WATER WASTE TREATMENT

Prepared by Group 2
 What is Wastewater?
Wastewater refers to all effluent from
household, commercial establishments
and institutions, hospitals, industries and
so on. It also includes stormwater and
urban runoff, agricultural, horticultural
and aquaculture effluent.
Effluent refers to the sewage or liquid
waste that is discharged into water bodies
either from direct sources or from
treatment plants. Influent refers to water,
wastewater, or other liquid flowing into a
reservoir, basin or treatment plant.
 Sewage is also wastewater. It is
wastewater originating from toilets and
bathroom fixtures, bathing, laundry,
kitchen sinks, cleaners, and similar
dirty water that is produced in
households and public places. Water
used to irrigate turf and gardens,
swimming pools, roof drainage, surface
runoff and storm water are all
wastewater but not classified as sewage.
Types of Wastewater

Black Water
Gray Water
Yellow Water
What is Present in Wastewater?
Organic Matter
Inorganic Matter

Diseases Present in Wastewater

Gastroenteritis Cholera
Hepatitis A Dysentery
Typhoid Polio
What is Wastewater Treatment?

Wastewater treatment is a process used to convert wastewater - which is water no

longer needed or suitable for its most recent use - into an effluent that can be either returned to
the water cycle with minimal environmental issues or reused. The latter is called water
reclamation and implies avoidance of disposal by use of treated wastewater effluent for various
purposes. Treatment means removing impurities from water being treated; and some methods
of treatment are applicable to both water and wastewater. The physical infrastructure used for
wastewater treatment is called a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
Domestic Wastewater Treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process
of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both
runoff (effluents) and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological
processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its
objective is to produce an environmentally-safe fluid waste stream (or treated
effluent) and a solid waste (or treated sludge)suitable for disposal or reuse
(usually as farm fertilizer).
What happens after collection of the wastewater?

The wastewater continues to flow through the collection system

and eventually reaches the wastewater treatment plant. Upon reaching
the plant, the flow first encounters preliminary treatment. Preliminary
treatment is followed by primary treatment, then secondary treatment,
and perhaps advanced or tertiary treatment. The solids or sludge
removed from the wastewater stream also needs to be treated.
 Stages of Wastewater Treatment

Primary Treatment
Secondary Treatment
Tertiary Treatment
Preliminary Treatment
Preliminary treatment processes are the first processes that the
wastewater encounters. This typically involves flow measurement so that
the operator can quantify how much wastewater is being treated. Flow
monitoring is commonly followed by screenings removal.
Screenings are string like materials and large foreign objects like sticks or
perhaps an errant golf ball. These materials need to be removed because
they can damage machinery or clog processes. Screenings can be
removed using bar screens and other devices designed for this purpose.
Preliminary Treatment

Grit is comprised of inorganic material such as sand, gravel, eggshells, etc. It

is desirable to remove grit to prevent wear and abrasion on pumps and other
mechanical equipment. Grit can also plug lines and pipes. In this influent
area, sampling equipment is often used to collect small portions of the
wastewater for analysis. Sampling enables the operator to determine the
pollutant loadings entering the plant (influent).
 Primary Treatment
Primary treatment is a physical settling process that removes solids.
Wastewater that enters the primary settling tank (or clarifier) is
slowed down to enable the heavier solids to settle to the bottom. Lighter
materials, such as grease, will float to the top of the tank. Settling tanks are
designed with mechanisms to remove both the settled solids, as well as the
floating solids. Primary clarifiers are either circular or rectangular. Both
types work equally well when properly designed and maintained. Not all
plants have primary treatment. Primary treatment generates primary
sludge. The sludge is removed and pumped to the solids treatment process
for ultimate removal.
Primary Sedimentation Tank
 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. To be
effective, the biota requires both oxygen and food to live. 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
The two most common conventional methods
used to achieve secondary treatment are attached
growth processes and suspended growth processes.

