Waste Water Treatment

Siddharth
 Primary Secondary Final
Treatment Treatment Treatment
• Screening • Aerobic Biological • Chlorination
• Grit Chambers Unit
• Skimming Tank ✓ Trickling filters
• PST ✓ Activated sludge
process
✓ Oxidation pond
• Anaerobic
Biological Unit
✓ Septic Tank
✓ Imhoff Tank
✓ Sludge Digestion
tank
 Screening

• To remove large floating materials

• To protect pumps and other mechanical equipment's

 Grit Chambers

• To prevent clogging of pipelines, channel etc.

• It is a settling tank with lesser detention time

of 1 min and flow velocity of 0.2 to 0.3 m/sec
 Skimming Tank
• To remove oil, grease, soap etc.
• Compresses air is blown from below . The
rising air coagulates the grease and cause it
to rise the surface, from where it can be
skimmed off.
• Chlorine gas may also be blown with
compressed air or chlorine may be added to
water to destroy the colloidal effects of
proteins which hold the grease in
emulsified form.
 Sedimentation Tank

• Principle same as water treatment plant.

• Sedimentation aided with coagulation

Not generally used in sewage treatment.
o Chemical added in this process destroy certain bacteria which are useful for
sludge digestion.
o It is costly
o Large sludge volume produced in this process (difficult to dispose off)
 Secondary Treatment
▪ Generally carried out aerobically.
▪ It leads to stable end products
▪ No foul gases are evolved in this process and rate of reaction is faster

• Attached Growth System

In attached growth system biomass is attached to a medium and
sewage containing organic matter is passed through the medium
• Suspended Growth System
In suspended growth system biomass is in the suspension in the
liquid containing organic matter
 Activated Sludge Process

Activated Sludge: large concentration of highly active micro-organisms.

Principle:

Aeration
PST tank SST Chlorination

Thickener Sludge Digestion

 Principle
• Activated sludge is mixed with raw sewage along with large quantity
of air for about 4 to 8 hrs in a aeration tank.
• The settled sludge in secondary sedimentation tank is called activated
sludge. It is again recycled to the head of aeration tank to be mixed
with sewage being treated.
• Sludge from secondary settling tank contain too much moisture
content (m.c.) i.e., 98 to 99 %, therefore bulky.
• The m.c. is first reduced by sending it to sludge thickner.
• M.c. will be reduced from 98 to 93 %, which helps in reducing the
capacity of digestion tank.
 Trickling Filters
• Based on Attached growth system.
• Used to remove organic matter from waste water.
• Aerobic Treatment System, that utilized micro-organism attached to a
medium to remove organic matter from waste water.
 Trickling Filters
• Filters are constructed as bed of stone or gravel onto the surface of which settled
sewage is sprinkled.
• Air enter the bed through vents at the base (for oxidation)
• Sewage trickles through the interstices and natural bacteria and other micro-
organism like protozoa and fungi become attached to the surface of the media.

• The attached film is able to obtain food from the

liquid and also obtain oxygen which flows up
through the bed.
• The attached biomass is called biological film or
slime layer
 Trickling Filters
• In a 2m deep bed the residence time of liquid is less than a minute but this is
sufficient for the absorption of organic matter into the biological film where it is
broken down smore slowly.
• As the film thickness increases, food and oxygen can-not penetrate deep inside the
film layer therefore bond-weakens and sloughing (breaking off of film from
medium) starts.
 Sludge Digestion
• Waste water sludge is a considerable hazard to environment and must
be rendered inert prior to disposal.

• Sludge digestion serves:

i. Reduce the volume of thickened sludge still further
ii. Render the remaining solid inert and pathogen free

• Goal can be achieved aerobically or anaerobically.

 Sludge Digestion Process
The sludge gets broken into:
a. Digested Sludge: stable humus (dried up and used as fertilizer)
b. Supernatant Liquor (finely divided organic matter and liquid with
BOD about 3000 ppm)
c. Gases of decomposition (Methane, CO2, other gases like N2, H2S are
evolved)
 Stages in Sludge Digestion Process
a. Hydrolysis
b. Fermentation (Acidogenesis)
c. Methane formation (Methanogenesis)
• Aceticlastic methogens: Split acetic acid into CH4
• Hydrogen-Utilizing Bacteria: convert H2 and Co2 into CH4
 Septic Tank

• Provide where sewers have not been laid and for isolated buildings.

• Sedimentation tank with longer Dt.

• Combination of sedimentation and sludge digestion tank.