Outlines

3.1 Characteristics of Waste water

3.2 Preliminary and Primary Wastewater Treatment Methods
3.2.1 Types of Settling
3.3 Secondary or Biological Wastewater Treatment
 TF
 AS
 RBC
 SP

3.4 Tertiary or advanced waste water treatment

 Characteristics needed to design WWT plant

 The design of a wastewater treatment plant requires knowledge of its

characteristics:
 Quantity or flow rate of wastewater.
• Required to determine the size of the various unit operations and unit
processes
 Quality of raw wastewater.
• Required to determine types of unit operations and processes to be
used.
• Required to evaluate effectiveness/performance of implemented unit
operations and processes.
• Required to determine suitability of final effluent for disposal or
reuse.
Some contaminants in Waste Water
Suspended solids : lead to the development of sludge deposits and
anaerobic conditions
Pathogens: cause diseases
Nutrients : essential for growth (N, P ,…).
Refractory organics: resist conventional methods of wastewater
treatment.
Heavy metals : may have to be removed if the wastewater is to be
reused.
Dissolved inorganic solids (calcium, sodium, and sulfate): may
have to be removed if the wastewater is to be reused.
Therefore, Wastewater should be collected and treated before its
ultimate disposal in order to:
Reduce spread of communicable diseases .
Prevent surface and ground water pollution.
Summery of Waste Water Contaminants
CHARACTERISTICS OF WASTE WATER

Waste Water Characteristics generally

categorized in three groups:
1.Physical Characteristics
2. Chemical Characteristics
3. Biological Characteristics
 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Temperature
The temperature of water is a very important parameter because of
its effect on
- Chemical reactions and reaction rates in treatment process.
- Aquatic life.
 Temperature of wastewater is commonly higher than that of
water supply because of the addition of warm water from
households and industrial plants.
 Wide variation in the wastewater temperature indicates heated or
cooled discharges.
 Decreased temperatures after a snowmelt or rainfall may indicate
serious infiltration.
 Changes in wastewater temperatures affect the settling rates,
dissolved oxygen levels, and biological action.
 The temperature of wastewater becomes extremely important in
certain wastewater unit operations such as sedimentation tanks
and recirculating filters.
 Color
 Color of industrial wastewater varies according to the type of
industry.
 Most colored matter is in a dissolved state.
 The color of wastewater containing dissolved oxygen (DO) is
normally gray.
 Black-colored wastewater usually accompanied by foul odors,
containing little or no DO, is said to be septic.
Color of sewage can be detected by naked eye, and it indicates
the freshness of the sewage.
If the color is gray, yellowish or light brown, it indicates fresh
sewage;
If the color is black or dark brown, it indicates stale and septic
sewage
Color of sewage sometimes indicates the source of sewage.
Odor
Odor is produced by gas production due to the decomposition of
organic matter or by substances added to the wastewater.
Fresh sewage is practically odorless.
 Sewage starts to become stale when its dissolved oxygen is
exhausted which starts after three to four hours of production
 Solids
Sewage is normally 99.9% water and 0.05-0.1% solids, which is
the cause of turbidity.
 There are different types of solids in sewage. The most common
types are:
 Dissolved,
 Suspended,
 Settleable,
Floatable,
 Colloidal,
 Organic, and
 Inorganic solids.
Solids
• sewage only contains about 0.05 to 0.1 percent solids
• Solids present in sewage may be in any of the 4 forms:
– suspended solids: solids which remain floating in
sewage.
– dissolved solids: remain dissolved in sewage just as
salt in water
– colloidal solids: are finely divided solids remaining
either in solution or in suspension. Colloidal particles
are often removed in biological treatment units/
chemical treatment followed by sedimentation.
– settleable solids: solid matter which settles out.
– When suspended solids float, they are called Floatable
Solids or Scum.
The proportion of these different types of solids is
generally found as:
Inorganic matter consists of minerals and salts, like:
sand, gravel, debris, dissolved salts, chlorides,
sulphates, etc.
Organic matter consists of:
I. Carbohydrates such as cellulose, cotton, fiber,
starch, sugar, etc.
II. Fats and oils received from kitchens, laundries,
garages, shops, etc.
III. Nitrogenous compounds like proteins and their
decomposed products, including wastes from
animals, urea, fatty acids, hydrocarbons, etc.
Sludge Volume Index(SVI)
Density
 Almost the same density of water when the wastewater doesn't
include significant amount of industrial waste.
Turbidity
 It's a measure of the light –transmitting properties of water.
This is property is imparted by the wastes found in the
sewage
Chemical Characteristics
pH
• is a method of expressing the acid condition of the WW.
• For proper treatment, wastewater pH should normally be in the
range of 6.5 to 9.0.
• the fresh sewage is generally alkaline in nature ( pH > 7); but as
time passes, its pH tends to fall due to production of acids by
bacterial action in anaerobic or nitrification processes.
 Theoretical oxygen (ThOD)
 If the chemical formula of the organic matter existing in the WW is
known the ThOD may be computed as the amount of oxygen needed
to oxidize the organic carbon to carbon dioxide and a other end
products.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
 BOD is the amount of oxygen that is consumed by bacteria to
aerobically oxidize the biodegradable organic compounds of sewage
for five days at 200C. Hence it is called BOD5;
 BOD is used as an indirect measure of biologically degradable
material present in wastewater;
 Having a safe BOD level in wastewater is essential to producing
quality effluent.
• The greater the BOD, the more rapidly oxygen is depleted in the
water body.
• The consequences of high BOD are the same as those for low DO:
– aquatic organisms become stressed, suffocate, and
 Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Contd…)
The discharge of wastes with high levels of BOD can cause water
quality problems such as severe dissolved oxygen depletion and fish
kills in receiving water bodies;
 Natural sources of BOD include organic material from decaying
plants and animal wastes;
Human sources of BOD includes feces, urine, detergents, fats, oils
and grease, etc.
 The BOD test is widely used to determine the pollution strength of
domestic and industrial wastewaters in terms of the oxygen that is
required for decomposition of the waste;
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Contd…)
BOD is determined in laboratory by mixing or diluting a
known volume of sample of sewage with a known volume of
aerated pure water and then calculating the DO of the diluted
sample. The diluted sample is then incubated in dark for 5 days
at 20C and its DO is again measured.

