Chapter 2

Screening, Settling and Flotation

2.0 INTRODUCTION
2.1 SCREENING
2.2 SETTLING
2.3 FLOTATION
2.4 CASE EXAMPLE

By Mrs. Faraziehan Senusi

Room: BKBA 4.45
Lesson Outcomes
At the end of the chapter , students should be able to:
 Define and explain the concept of screening, settling and flotation
processes.
 Determine the head loss in screen and bar racks.
 Explain the differences of rectangular and circular settling basins.
 Determine the settling velocity of particle.
 Calculate the removal efficiency of primary sedimentation basin.
 Explain the concept of dissolved air flotation.
 Calculate the air to solid ratio for different types of dissolved air
flotation.
Three types of unit operations as applied to the physical treatment of water and wastewater:
Screening
 Unit operation that separates materials into different sizes.
 The unit involved is called a screen.
 Two “sizes” of objects are involved in screening in water or wastewater which are water or wastewater
and the objects to be separated out.
Settling
 Unit operation in which solids are drawn toward a source of attraction.
 In gravitational settling, solids are drawn toward gravity;
 in centrifugal settling, solids are drawn toward the sides of cyclones as a result of the centrifugal field;
and
 in electric-field settling, as in electrostatic precipitators, solids are drawn to charge plates.
Flotation
 Unit operation in which solids are made to float to the surface.
 Separation is brought by introducing fine gas bubbles into the liquid phase.
 On account of the solids adhering to the rising bubbles, they are separated out from the water.
2.1 SCREENING
 Bar screens/racks are composed of larger bars spaced
at 25 to 80 mm apart.
 The rack is used to exclude large objects; the traveling
screen following it is used to remove smaller objects
such as leaves, twigs, small fish, and other materials
that pass through the rack.
 The arrangement then protects the pumping station
that lifts this water to the treatment plant.
 Screens are either manually or mechanical cleaned.
Manual bar screen Mechanical bar screen
 Figure shows a microstrainer.
 As shown, this type of microstrainer consists of a straining
material made of a very fine fabric or screen wound around
a drum.
 The drum is about 75% submerged as it is rotated; speeds of
rotation are normally about from 5 to 45 rpm.
 The influent is introduced from the underside of the wound
fabric and exits into the outside. The materials thus strained
is retained in the interior of the drum.
 These materials are then removed by water jets that directs
the loosened strainings into a screening trough located inside
the drum.
 Microstrainers have been used to remove suspended solids
from raw water containing high concentrations of algae.
Municipal wastewater treatment
HEAD LOSSES IN SCREENS AND BAR RACKS
By applying Bernoulli and Continuity Equations:

V1 is called the
approach velocity

So, head loss across the screen:

Apply when approach

velocity is negligible
(microstrainer)
 As the screen clogging, the value of A2 will progressively decrease.
 Therefore, the head loss Δh will theoretically rise to infinity.
 At this point, the screen is no longer functioning.
 Example
A bar screen measuring 2 m by 5 m of surficial flow area is
used to protect the pump in a shoreline intake of a water
treatment plant. The plant is drawing raw water from the
river at a rate of 8 m3/s. The bar width is 20 mm and the bar
spacing is 70 mm. If the screen is 30% clogged, calculate the
head loss through the screen. Assume Cd = 0.60.

At the surface of shoreline,

velocity is negligible (v1 = 0)
Number of bars  opening(x  1)  size of bars (x)  total width
 0.07(x  1)  0.02(x)  5
 0.07x  0.07  0.02x  5
4.93
x  54.78 ~ 55 bars
0.09
Area of clear opening  0.07(55  1)  (2)  7.84m 2

82
h   0.33m of water
2  9.81 0.60  [7.48(0.7)]
2 2
 2.2 SETTLING
 a unit operation in which solids are drawn toward a source of
attraction.
 The particular type of settling that will be discussed in this section
is gravitational settling.
 Settling is different from sedimentation.
 Sedimentation : the condition whereby the solids are already at
the bottom and in the process of sedimenting.
 Settling is not yet sedimenting, but the particles are falling down
the water column in response to gravity.
 As soon as the solids reach the bottom, they begin sedimenting. In
the physical treatment of water and wastewater, settling is
normally carried out in settling or sedimentation basins.
 Sedimentation basins
Generally, two types of sedimentation basins are used:
I. Rectangular settling basins or clarifiers,
 In plan, the length may vary from two to four times the
width. The length may also vary from ten to 20 times
the depth.
 The depth of the basin may vary from 2 to 6m. The
influent is introduced at one end and allowed to flow
through toward the other end.
 The solids that settle at the bottom are continuously
scraped by a sludge scraper and removed.
 The clarified effluent flows out of the unit through a
suitably designed effluent weir and launder.
Rectangular settling basins
 As shown, the influent is introduced at the left-hand side of the tank
and flows toward the right.
 At strategic points, effluent trough (or launders) are installed that
collect the settled water.
 On the way, the solids are then deposited at the bottom. A sludge
scraper is shown at the bottom. This scraper moves the deposited
sludge toward the front end sump for sludge withdrawal.
 Also, the baffles installed beneath each of the launders. These baffles
would guide the flow upward, simulating a realistic upward overflow
direction.
II. Circular settling basins
 Unlike the rectangular basin, circular basins are easily
upset by wind cross currents. Because of its rectangular
shape, more energy is required to cause circulation in
a rectangular basin; in contrast, the contents of the
circular basin is conducive to circular streamlining.
 This condition may cause short circuiting of the flow.
For this reason, circular basins are typically designed
for diameters not to exceed 30m in diameter.
 In this type of clarifier, the raw sewage is introduced at
the center of the tank and the solids settled as the
wastewater flows from the center to the rim of the
clarifier.
Circular settling basins
 Figure shows a different mode of settling
solids in a circular clarifier.
 The influent is introduced at the
periphery of the tank. As indicated by the Effluent
arrows, the flow drops down to the 

