LIQUID WASTE

MANAGEMENT II SHCM 3343

DR. CHARLES KIRAGU PhD, MPH,
BSc.
 Purpose of the course:

• This course will enable the learner to apply principles and

fundamentals of Liquid Management in the prevention and
control of diseases.
Expected Learning Outcomes of the Course;
• By the end of this course, the learner should be able to:
• Identify the sources of liquid waste.
• Provide advice on proper methods of disposal of liquid wastes.
• Design small scale systems for treatment and disposal of
waste.
• Supervise proper disposal of liquid waste from vessels
(aircrafts, ships, trains and motor vehicles).
• Enforce policies and legislation governing disposal of waste
including hazardous waste
 INTRODUCTION TO LIQUID WASTE
MANAGEMENT
• Liquid waste/Wastewater is any water that has been
adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic
influence. It comprises liquid waste discharged by
domestic residences, commercial properties, industry,
and/or agriculture and can encompass a wide range of
potential contaminants and concentrations.
• In the most common usage, it refers to the municipal
wastewater that contains a broad spectrum of
contaminants resulting from the mixing of
wastewaters from different sources.
 Introduction contd
• Sewage is correctly the subset of wastewater
that is contaminated with feces or urine, but is
often used to mean any waste water. "Sewage"
includes domestic, municipal, or industrial
liquid waste products disposed of, usually via
a pipe or sewer or similar structure, sometimes
in a cesspool emptier
 CATEGORIZATION
• Wastewater or sewage can come from (text in
brackets indicates likely inclusions or
contaminants):
• Human waste (fæces, used toilet paper or
wipes, urine, or other bodily fluids), also known
as blackwater, usually from lavatories;
• Cesspit (sewage or refuse chamber) leakage;
• Septic tank discharge
• Sewage treatment plant discharge
 Introduction contd
• Washing water (personal, clothes, floors,
dishes, etc.), also known as greywater or
sullage;
• Blackwater (surface water contaminated by
sewage);
• Surplus manufactured liquids from domestic
sources (drinks, cooking oil, pesticides,
lubricating oil, paint, cleaning liquids, etc.);
 Introduction contd
• Sewage usually refers to water which has lost
its original function . According to the source
of sewage, it is usually divided into four
categories, namely industrial wastewater,
domestic sewage, commercial sewage, and
surface runoff, and industrial wastewater and
urban domestic sewage are the major sources
 Introduction contd
• Industrial wastewater: Metallurgical
wastewater, papermaking wastewater,
chemical wastewater
• Pollutants :Arsenic, heavy metals such as
mercury, lead, cadmium, etc.
 Introduction contd
Domestic sewage
• Pollutants: Organic matter such as protein and
urea, pathogen
Commercial sewage
• Pollutants: Organic matter such as protein,
urea, ammonia nitrogen, etc
Surface runoff
• Pollutants: pathogens, phytonutrients, etc
Factors that determine liquid waste disposal
technique
• The nature of soil formation and stability of the
locality
• ƒ The availability of adequate land for sewage
disposal
• ƒ The quantity of sewage to be disposed of
• ƒ The degree of sewage treatment to be
achieved
• ƒ The presence of well water, and whether it is
used as the source of the water supply
 Factors contd
• The level of the water table of the ground
water
• ƒ The proximity of the disposal site to surface
water sources
• ƒ The relative cost of the disposal technology
CONVENTIONAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT: DESIGN
AND OPERATION OF TREATMENT UNITS INCLUDING,