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒

Where 𝐷𝐹 =
Volume of diluted sample
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Contd…)
Example
10 mL of a wastewater sample are placed in a 300-mL
BOD bottle. The initial DO of the sample is 8.5 mg/L.
The DO is 3 mg/L after 5 days. What is the 5-day BOD?
 Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
 It oxidizes organic matter through a reaction with a mixture of
chromic and sulfuric acid at high temperatures.
 The COD of wastewater is, in general, higher than that of the
BOD because more compounds can be chemically oxidized
than can be biologically oxidized.
 The COD of wastewater is, in general, higher than that of the
BOD because more compounds can be chemically oxidized
than can be biologically oxidized.
 This can be very useful because COD can be determined in
3 hours, compared with 5 days for the BOD5.
 COD is typically measured in mg/L, which indicates oxygen consumed
per liter of solution.
Are BOD and COD of a wastewater sample equal?
NO, COD is always greater than BOD.
Because while COD test gives the total organic compounds (both
biologically active and inactive) found in the sewage, BOD tells the
concentration of biodegradable or biologically active organic
compounds.
 Chloride Content
Derived from the kitchen wastes, human feces, and urinary discharges,
etc.
The normal chloride content of domestic sewage is 120 mg/lit.
When the chloride content of sewage is found to be higher, it indicates
the presence of industrial wastes or infiltration of sea water, thereby
indicating sewage strength.
Nitrogen Content
 The presence of nitrogen in sewage indicates the presence of organic matter and
may occur in one or more of the following forms:
 Free ammonia
 Nitrites
 Nitrates
 The free ammonia indicates the very first stage of decomposition of organic matter,
thus indicating recently staled sewage.
 Presence of nitrites indicate the presence of partly decomposed (not fully oxidized)
organic matter and shows incomplete treatment of organic wastes.
 The presence of nitrates indicate the presence of fully oxidized organic matter and
show well oxidized and treated sewage.
Phosphorus
is essential to biological activity and must be
present in at least minimum quantities or
secondary treatment processes will not perform.
Excessive amounts can cause stream damage and
excessive algal growth.
Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
• DO is very important for aquatic life like fish,…
• the treated sewage should ensure at least 4ppm of
DO in it before discharging it to river stream;
• otherwise, fish are likely to be killed, creating
nuisance near the vicinity of disposal.
• very fresh sewage contains some DO, which is soon
depleted by aerobic decomposition.
 Biological Characteristics (Contd…)
 are due to the presence of bacteria and other living
microorganisms, such as algae, fungi, protozoa, etc.
 Most of the vast number of bacteria present in sewage
is harmless non-pathogenic bacteria.
 They are useful and helpful in bringing oxidation and
decomposition of sewage.
The Engineer should know:-
1. The principal groups of microorganisms found in wastewater.
2. The pathogenic organisms.
3. Indicator organisms (indicate the presence of pathogens).
4. The methods used to amount the microorganisms.
5. The methods to evaluate the toxicity of treated wastewater
PRELIMINARY AND PRIMARY WASTEWATER TREATMENT METHODS
Preliminary Treatment
 Preliminary Treatment
 Consists solely in separating the floating materials and
heavy settleable inorganic solids.
 It also helps in removing the oils and greases, etc.
reduces the BOD of the WW, by about 15 to 30%.

