Wastewater Treatment

Aran ~ Miranda ~ Riego ~ Santos ~ Sy

Where does it all go?

Where does the water from the washer go? When you flush the toilet where does the contents go?

By gravity flow, the waste is on its way to the wastewater treatment plants

Why Treat Wastewater?

To protect the wildlife that call those environments home Causes a demand for dissolved oxygen (lower DO levels of streams) Increases suspended solids or sediments in streams (turbidity increase) In some cases, wastewater can be clean enough for reuse for

particular purposes

Why Treat Wastewater?

Wastewater treatment is important to remove constituents or contaminants that could harm people or the environment. Common constituents in domestic wastewater are:
Organics Solids Nutrients Pathogens

What happens to treated Wastewater?

Treated wastewater (effluent) may be discharged to a nearby water body such as a stream or lake.
It may also be reused, for example, for irrigation or industrial processes.

Preliminary Treatment
Mechanical screens remove materials like rags, sticks, etc. Grit removal processes remove grit, sand and granular materials. Grit removal is the forced separation of gritty material (gravel, sand, egg shells, seeds, etc.) from wastewater.

Materials removed
fats, oils, and greases (aka FOG)

sand, gravels and rocks (aka grit)

larger settleable solids including human waste,

and
floating materials

Primary Treatment
A physical process. Wastewater flow is slowed down and suspended solids settle to the bottom by gravity.

The material that settles is called sludge or biosolids.

Primary treatment reduces the suspended solids and

the B.O.D. of the wastewater.

Primary Treatment
Sludge from the primary sedimentation tanks is pumped to the sludge thickener. From the primary treatment tanks water is pumped to

the trickling filter for secondary treatment.

Sludge is scraped from the bottom of the tank into a

hopper, and is pumped from the tank for processing.

Primary Sedimentation
Primary sedimentation is the oldest and most widely used form of wastewater treatment. Sedimentation describes the tendency of floating or suspended particles to settle to the bottom of the tank by gravity.

SECONDARY TREATMENT

SECONDARY TREATMENT PROCESSES

Activated sludge
Trickling filter Non-electric secondary filtration (FilterPod) Oxidation ponds

Biological Wastewater Treatment

Principal Goals Many of the microbes present in wastewater are beneficial. In fact, many wastewater treatment technologies are dependent on these beneficial microorganisms for remediation of wastewater so that it won't detrimentally impact the environment. One of the primary goals of biological treatment is the removal of organic material from wastewater so that excessive oxygen consumption won't become a problem when it is released to the environment.

Waste

DO

TRICKLING FILTER

TRICKLING FILTER
A trickling filter consists of a bed of highly permeable media on whose surface a mixed population of microorganisms is developed as a slime layer.

TRICKLING FILTER

TRICKLING FILTER
Pros:

Low construction cost

Cheap oxygen delivery Non-electric systems available

Cons: Temperature Dependent Vulnerable to congestion, which can lead to flooding and system failure, low oxygen supply, and restricted water flow Can occupy a larger area than activated sludge High Maintenance on some older types

COMMON PROBLEMS
Ponding is normally the result of: (a) excessive organic loading without a corresponding higher recirculation rate, (b) use of media which is too small, (c) clogging of underdrain system, (d) non-uniform media size or breaking up of media, and (e) trash or debris in filter voids

COMMON PROBLEMS
It can be eliminated by: Spraying the surface with high pressure water hose.

Stirring or agitating ponding area with stick, rake, etc.

Dousing the filter with chlorine. Flooding filter and keeping the media submerged for approximately 24 hours will sometimes cause the growth to slough. Growths become anaerobic and tend to release from media.

Shutting off the flow to the filter. The growths will die and tend to be
flushed out when the unit is put back into service.

COMMON PROBLEMS
Odors Since the trickling filter is an aerobic process, no serious odors should exist. If foul odors are present, anaerobic conditions are the most likely cause. Anaerobic conditions usually predominate next to the media surface. If the surface of the slime growth is aerobic, odors should be minimal. If odors are present, corrective action should be taken immediately or the condition could get worse.

COMMON PROBLEMS
It can be eliminated by: Check the ventilation of the filter for clogging and stoppages. Check the underdrain system for clogging and stoppages.

Increase recirculation rate; this usually provides added oxygen to the

filter and may increase sloughing. Keep wastewater in filter; do not allow it to splash on exposed surfaces,

weeds, or grass.
Add odor-masking agents. Pre-chlorination at primary tank influent or at the dosing tank.

COMMON PROBLEMS
Weather Problems. Cold weather can cause an occasional build-up of ice on the media, walls,

distributor arms and orifices, resulting in operating problems and loss of

efficiency. During cold temperatures, the organism's metabolic process slow down and as a result efficiency decreases.

COMMON PROBLEMS
It can be eliminated by: Decrease the recirculation rate to prevent splashing at distributor arm,

but maintain sufficient flow to keep the filter working.

Adjust orifices at splash plates to reduce the spraying effect. Construct wind screens or covers to reduce heat loss. Break up any ice build-up. Partially open flap gates at end of distributor arm to allow for a stream of

water rather than a spray of water.