• Conventional sewage treatment involves three

stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary
treatment. First, the solids are separated from
the wastewater stream. Then dissolved
biological matter is progressively converted
into a solid mass by using indigenous, water-
borne micro-organisms.
• Finally, the biological solids are neutralized
then disposed of or re-used,
Conventional wastewater treatment
• and the treated water may be disinfected
chemically or physically (for example by
lagoons and microfiltration).
• The final effluent can be discharged into a
stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can
be used for the irrigation of a golf course,
green way or park.
• If it is sufficiently clean, it can also be used for
groundwater recharge or agricultural purposes.
Process Flow Diagram for a typical large-
scale treatment plant
 Conventional wastewater treatment
contd:Pre-treatment
• Pre-treatment removes the materials that can
be easily collected from the raw wastewater
and disposed of.
• The typical materials that are removed during
pre treatment include fats, oils, and greases
(also referred to as FOG), sand, gravels and
rocks (also referred to as grit), larger settleable
solids and floating materials (such as rags and
flushed feminine hygiene products).
 Pre-treatment contd
• In modern plants serving large populations,
sophisticated equipment with remote operation
and control are employed whilst in smaller or
less modern plants manually cleaned screen
may be used.
 Pre-treatment
• Pre treatment also typically includes a sand or
grit channel or chamber where the velocity of
the incoming wastewater is carefully
controlled to allow sand grit and stones to
settle, while keeping the majority of the
suspended organic material in the water
column.
• This equipment is called a de-gritter or sand
catcher.
 Pre treatment contd

