Wastewater Treatment Methods

 Physical Unit Operations

 Chemical Unit Operations
 Biological Unit Operations
 Among the first treatment methods used
were physical unit operations, in which
physical forces are applied to remove
contaminants. Today, they still form the basis
of most process flow systems for wastewater
treatment. This section briefly discusses the
most commonly used physical unit
operations.
The screening of waste-
water, one of the oldest
treatment methods,
removes pollutants from
the waste stream to protect
downstream equipment
from damage, avoid
interference with plant
operations and prevent
objectionable floating
material from entering the
primary settling tanks.
Screening devices may consist of parallel bars,
rods or wires, grating, wire mesh, or
perforated plates, to intercept large floating
or suspended material. The openings may be
of any shape, but are generally circular or
rectangular. The material retained from the
manual or mechanical cleaning of bar racks
and screens is referred to as “screenings”, and
is either disposed of by burial or incineration.
Comminutors are used to pulverize and crush
large floating material in the waste flow.
They are installed where the handling of
screenings would be impractical.
 A comminutor may have either rotating or
oscillating cutters. Rotating-cutter comminutors
either engage a separate stationary screen
alongside the cutters, or a combined screen and
cutter rotating together.
Sedimentation, a fundamental and widely
used unit operation in waste-water
treatment, involves the gravitational settling
of heavy particles suspended in a mixture.
This process is used for the removal of grit,
particulate matter in the primary settling
basin.
Sedimentation takes place in a settling tank,
also referred to as a clarifier. There are three
main designs, namely, horizontal flow, radial
and vertical type sedimentation tanks
 Flotation is a unit operation used to remove solid or liquid
particles from a liquid phase by introducing a fine gas,
usually air bubbles. The gas bubbles either adhere to the
liquid or are trapped in the particle structure of the
suspended solids, raising the buoyant force of the
combined particle and gas bubbles.
 Particles that have a higher density than the liquid can thus
be made to rise. In waste-water treatment, flotation is
used mainly to remove suspended matter and to
concentrate biological sludge. The chief advantage of
flotation over sedimentation is that very small or light
particles can be removed more completely and in a shorter
time. Once the particles have been floated to the surface,
they can be skimmed out.
 Dissolved-air flotation
 Air flotation
 Vacuum flotation
 Chemical additives
 The filtration of effluents from waste-water treatment
processes is a relatively recent practice, but has come to be
widely used for the supplemental removal of suspended
solids from waste-water effluents of biological and
chemical treatment processes, in addition to the removal
of chemically precipitated phosphorus. The complete
filtration operation comprises two phases: filtration and
cleaning or backwashing.
 The waste-water to be filtered is passed through a filter
bed consisting of granular material(sand, anthracite)
with or without added chemicals. Within
the filter bed, suspended solids contained in the waste-
water are removed.
 The phenomena that occur during the filtration
phase are basically the same for all types of
filters used for waste-water filtration. The
cleaning/backwashing phase differs, depending
on whether the filter operation is continuous or
semi continuous. In semi-continuous filtration,
the filtering and cleaning operations occur
sequentially, whereas in continuous filtration the
filtering and cleaning operations occur
simultaneously.
There are two types of sand filtration
processes:
 rapid gravity sand filtration, and
 slow sand filtration.
 Chemical unit processes
• Chemical processes used in waste-water
treatment are designed to bring about some form
of change by means of chemical reactions. They
are always used in conjunction with physical unit
operations and biological processes.
• This section discusses the main chemical unit
processes, including chemical precipitation,
adsorption, disinfection, dechlorination and other
applications.
 “Process of removing fine size suspended
particles by addition of necessary amount of
suspended chemicals called co-agulants, to
water before sedimentation”.

 Common co-agulants in use are:

 Alum K2SO4.Al2(SO4)3.24H2O
 Ferrous Sulphate FeSO4·7H2O
 Flocculation

• Al2(SO4)3 + 3Ca(HCO3)2 2Al(OH)3 +3CaSO4 + 6CO2

co-agulant calcium bicarbonate gelatinuous floc

• FeSO4 + Mg(HCO3)2 Fe(OH)2 +MgCO3 + CO2 + H2O

o Coagulants are generally added in solution & for their

proper mixing mixers are employed
Chemical precipitation
 Adsorption with Activated Carbon
• Adsorption is the process of collecting soluble
substances within a solution on a suitable interface.
• Activated carbon is produced by heating char to a high
temperature and then activating it by exposure to an
oxidizing gas at high temperature. The gas develops a
porous structure in the char and thus creates a large
internal surface area. A fixed-bed column is often used
to bring the waste-water into contact with AC. The
water is applied to the top of the column and
withdrawn from the bottom, while the carbon is held
in place.
 Disinfection
• The process of destroying disease causing
bacteria, microorganisms etc. from water is
known as disinfection of water.
• Commonly used means of disinfection include
the following:
• Physical agents such as heat and light.
• Mechanical means such as screening,
sedimentation, filtration, and so on.
• Radiation, mainly gamma rays.
 Disinfection
• Chemical agents including chlorine and its
compounds, bromine, iodine, ozone, phenol and
phenolic compounds, alcohols, heavy metals,
dyes, soaps and synthetic detergents.