Influent 
bottom, then swings toward the center of
the tank, and back into the periphery,
again, into the effluent launder.  sludge

 The solids are deposited at the bottom,

where a squeegee collects them into a
sump for sludge draw-off.
 Generally, four functional zones are in a settling basin:
 the inlet zone; the settling zone; the sludge zone; and the outlet zone.
 The inlet zone provides a transition aimed at properly introducing the inflow
into the tank. For the rectangular basin, the transition spreads the inflow
uniformly across the influent vertical cross section. For one design of a
circular clarifier, a baffle at the tank center turns the inflow radially toward
the rim of the clarifier. On another design, the inlet zone exists at the
periphery of the tank.
 The settling zone is where the suspended solids load of the inflow is removed
to be deposited into the sludge zone below.
 The outlet zone is where the effluent takes off into an effluent weir
overflowing as a clarified liquid.
 Particle Settling Theory
 Generally, four types of settling occurs: types 1 to 4.
 Types 1: removal of discrete particles
 Types 2: removal of flocculent particles
 Type 3: removal of particles that settle in a contiguous zone
 Type 4: type 3 settling where compression or compaction of the particle mass is occurring
at the same time.
 For type 1 settling or discrete settling, as a particle settles in a fluid, its body force
fg, the buoyant force fb, and the drag force fd, act on it. Applying Newton’s second
law in the direction of settling:
fb
f g   p gV p fd
f g  f b  f d  ma
f b   w gV p
f d  C D Ap  w v 2 / 2
 Thus, terminal settling velocity of particle, vp produces
fg
4 (  p   w )d Ap  d 2 / 4 for spherical particles
vp  g
3 CD  w where d is the diameter
 The value of the coefficient of drag CD varies with the flow regimes of
laminar, transitional, and turbulent flows. The respective expressions are:

 Values of Re less than 1 indicate laminar flow, while values greater than 104
indicate turbulent flow. Intermediate values indicate transitional flow.
 Substituting the CD for laminar flow (CD = 24/Re), produces the Stokes equation:

g (  p   w )d 2
vp 
18
 For non-spherical particles, the equivalent diameter d produces
volumetric shape factors, 
1/ 3 angular  0.64
6
d     1/ 3 d p sharp  0.77
  worn  0.86
spherical  0.52
Example
Determine the terminal settling velocity of a spherical particle having a diameter of
0.6 mm and specific gravity of 2.65. Assume the settling is type 1 and the
temperature of the water is 22°C.
Discrete Particle Settling
Inflow Outflow

vh
Flow Through
Velocity

vc
Settling Velocity

• In any tank where the flow is continuous, the solid particles in wastewater experience two
types of velocities:
 along the horizontal direction due to drag force ~ flow through velocity, vh
 along the vertical direction due to gravitational force ~ settling velocity, vc

• Flow through velocity is the velocity with which the wastewater flows through treatment
unit given by equation:
distance travelled L
vh  
time taken t
 In the design of sedimentation basins, the usual procedure is to select a particle
with a terminal velocity, vc and to design the basin so that all particles that have a
terminal velocity equal to or greater than vc will be removed. Surface area

 The rate at which clarified water is produced is

Q  Avc where Q  flowrate (m 3 /s)