• Sand, grit, and stones need to be removed early in

the process to avoid damage to pumps and other
equipment in the remaining treatment stages.
Sometimes there is a sand washer (grit classifier)
followed by a conveyor that transports the sand to
a container for disposal.
• The contents from the sand catcher may be fed
into the incinerator in a sludge processing plant,
but in many cases, the sand and grit is sent to a
landfill.
Conventional treatment: screening
• The influent sewage water is strained to remove
all large objects carried in the sewage stream,
such as rags, sticks, tampons, cans, fruit, etc.
• This is most commonly done with a manual or
automated mechanically raked bar screen.
• The raking action of a mechanical bar screen is
typically paced according to the accumulation on
the bar screens and/or flow rate.
 Screening contd
• The bar screen is used because large solids can
damage or clog the equipment used later in the
sewage treatment plant.
• The large solids can also hinder the biological
process. The solids are collected and later
disposed in a landfill or incineration.
Course screens
 Primary treatment
• Primary sedimentation is the process by which
the velocity of the sewage is reduced below
the point at which it can transport the
suspended matter, so that much of this settles
and can be removed as sludge.
 Contd
• Basically, the purpose of sedimentation is to
remove the maximum amount of polluting
matter, in the form of readily settleable solids,
from the sewage as quickly and as
economically as possible.
• However, this has beneficial side effects,
which include:
 contd
(a) flocculation of the finely dispersed solids and
adsorption of colloidal and pseudo-colloidal
matter on to the solids,
(b) equalization of the strength of the sewage
prior to further treatment, and
(c) the provision of time to enable possible
beneficial biological changes to take place in
the sewage
 Mechanism
• The settling velocity of particles of suspended
matter depends on their size, shape and
density. According to Stokes' Law, which
holds for fine granular particles, their rate of
settlement varies:
(a) as the square of the diameter of the particle,
(b) as the difference in density between the
particle and that of the fluid in which it is
suspended,
 contd
(c) inversely as the viscosity of the fluid, which
is dependent on its temperature.
 contd
• In sewage treatment the conditions are vastly
different. The particles vary widely in size,
shape and density, they are flocculent in
character and the sewage is moving. Also the
sewage is subject to currents caused by:
(a) dissipation of energy at the inlet,
(b) differences of density and temperature
between the sewage entering the tank and its
contents (particularly when the incoming
 contd
…..sewage contains a high concentration of
suspended solids),
(c) wind effects,
(d) short-circuiting, and
(e) upward draw at the outlet
 contd
• characteristics of industrial wastes may affect
primary sedimentation:
• High rates of flow. Significant variations in
rate of flow due to the intermittent discharge
of large volumes of industrial waste, e.g. from
the periodic emptying of vats, may cause a
temporary reduction in sedimentation
efficiency, depending on the size of the
drainage area and of the sewage works.
 contd
• High temperature The reduction in viscosity
which ensues will improve sedimentation, but
any improvement may be offset by the adverse
effect of density currents set up in the tank as a
result of the difference in temperature between
the incoming sewage and that in the tank.
• A higher temperature will encourage bacterial
activity and difficulty may be experienced due
to rising sludge caused by the liberation of gas.
 Contd
• Suspended solids. High concentrations of
inorganic solids, e.g. from collieries and clay
workings, can cause overloading of the grit
removal plant at high flows and increase the
proportion of grit in the sludge, thereby
increasing the density of the sludge and
making collection and removal difficult. High
concentrations of organic matter will increase
the amount of sludge to be dealt with and if
readily putrescible, e.g. from slaughterhouses
 contd
• and the food industry, may cause septicity,
rising sludge and odour nuisance.
• Fibrous solids will increase the bulk of the
sludge, and the possibility of blockages in
pipelines and heat exchangers and the
formation of scum.
 contd
• Colloidal matter. Wastes containing an
excessive amount of colloidal matter, such as
from tanning, fellmongering, food processing,
wool washing and laundering, do not readily
respond to sedimentation and may cause
difficulty at a small works, especially when
there are seasonal flushes, e.g. as from
canneries. Blood and residues from poultry
processing plants may also cause trouble.
 contd
• Metals. Wastes from plating and other metal
working industries, especially those containing
aluminium and iron salts, can flocculate colloidal
matter and thereby increase sedimentation
efficiency. However, the amount of sludge is
increased, due partly to their content of inorganic
matter but more so because such chemically-
flocculated and precipitated sludges may
consolidate much more slowly than those which are
less colloidal.
 Contd
• Ether extractable material. Industrial wastes
containing fats or emulsified oils, e.g. from
meat processing, oil refining, soap making,
wool scouring and tanning, and even from
large numbers of restaurants and canteens, can
coat walls of sedimentation tanks with a fatty
deposit which, if not removed, decomposes to
form lower fatty acids having an unpleasant
odour.
 contd
• pH value. When an industrial waste causes the
pH value of the sewage to rise above 10, e.g.
due to the presence of lime or alkaline salts,
hydrolysis of urea to ammonia is inhibited. A
low pH may have adverse effects, including
metal salts passing into solution and being
carried forward to the biological treatment
plant.
 Primary treatment
Sedimentation
• In the primary sedimentation stage, sewage
flows through large tanks, commonly called
"primary clarifiers" or "primary sedimentation
tanks".
• The tanks are large enough that sludge can
settle and floating material such as grease and
oils can rise to the surface and be skimmed off.
 Primary treatment contd
• The main purpose of the primary sedimentation
stage is to produce both a generally homogeneous
liquid capable of being treated biologically and a
sludge that can be separately treated or processed.
• Primary settling tanks are usually equipped with
mechanically driven scrapers that continually
drive the collected sludge towards a hopper in the
base of the tank from where it can be pumped to
further sludge treatment stages.
 Secondary treatment
• Sedimentation tanks are normally designed to
operate on a continuous flow basis and are
either rectangular or circular in plan, with
hoppers or a trough for the collection of sludge
and power-driven scraper devices to move the
sludge gently across the floor to the outlet.
Facilities are usually provided for collecting
and removing scum and floating debris.
 contd
• Distribution of flow
• When there are a number of tanks, equal
distribution of the sewage to each tank at all
rates of flow is difficult to achieve, particularly
if the site area and head are restricted.
• Unfortunately cut-waters tend to collect rag
and paper, and unless regularly attended to the
division of flow soon becomes unequal.
 contd
• Also, the velocity of the sewage during
distribution must be self-cleansing, otherwise
deposition of solids will occur.
 Types