Attached Growth Processes In attached growth

(or fixed film) processes, bacteria, algae, fungi and
other microorganisms grow and multiply on the
surface of stone or plastic media, forming a
microbial growth or slime layer (biomass) on the
media. Wastewater passes over the media along
with air to provide oxygen, and the bacteria
consume most of the organic matter in the
wastewater as food. Attached growth process units
include trickling filters, biotowers, and rotating
biological contactors.
Secondary Treatment

Suspended Growth Processes In suspended growth processes,

the microbial growth is suspended in an aerated water mixture
where the air is pumped in, or the water is agitated sufficiently to
allow oxygen transfer. The suspended growth process speeds up the
work of aerobic bacteria and other microorganisms that break down
the organic matter in the sewage by providing a rich aerobic
environment where the microorganisms suspended in the
wastewater can work more efficiently. This allows the bacteria and
other microorganisms to break down the organic matter in the
wastewater. Suspended growth process units include variations of
activated sludge, oxidation ditches and sequencing batch reactors.
Types of Bacteria Used in Wastewater Treatment
Aerobic bacteria are used in most new treatment plants in an aerated
environment. This means that there is dissolved oxygen available for
the respiration of the bacteria.
Anaerobic bacteria are normally used in an anaerobic digester to reduce
the volume of sludge to be disposed of and to produce methane gas.
Facultative bacteria are able to change their mode of respiration from
aerobic to anaerobic and back again. These bacteria are able to adapt to
either condition, although they prefer the aerobic condition.
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."
Video Presentation 1
SLUDGE TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL
PREPARED BY GROUP 2
WHAT IS SLUDGE?
Sludge is a semi-solid slurry and can be produced as sewage sludge from
wastewater treatment processes or as a settled suspension obtained from
conventional drinking water treatment and numerous other industrial
processes.
Sewage sludge refers to the residual, semi-solid material that is
produced as a by-product during sewage treatment of industrial or
municipal wastewater. The term septage is also referring to sludge from
simple wastewater treatment but is connected to simple on-site
sanitation systems, such as septic tanks.
SLUDGE TREATMENT
Sewage sludge treatment describes the processes used to
manage and dispose of sewage sludge produced during sewage
treatment. Sludge is mostly water with lesser amounts of solid
material removed from liquid sewage. Primary sludge includes
settle able solids removed during primary treatment in primary
clarifiers. Secondary sludge separated in secondary clarifiers
includes treated sewage sludge from secondary treatment
bioreactors.
SEWAGE SLUDGE TREATMENT PROCESS
Thickening

Digestion

Conditioning

Dewatering

Heat Drying

Incineration
 TREATMENT PROCESS
Thickening is often the first step in a sludge treatment process. Sludge from primary or
secondary clarifiers may be stirred (often after addition of clarifying agents) to form larger,
more rapidly settling aggregates. Primary sludge may be thickened to about 8 or 10 percent
solids, while secondary sludge may be thickened to about 4 percent solids. Thickeners often
resemble a clarifier with the addition of a stirring mechanism. Thickened sludge with less than
ten percent solids may receive additional sludge treatment while liquid thickener overflow is
returned to the sewage treatment process.
TYPES OF THICKENING
a.Gravity thickening
Gravity thickening is the
most commonly used method
for the thickening of primary
sludge. It can be carried out in
the conventional sedimentation
tank (circular tank is preferred).
As the sludge gets concentrated
by gravity, the supernatant can
be returned to the treatment
plant (i.e. primary settling
tank).
TYPES OF THICKENING
b.Flotation thickening
Flotation thickening causes sludge
solids to rise to the surface where they are
collected. This is accomplished by using a
dissolved air flotation process. The process
is best suited to activated sludge treatment
where solids contents of 4 percent or higher
are obtained. This process will generally not
be applicable in the size of plants used by the
military because of the increased operator
attention which it requires. Therefore, this
process will not be used at military
installations without demonstrated
economic advantage with life cycle costs.
 Conditioning

In this process sludge solids are treated with chemicals or other means to
prepare sludge for dewatering.It improves the drainability of disgested
sludge.Sludge becomes more amenable to dewatering.It can be achieved by
various methods such as elutriation,chemical conditioning ,heat treatment,
freezing etc.
 Dewatering
Digested sewage sludge is usually dewatered before disposal. Dewatered
sludge still contains a significant amount of wateroften as much as 70
percentbut, even with that moisture content, sludge no longer behaves as
a liquid and can be handled as a solid material.

