Treatment Works
• Historically
• “preliminary” and/or “primary” referred to physical unit operations
• “secondary” referred to chemical and biological unit processes
• “advanced” or “tertiary” referred to combinations of all three.
• A more rational approach
• first to establish the level of contaminant removal required before
wastewater can be reused or discharged to the environment.
• The required unit operations and processes necessary to achieve that
required level of treatment can then be grouped together on the basis of
fundamental considerations.

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Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
• removal of wastewater constituents that may cause
maintenance or operational problems with the treatment
operations, processes, and ancillary systems.
• E.g. screening and comminution for the removal of debris and
rags, grit removal for the elimination of coarse suspended
mater that may cause wear or clogging of equipment, and
flotation for the removal of larger quantities of oil and grease.
Screening

Grit chamber 27
Primary Wastewater Treatment
• A portion of the suspended solids and organic matter
is removed from wastewater.
• Accomplished with physical operations such as
screening and sedimentation.
• The effluent from primary treatment will ordinarily
contain considerable organic matter and will have a
relatively high BOD.

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Secondary Treatment
• Removal of biodegradable organic and suspended
solids.
• Disinfection is frequently included.
• It is defined as the combination of processes
customarily used for the removal of the constituents
and includes biological treatment by activated sludge,
fixed-film reactors, or lagoon systems and
sedimentation.
• Most sewage treatment plants in HK have wastewater
treatment up to this level.
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Tertiary or Advanced Treatment
• A further stage of treating sewage following
secondary treatment processes
• Filtering the secondary effluent to remove suspended
solids or other constituents of concern including toxic
material.
• Operations include chemical coagulation,
flocculation, and sedimentation followed by filtration
and activated carbon.
• Sewage treatment plants that discharges into inland
water will need this level of treatment.
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Sewage Treatment Equipment and
Plants
YouTube video on Wastewater Treatment Plant
https://youtu.be/FvPakzqM3h8
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Sewage Treatment Equipment
• Some of the locations are inaccessible to government
sewers. If the capacity demand is small, small size
sewage treatment equipment are installed
• Cesspools
• watertight chamber below ground, its purpose is for
temporary storage sewage without the intention of
decomposing the settled materials
• Minimum 45 days of storage of
at least 18m3 and 136 L/day/head.
Required emptying every 45 days.

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Septic Tank
• treat sewage of a domestic character from small group of houses or
larger buildings where it is not possible to connect to a public sewage.
• normally consists of a septic tank for primary treatment, the effluent
from which is given secondary treatment in a biological filter
• A humus tank last stores the waste product of bacterial action

Septic Tank
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Septic Tank – Primary Treatment
• Commence with the separation from the liquid of undissolved
components of raw sewage by settlement and flotation.
• Heavier solids settle as sludge and lighter solids rise and form a scum,
the surface of which dries and become crusting like and form a seal.
• The solid at the bottom undergoes anaerobic decomposition by action
of bacteria and fungi, resulting in reduction in the volume of sediment
sludge. The gases given out by the decomposing sludge will bubble to
the surface.
• Capacity of the septic tank : C = 180N + 2000 where N = nos. of
people served
• Dimension : for N up to 100, two compartments be recommended
• 1st compartment , L : W = 2 : 1 , capacity 2/3 of total
• 2nd compartment, square , capacity 1/3 of total
• depth of liquid in the tanks not less than 1.5m
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Septic Tank – Secondary Treatment
• Oxidation of the organic matter by the activity of aerobic bacteria, e.g.
a biological filter.
• The filter is designed to receive the tank effluent and bring it into
intimate contact with the filter medium which becomes coated with an
organic film containing a complex of microorganism including aerobic
bacteria.
• In this film oxidation of the organic matter take place during the
metabolism of the aerobic bacteria.
• Volume of filter media :
• Up to 10 persons : 1m3/person
• Up to 50 persons : 0.8m3/person
• Up to 300 persons : 0.6m3/person

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Sewage Treatment Plant
Preliminary treatment :
• Screen : bars with 2-3cm separation to remove large
objects e.g. plastic, wood and paper.
• Grit separator : for removal of large dense particles which
may accumulate & reduce free volume available for
treatment, relatively high horizontal flow rate (0.3m/s) so
that heavy inorganic materials will be settled out.

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Sewage Treatment Plant
Primary treatment :
• It is a gravity sedimentation tank in which the majority of
settleable solids are removed from the crude sewage
flowing through it.
• It is placed before the primary treatment. Usually 60 - 70%
of the solids will be removed in this process.

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Sewage Treatment Plant
Secondary treatment (biological process):
• Activated sludge process
• Sewage is aerated with a biologically active sludge causing
the microorganisms to remove pollutants from the sewage.
• Micro-organisms act on the sewage to carry out the
oxidation process changing organic matter to CO2, H2O,
PO4, SO4, NO3.
• Activated sludge acts as a seed for further oxidation
process.

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Sewage Treatment Plant
Secondary treatment (biological process):
• Sludge re-aeration
• Reactivation of return activated sludge to (1) increase
sludge stability; (2) increase capacity of the activated
sludge system to take shock loads and recover quickly.
• Extended aeration
• It is a modification of the conventional activated sludge
process and operates in the endogenous phase of
growth, in which there is not enough food remaining in
the system to support all of the microorganisms present.
Residence time is of the order of 24 hours compared to
around 6 hours in conventional activated sludge tanks
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Sewage Treatment Plant
Secondary treatment (biological process):
• Anaerobic digestion
• Generally used for medium- and large- size plants.
• Utilize airtight tanks in which anaerobic micro-organisms
stabilize organic matters in the absence of oxygen.
• Methane gas is used produced in the process.
• Biological filter
• Consists of a bed of inert material (moulded plastics,
clinker, stones etc.) on to which micro-organisms will
grow so as to promote aerobic degradation of sewage.
• Air is supplied to the filter to improve the process.
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Sewage Treatment Plant
Secondary treatment (biological process):
• Rotating biological contactor
• It is a unit consisting of a series of closely spaced, parallel discs,
mounted on a rotating shaft which is supported just above the surface
of the wastewater to be treated.
• Micro-organisms grow on the disc surface where aerobic degradation
of the pollutants takes places.
• Disc : 1m to 3.5m diameter
• Spacing : 15 to 35mm
• Speed : 1 RPM
• Material : Metal or plastic

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Sewage Treatment Plant
Tertiary treatment :
• filtering the secondary effluent to remove suspended solids
• Micro-strainers : woven wire cloth with apertures of 15 – 65 microns
• Pebble-bed clarifiers : gravel bed to trapped the suspended solids
• Grass plots : effluent is fed by a system of channels to a gently sloping
area of grassland and is collected by the channels
• Sand filter : similar to clarifiers

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