• Horizontal-flow tanks. These are rectangular

in plan, with the floor sloping towards a sludge
draw-off at the inlet end. Although termed
"horizontal-flow" tanks, the sewage usually
enters at a lower level than the sill of the outlet
weir and during passage through the tank the
flow is affected by eddies and currents,
although its general direction is from one end
of the tank to the other, with the heavier solids
 contd
• being deposited at the inlet end and progressively
lighter solids being deposited as the sewage flows
from the inlet to the outlet
• Radial-flow tanks. These are circular in plan,
with the floor sloping to a central sump. The inlet
is at the centre and since the level at which the
sewage enters the body of the tank is usually much
lower than that of the peripheral weir, the flow has
an upward as well as a radial component.
 contd
• Also, during its passage from the central inlet
to the peripheral outlet the velocity of the
sewage is constantly decreasing, reaching a
minimum at the outlet weir. This destruction of
velocity renders the sewage susceptible to
eddy currents
 contd
• Upward-flow tanks. These may be square or
circular in plan and are basically an inverted
pyramid or cone, with the floor sloping
sharply to a central sump. The inlet is at the
centre and the direction of movement of the
sewage when it enters the body of the tank is
downward. The sewage then flows radially
outward and upward towards a peripheral
outlet weir.
 Secondary treatment
• Secondary treatment is designed to
substantially degrade the biological content of
the sewage such as are derived from human
waste, food waste, soaps and detergent. The
majority of municipal plants treat the settled
sewage liquor using aerobic biological
processes.
• For this to be effective, the biological require
both oxygen and a substrate on which to live.
 Secondary treatment contd
• In all these methods, the bacteria and protozoa
consume biodegradable soluble organic
contaminants (e.g. sugars, fats, organic short-
chain carbon molecules, etc.) and bind much of
the less soluble fractions into floc.
• Secondary treatment systems are classified as
Fixed-film or suspended-growth
• Fixed-film treatment process including trickling
filter and rotating biological contactors
 Secondary treatment contd
• where the biomass grows on media and the sewage
passes over its surface.
• In suspended-growth systems, such as activated sludge,
the biomass is well mixed with the sewage and can be
operated in a smaller space than fixed-film systems that
treat the same amount of water.
• However, fixed-film systems are more able to cope with
drastic changes in the amount of biological material and
can provide higher removal rates for organic material
and suspended solids than suspended growth systems.
 Secondary contd
• Roughing filters are intended to treat particularly strong or
variable organic loads, typically industrial, to allow them to
then be treated by conventional secondary treatment
processes.
• Characteristics include typically tall, circular filters filled with
open synthetic filter media to which wastewater is applied at a
relatively high rate.
• They are designed to allow high hydraulic loading and a high
flow-through of air. On larger installations, air is forced
through the media using blowers. The resultant wastewater is
usually within the normal range for conventional treatment
processes
 4. Tertiary treatment
• The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide
a final treatment stage to raise the effluent
quality before it is discharged to the receiving
environment (sea, river, lake, ground, etc.).
More than one tertiary treatment process may
be used at any treatment plant.
• If disinfection is practiced, it is always the
final process. It is also called "effluent
polishing".
 Tertiary (Advanced) Treatment cntd
• Chemical Phosphorus Removal - Adds chemical
to form precipitate with phosphorus for removal
in the secondary clarifiers
• Biological Nutrient Removal - Removes
nitrogen and phosphorus using specialized
microorganisms
• Multimedia Filtration - Removes additional
suspended solids (beyond that obtained by simple
settling) using gravity or pressure filters
 Tertiary (Advanced) Treatment cntd

Disinfection
• Disinfection Kills pathogenic organisms
Solids Treatment
• Digestion -Stabilizes remaining organic
matter; reduces pathogen levels; results in
overall net reduction in solids
• Disposal -Moves stabilized solids from plant
to farmland for recycling or to landfill
 FLOW MEASUREMENT DEVICES,
COMMUNITOR
• To improve the efficiency of sewage treatment,
the sewage flow should be detected before the
treatment, and the appropriate flow measuring
instruments should be selected based on the
different properties of the sewage such as:
• accuracy of measurement,
• structure optimization,
• instrument signal processing,
 Flow measurement devices contd
• Among the flow measurement instruments,
flowmeters have a wide range of applications,
and differential pressure flowmeters, open
channel flowmeters, electromagnetic
flowmeters, ultrasonic flowmeters, float
flowmeters, and vortex flowmeters are the
most commonly used measuring devices.
 Differential pressure flowmeters

