Wastewater treatment

Waste water comes from

• Residences (kitchen, bathroom………)

• Commercial institution, Industries…..
• Rainwater collected on roofs, paved courtyards, runoff …

• Wastewater treatment reduces the contaminants to acceptable levels so

as to be safe for discharge into the environment
 Wastewater characteristics
• Colour earthy or grey ….soapy or oily smell

• Turbid….contains faecal matter, pieces of paper, cigarette ends, , fruit skins , soaps, match
sticks, vegetable debris…..

• Liduid content 99.9% and amount of solid matter is 0.10%

• Contains organic and inorganic matter

• Inorganic solids include gravel, grit, debris, dissolved salts, sand , chlorides……
• Organic solids include carbohydrates, fats and oils, nitrogenous compounds….

• Fresh sewage is generally alkaline….stale sewage is acidic

• Sewage contains gases like hydrogen sulphide, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide

• Contains bacteria and other micro organisms like algae, fungi, protozoa……..
• Sewage - used water from a community

• Domestic sewage

• Industrial sewage

• Storm water

• Sewer- pipes for carrying sewage

• Sewerage system - network of sewer pipes in order to carry the sewage from individual houses
to sewage treatment plant

• House sewer
• Lateral sewer
• branch sewer
• Main sewer
• Outfall sewer
Types of sewerage system

• Separate system - sewage and storm water taken through separate

pipes

• Combined system - sewage + drainage through single pipe

• Partially separate system – a part of storm water from roofs or paved

courtyard of building is admitted into sewer
Advantages & disadvantages

• Separate system..two separate pipes , combined system… a bigger

pipe….seperate pipes cannot be laid in congested streets

• Sewer pipe in combined system liable to frequent silting during non

monsoon periods….steeper slope …more excavation….costlier

• Combined system….less foul drainage get mixed up with

sewage….requiring treatment

• Pumping of sewage
 Wastewater Treatment System

Primary treatment Secondary treatment Tertiary treatment

Preliminary treatment
• Removal of floating materials from the incoming wastewater.
• Large debris may be removed by screening
• grit and sand are removed by grit chamber
• Oil & grease removed by skimming tanks

Primary treatment
• suspended organic solids are removed by sedimentation.
Secondary Treatment:
• It consists of biological decomposition of organic matter which is carried
out aerobically or anaerobically

• Aerobic – filters , aeration tank , oxidation ponds

• Anaerobic- septic tank

Tertiary treatment
• Removes the pathogenic bacteria - chlorination
 screens

• It is the first operation in wastewater treatment to remove floating

matter such as pieces of cloth, paper, kitchen reuse , wood etc
present in wastewater

• screens protect pumps and other mechanical equipments and to

prevent clogging of valves and other appurtenances
Types of Screens

Coarse Screens: (racks)

• Spacing between bars is 50 mm or more.

• These screens help in removing large floating objects from sewage.

• Screens will collect 6 litres of solids per million litre of sewage

• The material separated by coarse screens consists of rags, woods, sticks and
paper etc. which will not putrefy and must therefore be disposed of by
incineration, burial or dumping.
Medium Screens:

• In this type of screen, spacing between the bars is 6-40 mm.

• These screens will ordinarily collect 30-90 litres of material

per million litre of Sewage.

• Screenings usually contain some quantity of organic material

which may putrefy and become offensive, therefore, be
disposed off by incineration or burial (not by dumping).
Fine Screens:

• Fine Screens have perforation of 1.5 mm to 3 mm size.

• It removes about 20% of suspended solids from

sewage.

• These screens often get clogged and are to be cleaned

frequently
Grit chamber

• Inorganic solids such as pebbles, sand, silt, eggshells, glass and metal
fragments, heavier organics such as bone chips, seeds etc. when collected
together, constitute grit

• removed from wastewater to prevent damage to pumps

• Grit chambers are in fact sedimentation tanks designed to separate

heavier inorganics by sedimentation due to gravitational forces and to
pass forward the lighter organic material.

• Grit chambers are designed to remove all particles of specific gravity 2.65
or more , with a diameter of 0.2 mm
 1. Horizontal flow type
• Detention time of 40 to 60 sec is sufficient for a water depth of 1 to 1.8 m

• the horizontal velocity is maintained at approximately 0.25 to 0.3 m/sec

• Length = velocity x detention time

• 2 separate chambers in parallel - one to pass low flow , other to pass high
flow

• Cleaned periodically at about 3 weeks

2. Aerated type

• injection of compressed air creates turbulence and keeps

lighter organic matter in suspension while the heavier grit
falls to bottom.
Detritus tank

• Rectangular grit chambers , designed to flow with a smaller

velocity of about 0.09 m/s and longer detention time of 3 to 4
minutes

• not only separates larger grit but also very fine sand particles
Skimming tank

• Removes oil and grease

• These may enter sewage from kitchens of restaurant, & houses, garages, soap
factories …..

• Air is blown by aerating device from bottom

• Rising air tend to coagulate the grease and cause it to rise to the surface

• Detention time of 3 to 5 minutes is sufficient and amount of compressed air is 300

to 6000 m3 per million litres of water
Sedimentation tanks

Rectangular sedimentation tank – continuous or intermittent type

Circular sedimentation tank

Sedimentation tank