•The treatment units used include:

Screens
Comminutors
Skimming tanks
Grit chambers or Detritus tanks
 Preliminary Treatment
1) Screening
 found at the start of the wastewater treatment plants
 First unit operation used at wastewater treatment plants.
 a device with openings of uniform size to retain solids in
influent wastewater
 remove the coarse and floating matter, such as pieces of cloth,
paper, wood, cork, hair, fiber, kitchen refuse, fecal solids, etc. to
- prevent damage of equipment
i.e., If floating materials are not removed, will choke the
pipes, or adversely affect the working of the sewage pumps
This treatment reduces the BOD of the wastewater, by
about 15 to 30%. The processes used are:
1. Screening: for removing floating papers, rags, clothes, etc
2. Comminutors: for break the larger sewage solids
3. Grit chambers or Detritus: tanks for removing grit and sand
4. Skimming tanks: for removing oils and greases

Figure 3.1 Flow diagram of a typical Preliminary Treatment System

 Preliminary Treatment
Based on the cleaning operation they are classified
as;
1. Manually cleaned screens (for small installations)
- Screen is usually mounted at an angle of
45-70 from horizontal
2.Mechanically cleaned screens (For Large
installations)
- Such devices may be operated either by time
clocks or by pressure-sensing probes
- Screen is usually mounted at an angle of 70-90
from horizontal

 Depending upon the size of the openings, screens

may be classified as
 coarse screens, 50mm-150mm opening size
 medium screens, 6mm to 50 mm. and
 fine screens. 1.5 mm to 3 mm ( <6mm)
Coarse Screens Fine Screens
 Screens are sometimes classified as fixed or movable, depending
upon whether the screens are stationary or capable of motion.
Considerations for selection of a Screen
• Flow – average and variation
• Type of effluent – Storm, Industrial, Municipal
• Sewer type – long sewers result in heavy flushes of rags
• Degree of screenings removal required – screen aperture
• Type of cleaning required – Manual, Automatic.
• Availability of power and wash water
• Health and Safety – screenings contain pathogens
and attract insects
• Odor potential
• Handling and transport requirements
• Disposal options
 Preliminary Treatment
Design of Coarse/medium screens
Factors to consider;
1) Number of screens: plants should have a standby screen to
put in operation when the primary screening device is out
of service.
2) Approach velocity; minimum approach velocity in the bar
screen channel is 0.6m/s to prevent solids deposition

3) Velocity between bars; Maximum velocity between bars

is 0.9m/s to prevent wash out of solids through the bars

4) clear openings between bars or mesh size

 Head Loss through the screens;
hL through clean bar screens, Kirschmer has proposed the
following expression
where h = the head loss across the screen (m);
 = the shape factor
4 w = the maximum bar width (mm);
2
 w  3 Va b = the minimum opening width (mm);
h    sin  Va = the velocity in the approach channel (m/s);
b 2g g = acceleration due to gravity, and
 = the angle of inclination of the bars to the horizontal (commonly 30).
 Preliminary Treatment
Since it only applies when the bars are clean, the buildup of head
loss can be estimated by assuming that a part of the open space in
the upper portion of the bars in the flow path is clogged.