• The fluid in the pipeline interacts with a flow

detection element installed in the pipeline to
generate a differential pressure. The known
fluid conditions and the geometry of the
detection element and the pipeline are used to
calculate the flow. Differential pressure
flowmeters are composed of a detection
element, a differential pressure converter, and
a flow display instrument and are usually
classified as test pieces such as V-cone
flowmeters , orifice flowmeters, and venturi
flowmeters.
 Flow measurement devices contd
• Differential pressure flowmeter
Advantages
• The structure is solid; the application range is
wide
Disadvantages
• The measurement accuracy is generally low;
the measurement range is narrow; high
requirements for on-site installation
conditions; large pressure loss
 Open channel flowmeter
Open channel flowmeters use a flow velocity
measuring device and a water level measuring
instrument and calculate the flow based on the
flow velocity-water level method by utilizing a
microprocessor embedded in the instrument.
Advantages
• Large measurement range; not affected by the
sediment, bubbles, and the large changes in
water levels; it has the water level, mud level,
and velocity over-limit alarm function
 Flow measurement devices contd
Disadvantages
• Large amount of excavation works when
installing flow detection parts; straight
channels require many constraints on the
location of the measurement points
 Electromagnetic flowmeter

• Electromagnetic flowmeters use the principle

of electromagnetic induction to measure the
flow of conductive fluids based on the
electromotive force induced when conductive
fluid passes through an external magnetic field
Advantages
• suitable for liquids or slurries; no pressure loss
during work; the measuring range is large; not
affected by the temperature, and pressure.
 Flow measurement devices contd
Disadvantages
• It can only measure the liquid flow of
conductive media; the installation site must be
free of vibration and strong magnetic fields;
not suitable for viscous liquid with dirt;
• high price
 Ultrasonic flowmeters

• Ultrasonic flowmeters measure flow by

detecting the effect of fluid flow on an
ultrasonic beam or ultrasonic pulse.
• The ultrasonic transmitting transducer
transmits the ultrasonic energy into the
measured flow body, and the receiver receives
the ultrasonic signal, which is amplified by an
electronic circuit and converted into an
electrical signal representing the flow for
display and calculation by the instrument.
 Flow measurement devices contd
• Ultrasonic flowmeter
• Advantages
• Suitable for large pipe diameter; suitable for
liquids and sewage, including the flow of
highly corrosive; large measurement range;
high work efficiency
• Disadvantages The use temperature cannot be
too high; the anti-interference ability is poor;
the accuracy level is not high; high price
 Float flowmeters,
• Float flowmeters, also known as rotor
flowmeters, are a type of variable area flow
measuring instrument. In a vertically tapered
tube which expands from bottom to top, the
gravity of the circular cross-section float is
borne by the hydrodynamic force in such a
way that the float can rise and fall freely in the
cone. It is the second most widely used type of
flow measuring instruments after differential
pressure flowmeters, especially in microflow
measurements
 Flow measurement devices contd
Float flowmeter
• Advantages The glass spinal tube one has a
simple structure;
suitable for small diameter and low flow; low
pressure loss
Disadvantages
• The pressure resistance is low; the glass tube is
fragile
 Vortex flowmeters

• Vortex flowmeters use the principle of fluid

oscillation to measure the flow.
• When the fluid passes through a vortex flow
transmitter in the pipeline, the average velocity
of the fluid flowing through the vortex
generator can be calculated by measuring the
vortex frequency
 Flow measurement devices contd
• Vortex flowmeter
• Advantages The structure is simple;
the measurement range is wide; suitable for
liquid and gas; high measurement accuracy
• Disadvantages
• Poor vibration resistance; the generator is
easily polluted by the medium or entangled
with dirt