SECONDARY TREATMENT SYSTEM

Secondary treatment is a treatment process for wastewater (or sewage) to achieve a certain
degree of effluent quality by using a sewage treatment plant with physical phase separation to
remove settleable solids and a biological process to remove dissolved and suspended organic
compounds.
Secondary treatment is the portion of a sewage treatment sequence removing dissolved and
colloidal compounds measured as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Secondary treatment is
traditionally applied to the liquid portion of sewage after primary treatment has removed
settleable solids and floating material.

TRICKLING FILTER

Is usually constructed of masonry or reinforced concrete structure which is circular or

rectangular in plan. Coarse aggregates of impervious nature are filled on the bed which acts as
filtering media. The underdrainage system is provided below to collect the effluent.

It consists of a fixed bed of rocks, coke, gravel, slag, polyurethane foam, sphagnum peat
moss, ceramic, or plastic media over which sewage or other wastewater flows downward and
causes a layer of microbial slime (biofilm) to grow, covering the bed of media. Aerobic conditions
are maintained by splashing, diffusion, and either by forced - air flowing through the bed or
natural convection of air if the filter medium is porous.

This is the most common secondary treatment in use today; it is a circular tank filled with
3–5″ stones. The wastewater is sprayed or sprinkled over the top of the stones, trickling down
through them; the water is then removed at the bottom of the tank. The stones constitute a
surface upon which the aerobic bacteria grow, consume, and remove organic matter. The
flow from the trickling filter is usually followed by a settling tank that helps in removing
sludges that may have been dislodged from the trickling filter. The effluent is finally
disinfected by chlorination and discharged safely into a water stream. Trickling filters may be
enclosed or not, depending on weather conditions.
Trickling filters are used to remove organic matter from wastewater. The trickling filter is
an aerobic treatment system that utilizes microorganisms attached to a medium to remove
organic matter from wastewater. Trickling filters enable organic material in the wastewater to
be absorbed by a population or microorganisms (aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative bacteria;
fungi, protozoa, and algae) attached to the medium as a biological film or slime layer (ranging
from 0.1 to 0.2 mm thick).

The primary factors that must be considered in the design of trickling filters include

 the type of filter media to be used

 the spraying system, and
 the configuration of the under-drain system

1.Filter media

The ideal filter material is low-cost and durable, has a high surface to volume
ratio, is light, and allows air to circulate. Whenever it is available, crushed rock or gravel is the
cheapest option. Specially manufactured plastic media, such as corrugated plastic sheets or
hollow plastic cylinders, that optimize surface area for bacteria to attach free movement of air
are also available The particles should be uniform and 95% of them should have a diameter
between 7 and 10 cm. A material with a specific surface area between 45 and 60 m2/m3 for rocks
and 90 to 150 m2/m3 for plastic packing is normally used. Larger pores (as in plastic packing) are
less prone to clogging and provide for good air circulation. Primary treatment is also essential to
prevent clogging and to ensure efficient treatment.
2.Rotating sprinkler

It distributes the wastewater over the filter.

Adequate air flow is important to ensure sufficient treatment performance and prevent
odours. To evenly distribute the water on the filter, a “rotary sprinkler/distributor” is most often
used. The rotary distributor consists of a hollow vertical centre column carrying two or more
radial pipes or arms some cm above the filter media (to spread out uniformly and prevent
interfering with ice accumulation during winter season in colder climates), each of which
contains a number of nozzles or orifices for discharging the wastewater onto the bed.

3.Underdrain System

The underdrains should provide a passageway for air at the maximum filling rate. A
perforated slab supports the bottom of the filter, allowing the effluent and excess sludge to be
collected. The trickling filter is usually designed with a recirculation pattern for the effluent to
improve wetting and flushing of the filter material

Advantages
Can be operated at a range of organic and hydraulic loading rates
Resistant to shock loadings
Efficient nitrification (ammonium oxidation)
High effluent quality in terms of BOD and suspended solids removal; in combination with a
primary and tertiary treatment also in terms of pathogens
Small land area required compared to constructed wetlands

Disadvantages
High capital costs
Requires expert design and construction, particularly, the dosing system
Requires operation and maintenance by skilled personnel
Requires a constant source of electricity and constant wastewater flow
Flies and odours are often problematic
Pre-treatment and treatment of excess sludge required
Risk of clogging, depending on pre- and primary treatment
Not all parts and materials may be locally available

Loading

Filter loading are commonly expressed in terms of hydraulic loading and organic load.
The hydraulic load is the number of gallons of sewage applied per acre-foot per day. The organic
loading the number of pounds of BOD per 1000 ft3 of filter medium. Pounds per acre-foot or
cubic yard of filter medium is also used.