Secondary Treatment - Aeration

After leaving the primary clarifiers, the sewage goes to any one of the aeration tanks. The contents of the aeration tanks, which require a delicate balance of food and oxygen, are commonly referred to as the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) or activated sludge. The activated sludge converts organic substances into oxidized products and a settleable floc which is settled out in the secondary clarifiers. Raw sewage can be introduced in various locations and be aerated and mixed for varying lengths of time and intensity.

Microbes To 2nd Clarifier

Waste Water from 1st Clarifier

Aeration Tank

PROCESS (ACTIVATED SLUDGE)

Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Eutrophication

Biochemical oxidation reactions involve the conversion of organic material using oxygen and nutrients into carbon dioxide, water and new cells. The equation that expresses this is: Organic material + O2 + nutrients CO2 + H2O + new cells + nutrients + energy It can be seen from this equation that organisms use oxygen to breakdown carbon-based materials for assimilation into new cell mass and energy. A common measure of this oxygen use is biochemical oxygen demand (BOD).

Soft and Hard BOD

The time-course for the removal of the organic carbon varies with the ability of the activated sludge bacteria to ingest it. Small molecular weight compounds will start to be removed from the sewage immediately after it has entered theactivated sludge tanks. Their removal may be completed in 1 2 hours. This group of compounds is often referred to as the readily biodegradable or Soft BOD. Other, higher molecular weight compounds will take several hours to be degraded and removed. Yet other compounds are more recalcitrant, and may still be present after several days. This less readily biodegradable BOD is often referred to as Hard BOD. The net result is that larger, complex organic carbon molecules may be not be degraded because the treatment time available (the hydraulic retention time) is not sufficiently long, and they will therefore pass out in the effluent.

Bacterial flocs
In a well-maintained aeration tank, the bacteria are concentrated in the flocculent material of the activated sludge. The flocs are formed from aggregates of non-living organic polymers that are probably secreted by bacteria. They have an open porous structure, and are sufficiently robust to withstand the shear forces created by water movement, during aeration of the tanks. They vary in size from less than 10 m up to 1mm (1000 m). The bacteria are adsorbed on to the internal and external surfaces of the floc, and a medium sized floc may harbour several million bacteria. Immediately after the wastewater enters the aeration tank, the fine particulates, colloidal particles and large molecules, become entangled with, and adsorbed to, the floc material. This has the advantage that the enzymes that are secreted by the bacteria into the water, will tend to be confined in the vicinity of the substrate, thereby facilitating their digestion. After several hours they will be heavy enough to settle down in next clarifier

Calculations -Food to Microorganism Ratio

The number of microorganisms which are used to seed the aeration chamber is carefully controlled and is based on the food to microorganism ratio (F/M ratio). Microorganisms will most efficiently break down the organic matter in water if they are present in the right proportion. If the appropriate food to microorganism ratio is followed, then there will be efficient B.O.D. removal in the aerator. One manufacturer, Clow, suggests that the best food to microorganism ratio is about 0.6.

Calculating the F/M Ratio

In order to calculate the proper amount of microorganisms to be added to the aeration basin, you will need to use the following formula:

(For the units of the formula to cancel out, you should be aware that the F/M ratio has no units and the constant, 8.34, actually has the units "lb/(Million Gallons per Day(MGD) mg/L)".) The formula for the F/M ratio can also be simplified as:

 So let's calculate the pounds of microbes which need to be added to the aeration basin of a plant over the span of a day. The plant has a capacity (or flow) of 18,000 gallons per day. The B.O.D of the water is 200 mg/L. You want to achieve a F/M ratio of 0.6. To determine the pounds of microbes, first you must make sure that all of the units match. You should notice that you have a flow rate of 18,000gallons/day while you need your flow to have the units MGD. So you will need to convert the units:

 Now all of your units match and you can simply plug the numbers into the formula:

So you will need to add 50.04 pounds of microbes to the aeration basin for the day.

Returned Activated Sludge

But how do you add 50.04 lbs of microbes to the aeration basin? You do not have pure microbes available. Instead, you have a mixture of sludge and microbes from the clarifier. This mixture is known as Returned Activated Sludge or RAS. RAS has some typical properties. When dried, 100 grams of RAS weighs 5 grams. When cooked at 550C, 100 grams of RAS weighs 3 grams. And, most importantly for our calculations, 2% of RAS is microbes. So, if you have 100 grams of RAS, 2 grams of this is made up of microbes.

 Using this last property, we can make a formula to determine how much RAS to feed in order to provide a given amount of microbes: Using this formula, we can determine how much RAS we need to feed into the aeration basin for the situation we discussed in the last section:

So, we need to feed 2,502 pounds of returned activated sludge into the aeration basin each day.

PROCESS (ACTIVATED SLUDGE)

Pros:

Low construction cost

Occupies small area Relatively low odor Removes a high percent of BOD

Cons:

High operating cost (air pumps)

High energy expenses for oxygen demand

Thank You!