Sludge-drying beds provide the simplest method of dewatering. A

digested sludge slurry is spread on an open bed of sand and allowed to
remain until dry. Drying takes place by a combination of evaporation and
gravity drainage through the sand.
Sludge-Drying Beds
Alternatives to sludge-drying beds include the rotary drum vacuum filter, the
centrifuge, and the belt filter press. These mechanical systems require less space
than do sludge-drying beds, and they offer a greater degree of operational control.

rotary drum vacuum filter

belt filter press
Digestion
Many sludge are treated using a
variety of digestion techniques, the
purpose of which is to reduce the amount
of organic matter and the number of
disease-causing microorganisms present
in the solids. The most common
treatment options include anaerobic
digestion, aerobic digestion, and
composting.
 Anaerobic Digestion Aerobic Digestion
Anaerobic digestion is a Aerobic digestion is a process in sewage
collection of processes by which treatment designed to reduce the volume of
microorganisms break down sewage sludge and make it stable appropriate
biodegradable material in the for subsequent us. It is a bacterial process
absence of oxygen.The process occurring in the presence of oxygen. Bacteria
rapidly consume organic matter and convert it
is used for industrial or
into carbon dioxide, water and a range of lower
domestic purposes to manage
molecular weight organic compounds. As there
waste or to produce fuels. Much is no new supply of organic material from
of the fermentation used sewage, the activated sludge biota begin to die
industrially to produce food and and are used as food by saporotrophic bacteria.
drink products, as well as home This stage of the process is known as
fermentation, uses anaerobic endogenous respiration and it is process that
digestion. reduces the solid concentration in the sludge.
Heat Drying
It involves the application of heat to evaporate water and to reduce the
moisture content of biosolids through conduction, convection or radiation.
Advantage of this method is to reduce product transportation costs, improve
storage capability, and marketability.

Sludge Incineration
Sewage sludge is a good fertilizer because of the high concentrations of phosphorus
and nitrogen; however, it can also be a sink for contaminants. In addition to various
organic substances, heavy metals may end up in the sludge and pollute the environment.
This is why sludge incineration has become more common in recent years. It is also
possible to receive a positive energy balance out of incineration and utilize the calorific
value of sludge. The main driver for sludge incineration has, however, been the fact that
the amount of sludge generated at municipal wastewater treatment plants is very large
compared to the land area available for the disposal or treatment (e.g. composting) of the
sludge.
Video Presentation 1
SLUDGE DISPOSAL

While considering the final

disposal of sludge, its
beneficial uses are first
taken into account. Sludge
is useful for the supply of
nutrients to the soil, besides
possessing the properties of
soil conditioning.
Land applications of sludge (as a fertilizer)

The spreading of sludge on or just below the soil surface is considered as land
applications of sludge. Sludge may be used in the agricultural lands, forest lands, and
dedicated land disposal sites. The pathogens and toxic organic compounds present in the
sludge can be respectively destroyed by sunlight and soil microorganisms. Sludge
applied to land is thus useful as a soil conditioner to improve the characteristics of land-
nutrient transport facilitation and increased water retention. Thus, sludge can replace the
expensive fertilizers.
Distribution and Marketing:
Distribution and marketing of sludge for beneficial purposes is gaining importance in
recent years. It is estimated that about 10-20% of the total sludge produced is utilized in
this fashion. The marketed sludge is used as substitution for topsoil and peat on parks,
lawns, golf courses and in ornamental and vegetable gardens. There are regulatory
requirements to reduce the pathogenic organisms for distribution and marketing of
sludge.
Lagoons:

A lagoon is a shallow lake (or earth basin) usually located near a river or a sea.
Lagooning (disposal of sludge into lagoons) is a convenient method of sludge
disposal if the treatment plant is located at a remote place.