Based on hydraulic and BOD loadings, trickling filters are classified as ‘slow’ or standard
rate and ‘rapid’ or high rate trickling filter.

Design specification for filter loadings

-Standard trickling filters are operated at hydraulic loading of 1.1 to 4.4 MGAD (million gallons
per acre per day) with an organic loading of 5.0 – 25 lb. per 1000 ft3 of filter medium per day.

-High rate

a. Hydraulic loading of 8.7 – 44 MGAD

b. Organic loading = 25 – 50 lb./1000 ft3 per day of filter medium.

Note: depth of trickling bed is 5 – 7 ft.; max =10 ft.

Recirculation

To have a successful operation of the trickling filter, it is required to rest between dosing.
While resting the sewage is recirculated in the following processes.

Recirculation is circulating something again for reuse, or recycling to minimize process

cost and increase efficiency. For example, recirculating water is a way of reducing the load of
organic waste in the water and of increasing the amount of oxygen in the water. Effluent is
treated in a wastewater treatment plant through recirculation, where it is piped back to the
beginning of the treatment process and added to the raw wastewater.

A recirculation pump can be used in a system to ensure that hot water is always available
as close to the consumption point as possible, in order to reduce water wastage and to increase
comfort. A recirculation system can save thousands of gallons of fresh water annually.

All cooling towers offer the potential for recirculation, the extent of which depends
primarily upon the entering and exiting air velocities, and their relationship to each other. Higher
entering velocities increase the potential for recirculation, while higher exit velocities decrease
its opportunity.

Recirculation is very important in many systems where water recirculates through the
cooling pipes for absorbing heat so that system can run uninterrupted

a. Biofilter – the recirculation in this case involves bringing of the filter or of the sedimentation
tank back through the primary settling tank. The secondary settling tank sludge is usually very
light and can be continually fed back to the primary settling tank where the two types of sludge
are collected together and pumped to the digester.

b. Accelo – filter – involves the recirculation of filter effluent directly back to the filter.
c. Aero-filter – distributes the sewage by maintaining a continuous rain-like application of the
sewage over the filter bed.

2. ACTIVATED SLUDGE PROCESS

The activated sludge process is a type of wastewater treatment process for treating
sewage or industrial wastewaters using aeration and a biological floc composed of bacteria and
protozoa.
The general arrangement of an activated sludge process for removing carbonaceous
pollution includes the following items: An aeration tank where air (or oxygen) is injected in the
mixed liquor. This is followed by a settling tank (usually referred to as "final clarifier" or
"secondary settling tank") to allow the biological flocs (the sludge blanket) to settle, thus
separating the biological sludge from the clear treated water.
In a sewage (or industrial wastewater) treatment plant, the activated sludge process is a
biological process that can be used for one or several of the following purposes: oxidizing
carbonaceous biological matter, oxidizing nitrogenous matter: mainly ammonium and nitrogen
in biological matter, removing nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus).
 Conclusion
Both trickling filter and activated sludge processes are both biological treatment systems.

Activated Sludge Process

The biomass is in suspension

By this method, polluted water is cleaned by aeration or biological floc made with bacteria and
protozoa.

The wastewater is brought into contact with a diverse group of micro-organisms in the form of
a flocculent suspension in an aerated tank

1. In activated sludge process ,the bacterial film is contained in the fine suspended matter of
sewage and this film is kept moving by constant agitation.
2. Cost of installation is low.
3.There is no fly or odor nuisance.
4. Loss of head through the treatment plant is comparatively low.
5. This process requires small area of land.
6. This process is sensitive to certain types of industrial wastes.

Trickling filter

The biomass is steady

Trickling filter process is a type of setup which is used to clean polluted water and to extract
dirt’s in order to get fresh water. Different layers of different substances are used to filter the
polluted dirty water

The wastewater is brought into contact with a mixed microbial population in the form of a film
of slime attached to the surface of a solid support system

1. In trickling filters, the bacterial film is formed around the particles of contact material and it
is stationary.
2. Cost of construction is high.
3. The process may develop fly nuisance and bad odor.
4. Loss of head through the filter is high.
5. It requires large land area.
6. Trickling filters are flexible in operation. They can be used for treatment of variety of sewage
having different concentration and composition