Another expression commonly used for head loss;

 Preliminary Treatment
Fine Screens:
 Have perforations of less than 6 mm in size.
 The installation of these screens proves very effective, and
remove 20% of the suspended solids.
 Get clogged very often, and need frequent cleaning. (not suitable
for sewage preliminary treatment)
 Used for pretreatment in industrial wastes
 Other uses include primary treatment (as a substitute for
primary clarifiers)
 Preliminary Treatment
Disposal of Screenings
 Screening is material separated by screens.
 It contains 85 to 90% of moisture and other floating matter.
 It may also contain some organic load which may putrefy, causing
bad smells and nuisance.
 To avoid such possibilities, the screenings are disposed of either by:
 Removal by hauling to disposal areas (landfill) including co
disposal with municipal solid wastes,
 Disposal by burial on the plant site (for small installations only),
 Incineration either alone or in combination with sludge and grit
(large installations only), and
 Discharge to grinders or macerators where it is grounded and
returned to the wastewater
 Preliminary Treatment
Comminutors/shredder
 Preliminary Treatment
- Located ahead of sludge pumps
-Preceded by grit chambers to prolong the Life of the equipment
and to reduce the wear on the cutting surfaces.
-Shred large organic material to
size 6mm without removing the
shredded solids from the flow
stream.
-Comminutors are commonly
employed where it is undesirable,
impractical or uneconomic to
remove solids due to the lack of
disposal options.
-Eliminate the messy and
offensive task of handling and Figure of Comminutor and shredder
disposal of screenings.
 Preliminary Treatment
-Because these units are complete in themselves, no detailed
design is necessary.
-Manufacturers' data and rating tables for these units should be
consulted for different capacity ranges,
Discharge /capacity
Head loss, and
power requirements.

-Because manufacturers' capacity ratings are usually based on

clean water, the ratings should be decreased by approximately
80% to account for partial clogging of openings

- Comminutors should be provided with a bypass arrangement for

repair during mechanical failure or during power failure.
 Preliminary Treatment
Grit Removal Basins (grit chamber, detritus tank,..)
 Preliminary Treatment
Grit Removal Basins (grit chamber, detritus tank,..)
 At the beginning of the TP before primary clarifier.
 is an enlarged channel or a long basin, in which the cross-section is
increased, so as to reduce the flow velocity of sewage.

 The grit chamber remove the inorganic particles (specific gravity

about 2.65 and nominal diameter of 0.1mm or larger)
- such as sand, gravel, egg shells, bones, and other non-putresible
materials (silt and grit) present in sewage by the process of
sedimentation due to gravitational forces.

 organic/putrescible/ material in WW is not allowed to settle

 Therefore, the flow velocity should neither be too low nor should it be
so high. B/c
 if too slow lighter organic matter will settle down,
septicity.
 if too high, even silt and grit not settle down/re-suspend.
 Preliminary Treatment
o Grit is removed preliminarily to prevent
damage pumps /mechanical equipments due to abrasion, and
excessive accumulation of sludge in digesters /large volume
of sludge to be handled
o Three general types of grit chambers
Horizontal flow g.c
Aerated g.c
Vortex type

o Classification based on cleaning mechanism

Mechanically cleaned
manually cleaned
 Preliminary Treatment
Design of grit chamber
Design parameters;
Number of units;
- use at least two units.
- And for mechanically cleaned chambers
add one manually cleaned chamber as a bypass
Particle settling velocity, Vp
Preliminary Treatment
Skimming Tanks
 Preliminary Treatment
Skimming Tanks
 Ideally grease removal is desirable at source, prior to discharge to the
collection network.
 Usually placed after grit chamber
 Many plants, however, use primary clarifiers with mechanical surface
skimmers for fat and grease removal
 Is a concrete or glass reinforced plastic chamber arranged so that
floating matter (oil and grease) rises and remains on the surface until
removed while the liquid flows continuously through an outlet located
at depth
 Preliminary Treatment
 Oil and grease should be removed preliminarily because
 the degradation of fats and oils by micro organisms is very
slow due to low solubility and hence can reduced efficiency
of biological treatment
 has a tendency to coat the inside of piping and pumps can
build up
 contribution to odor and aesthetic nuisance