A  surface of the sedimentation basin(m 2 )
vc  particle settling velocity (m/s)
 Rearrange yields
Q
vc   overflow rate (m 3 /m 2 .d)
A
 Thus, the critical velocity is equivalent to the overflow rate or surface loading
rate(SLR).
 The design velocity, detention time and basin depth are related as follows:
depth
vc 
detention time
 Detention time is the average time that particles of water have stayed inside the
tank. It also called as retention time or removal time.
 Particles that have a velocity of fall less than vc will not all be removed during the time
provided for settling.
 Assuming that the particles of various sizes are uniformly distributed over the entire
depth of the basin at the inlet, the particle with a settling velocity less than vc will be
removed in the ratio
𝑣𝑝
𝑋𝑟 =
𝑣𝑐
where 𝑋𝑟 is the fraction of the particles with settling velocity vp that are removed.
 For a given clarification rate, Q only those particles with a velocity greater than vc will
be completely removed.
 For discrete particles within a given settling velocity range,
n vni
v
i 1
(ni )
Total fraction removed  n
c
( x 100%  removal efficiency)
n
i 1
i

where v n  average velocity of particles in the ith velocity range

n i  number of particles in the ith velocity range
Example
 n vni
v
i 1
(ni )
Total percent removed  n
c
100
n
i 1
i

394.75 10 5
 5
100
500 10
 78.95%
2.3 FLOTATION
 Floatation is a unit operation used to separate solid or liquid particles from a liquid
phase.
 Separation is brought about by introducing fine gas (usually) air bubbles into the
liquid phase. The bubbles attach to the particulate matter and the buoyant force of
the combined particle and gas bubbles is great enough to cause the particle to rise to
the surface.
 Particles that have a higher density than a liquid can thus be made to rise. The rising
of particles with lower density than a liquid can also be facilitated (e.g., oil
suspension in water)
 It is used principally to remove suspended matter and to concentrate biosolids.
 The principal advantages of floatation over sedimentation are that very small or light
particles that settle slowly can be removed more completely and in a shorter time.
 Once the particles have been floated to the surface, they can be collected by a
skimming operation.
Waste flow is pressurized to approach saturation

released to the atmospheric pressure

Minute air bubbles are released from the solution

SS, oil & grease, sludge flocs are floated

attachment with air bubbles

Enmeshed in the floc particles

Air-solids mixture rises to the surface

 Air bubbles are added or caused to form by:
 Injection of air while the liquid is under pressure, followed by
release of the pressure (dissolved-air flotation)
 Aeration at atmospheric pressure (dispersed-air flotation)
 The degree of removal can be enhanced through the use of various
chemical additives. It functioned by create a surface or a structure that
can easily absorb or entrap air bubbles.
 Inorganic chemicals such as aluminium and ferric salts and activated
silica can be used to bind the particulate matter together and it create
a structure that can easily entrap air bubbles.
 Various organic polymers can be used to change the nature of either the
air-liquid interface or the solid-liquid interface or both.
 In municipal wastewater treatment, dissolved-air flotation is frequently
used, especially for thickening of waste biosolids.
Dissolved-air flotation

Dissolved-air flotation without recycle in which the Dissolved-air flotation with recycle in which only the
entire flow is passed through the pressurizing tank recycle flow is pressurized

Dissolved air flotation units are usually designed on the basis of the air to solid ratio, (A/S) .
Case 1: When effluent is not recycled.

Wastewater is first retained for some time in the

pressure tank where pressure of wastewater is
increased to as high as 275-350 kPa and air
dissolved in it. The, the flow is fed to the flotation
unit through a pipeline having a pressure-reducing
valve. As the pressure is released, the dissolved air
comes out of the solution as fine as air bubbles
which are used for particle separation by flotation.

A 1.3  S a' ( fP  1)

S Si
Case 2: When effluent is recirculated.
In this case, a predetermined fraction of
effluent from the flotation unit is taken to the
pressurized tank where it is pressurized, and
the air is dissolved below the saturation level.
The flow is then mixed with the influent
entering the flotation unit through a pressure-
reducing valve so that air bubbles come out
from the recycled flow and get attached with
the particles of incoming raw wastewater that
are to be removed by flotation.

A 1.3  S ( fP  1)  Qr
'
 a
S Si  Q
A  volume of air (ml )
S  mass of solids mg 
1.3  weight of 1 ml of air mg 
S a'  solubility of air mL/L  (T depended function)
f  fraction of air dissolved at pressure P atm 
p  101.35
P  operating pressure in atm 
101.35
where p  gauge pressure in kPa
Si  influent suspended solids or sludge solids mg/L 

Qr  pressurized recycled flow m 3 /d 
Q  mixed liquor flow m /d 
3
Example
The following conditions apply for a flotation thickener to increase the
concentration of activated sludge solids containing 3000 mg/L of initial
concentration of solids from 0.3 to about 4 percent. The given data:

Determine the required recycle rate for the design of flotation thickener with recycle and
compute the surface area of the thickener unit.
 A 1.3  S ( fP  1)  Qr
'
 a
S Si  Q

recycle rate, Qr  461.87 m /d

3

sludge flow rate

Surface area, A 
surface loading rate
Q  Qr
  74.82m 2
SLR