• In applying disinfecting agents, several factors

need to be considered: contact time,
concentration and type of chemical agent,
intensity and nature of physical agent,
temperature, number of organisms, and nature of
suspending liquid.
 Dechlorination
• Dechlorination is the removal of free and total
combined chlorine residue from chlorinated
wastewater effluent before its reuse or
discharge to receiving waters. Chlorine
compounds react with many organic
compounds in the effluent to produce
undesired toxic compounds that cause long-
term adverse impacts on the water
environment and potentially toxic effects on
aquatic micro-organisms.
 Biological waste water treatment
1. It is a type of waste water treatment in which microorganisms such as
bacteria are used to remove pollutants from waste water through bio-
chemical reaction.

Classification of biological Waste water methods

Suspended and attached Aerobic and

treatment
Suspended growth process is a biological
w.w.t in which microorganisms are
maintained in suspension while converting
organic matter to gases and cell tissue
(Activated sludge).
Attached growth is a biological w.w.t in
which microorganisms responsible for the
conversion of organic matter to gases
and cell tissue are attached to some
material such as rocks, sand, or plastic
(Trickling filter).
anaerobic
Aerobic: biological treatment is a
process in which the pollutants in the
waste water (organic matter) are
stabilized by microorganisms in the
presence of molecular oxygen
Anaerobic: biological treatment is a
process in which the pollutants in the
waste water (organic matter) are
stabilized by microorganisms in the
absence of molecular oxygen
• Activated-sludge process
• Aerated lagoons
• Trickling filters
• Rotating Biological contactors
 Activated Sludge System
Process Description:
• It is aerobic suspended growth biological wastewater
treatment method in which dissolved organic and inorganic
matter can be removed.
•This treatment is achieved in tanks called aeration tanks.
Oxygen is supplied to these tanks to allow aerobic
biochemical reaction to occur.
• In the aeration tank, the microorganisms feed on dissolved
solids mainly organic matter and produce large amounts of
bacteria (colonies). This means that microorganisms convert
dissolved solids into suspended solids (the bacterial colonies).
 Activated Sludge System
Process Description:
•After the aeration tank, a secondary sedimentation tank is
installed to separate the bacteria from liquid
• The separated bacteria is called activated sludge. Part of the
sludge is wasted and the remaining part is returned back
(Recycle) to the aeration tank. The recycle of the sludge to
aeration tank is very important to keep a specific
concentration of the bacteria in the system to perform
wastewater treatment.
• The mixture of wastewater with bacteria in the aeration tank
is called mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS)
 Principal of activated sludge
Q, So Aerated Tank (Q + Qr)
Secondary (Q - Qw)
X, S, V Sedimentation
Tank S, Xe

Recycle Qr, Xr, S

Qw, Xr

Q = waste water flow rate So = concentration of pollutants such as

X = the mixed liquor suspended solids
concentration (MLSS) bacteria
concentration
Xr = concentration of recycled activated
sludge
BOD
S = concentration of dissolved pollutants
in the aerated tank and the effluent
V = volume of the aerated tank

Xe = effluent suspended solids

concentration
Qw = waste sludge flow rate
Qr = return sludge flow rate
 Principal of Trickling Filter
1. Trickling filter is an aerobic attached growth biological system
2. The major components of the trickling filter are:
• The tank
• Rotary distributor
• Filter media (crushed stones, gravel, plastic)
• Under drain system
• Ventilation
 Principal of Trickling Filter

3. Biological process
• The bacteria is attached to the filter media forming a biological
layer called also bio-film
• Sprinkled wastewater over the filter media forms liquid film
including food and dissolved oxygen.
• The bacteria (bio-film) absorbs the organic matter and oxidized
it producing CO2, H2O, NH3 and new cell
• The biological layer consists of aerobic and anaerobic
partitions.
• When the mass of the bio-film increase the lower layer will be
anaerobic with lower food supply which will lead to the
decrease of the attaching force between the bio-film and the
filter media. In this case the bio-film is sloughed out
(disconnected) and flows out with the wastewater to the final
sedimentation tank where it settles.