 Methods used in separation

 Natural floatation
 Low pressure floatation
 Pressured floatation
 Vacuum floatation
 Preliminary Treatment
A detention period of about 3 - 5 min. is sufficient,

A= 0.00622Q/Vr
A = surface area of tank (m2)
Q = rate of sewage flow(m3/d)
Vr = min rising velocity of greasy material to be removed in
m/min (0.25m/min in most cases)
Q=Vol/t

Disposal
Burial in low lying areas can be treated with TP sludge
 Preliminary Treatment
Flow equalization
-located after the preliminary treatment units such as
screening and grit removal but before primary sedimentation

-Flow equalization simply is the damping of flow rate

variations to achieve a constant or nearly constant flow rate
The principal benefits that are cited as deriving from application
of flow equalization are:
1. Helps in improving the performance of down- stream
operations and reduces the operating & capital cost of
down- stream process. (chemical feed, filter area, …
2. Biological treatment is enhanced because of elimination of
shock load due to flow rate & pollution load, inhibiting
substances can be diluted, and pH can be stabilized;
Example 1
A grit chamber is designed to remove particles with a
diameter of 0.2mm, specific gravity 2.65. Settling
velocity for these particles has been found to range from
0.016 to 0.022m/sec, depending on their shape factor. A
flow through velocity of 0.3m/sec will be maintained by
proportioning weir. Determine the channel dimensions
for a maximum wastewater flow of 10,000cu m/day.
 Example 2
Design a suitable Detritus grit chamber for a sewage treatment plant
getting a dry weather flow from a separate sewerage system @400l/s.
Assume the flow velocity through the tank as 0.2m/sec and detention
period of 2 minutes. The maximum flow may be assumed to be 3
times of dry weather flow.
 consists in removing suspended organic solids.
 The very fundamental principle underlying the process of
sedimentation is that the organic matter present in sewage
having specific gravity greater than that of water (i.e.1.0) is
separated by gravity.
 This is usually accomplished by sedimentation in settling basins.
• Sometimes chemicals are added to assist removal of colloidal
particles by coagulation
What is sedimentation?
Sedimentation is the physical separation of suspended material
from water or wastewater by the action of gravity.
Sedimentation tanks are tank designed to remove this organic
matter from the sewage effluent coming out from the grit chambers.
 Types of Settling
Depending on the particles concentration and the interaction between particles, 4
types of settling can occur:
Discrete (type I), Flocculent (type II), Hindered (type III), Compression (type IV)
 Type I: Discrete particle settling
 Discrete particles in Dilute solid’s concentration &

 Where particles do not interact bigger settle fast &

 Settling velocity is constant for individual particles

Examples: - Pre-sedimentation in water treatment,

- Grit removal in wastewater

 Type II: Flocculent settling

 Flocculent particles in Dilute solid’s concentration

 Where particles collide and adhere to each other resulting in particle growth
&
 Settling velocity changes

Examples: - Sedimentation after Coagulation/flocculation in water treatment

(Settling chemical flocs in WT /inorganic colloids/) and -
Primary sedimentation in wastewater treatment
 Type III: Hindered or zone settling
 Flocculent particles in intermediate concentration
 Solids move as a block rather than individual particles
 There will be distinguishable solids liquid interface
 Fluidic interference causes a reduction in settling velocity**

Example: - Sedimentation of biologically treated effluents in waste

water treatment

 Type IV: Compression or zone settling

 Discrete or flocculent particles in
very high concentration
 Particles physically in contact
 Water is squeezed out of interstitial spaces
 Volume of solids may decrease

Example: - Sludge thickening in waste water treatment

The size, shape and specific gravity of the particle
• The greater is the specific gravity, more readily the particle will
settle.
• The size and shape of the particle also affect the settling rate.
• Very small sized particles will settle very slowly.
• The settling velocity of a spherical particle is expressed by
Stroke's law, which takes the above three factors into account.
• The final Stroke's equation for d < 0.1mm is expressed as:
The final Stoke's equation for d < 0.1mm is expressed as:
 Derivation of Stokes's Law:
• 3 forces on settling particle: Drag force, particle weight, and
buoyancy force.
• When a solid particle settles down in water, its downward
settlement is opposed by the drag force offered by the water.
• The effective weight of the particle (i.e. actual weight
buoyancy) causes the particle to accelerate in the beginning,
until it attains a sufficient velocity(Vs)at which the drag force
becomes equal to the effective weight of the particle.
• After attaining that velocity, the particle falls down with that
constant velocity(Vs)
 The drag force (Fd) offered by the fluid is given by Newton's
aw, as:

 This drag force increases with the increasing velocity till it

becomes equal to the effective weight of the particle; and at that
time, v becomes equal to vs.
 Sedimentation Tanks
The clarification of sewage by the process of 'sedimentation' can
be affected by providing conditions under which the suspended
material present in sewage can settle out. This is brought about in
specially designed tanks called sedimentation tanks.
Sedimentation basins are thus designed for effecting
settlement of particles by reducing the flow velocity or by
detaining the sewage in them.
They are generally made of reinforced concrete and may be
rectangular or circular in plan.
Sedimentation basin has four district
zones:
 inlet,
 settling,
 outlet and
 sludge zone
 Types of Sedimentation Tanks
Sedimentation tanks may function either intermittently or
continuously.
The Intermittent settling tanks called quiescent type tanks are
simple settling tanks which store sewage for a certain period and
keep it in complete rest.
After giving it a rest of about 24hours, during which the suspended
particles settle down to the bottom of the tank, the cleaner sewage
from the top may be drawn off and the tank be cleaned off the settled
silt
In a continuous flow type of a sedimentation tank, which is
generally used in modem days, the flow velocity is only reduced, and
the sewage is not brought to complete rest, as is done in an inter-
mittent type.
 Constructional Details of the Sedimentation Tanks

a.Inlet and Outlet Arrangement

•In order to reduce short circuiting and to distribute the flow uniformly proper
arrangement must be made for smooth entry of water.
•A most suitable type of an inlet for a rectangular settling tank is in the form of
a channel with a submerged weir type baffle wall extending to full width of
the tank.
Outlet arrangement consist of an overflow weir and a receiving channel or
launder.
launder  the exit channel or pipe.
weir  flow controlling device at outlet
Merits and Demerits of Coagulation Process in Sewage
Treatment
the coagulation process is generally not adopted in modern sewage
treatment plants, mainly because of the following reasons:
More advanced methods of sewage treatment based on biological
actions are available these days, and they are preferred to
coagulation.
Disadvantages or Demerits of Coagulation in Sewage Treatment
The biological secondary treatments used these days for treating
sewage is complete in themselves, and do not require coagulation.
Moreover, coagulation rather makes some of these processes more
difficult.
The chemicals used in coagulation react with sewage, and
during these reactions, they destroy certain micro-organisms,
which are helpful in digestion of the sludge, thus creating
difficulties in sludge digestion.
Cost of chemicals is added to the cost of sedimentation, with-
out much use, and thereby making the treatment costlier.
The process of coagulation and subsequent sedimentation
produces larger quantities of sludge than that produced in plain
sedimentation, and thus adding to the problems of sludge
disposal.
The process of coagulation requires skilled supervision and
handling of chemicals.
The various advantages offered by the coagulation process are:
 Sedimentation aided with coagulation produces better ef-
fluent with lesser BOD and suspended solids, as compared to
plain sedimentation.
Coagulated settling tank requires less space than that re-
quired by an ordinary plain settling tank.
Coagulation process may also remove the phosphates from
sewage, which may help in controlling eutrophication (the
excessive growth of algae and other aquatic plants in a river
stream.