 Theremoval and degradation of organic

matter under controlled condition

 Primary treatment
 Secondary treatment
 Tertiary treatment
A physical process that involves the
separation of large debries, followed by
sedimentation
 Comprises grit tank and settling tank
 Settling tank also known as sedimentation
tank (sand and gravel)/clarifier
 About half suspended organic solids settle to
the bottom as sludge or biosolids (primary
sludge)
 Consist of biological degradation
(decomposed and the number of pathogens is
reduced)
 The effluent from primary treatment may be
pumped into a tricklingfilter bed ( an
aeration tank/a sewage lagoon
 Disinfection step is generally included at the
end of treatment
• Rocks provide a matrix supporting the growth
of a microbial biofilm that actively degrades
the organic material under aerobic
conditions
• Effluen from primary treatment is pumped
into a tank and mixed with bacteria-rich
known as activated sludge
• air and pure oxygen pumped through the
mixture promotes bacterial growth and
decomposition of the organic material
 Water siphon off the top of the tank
 Sludge is removed from the bottom
 Some of the sludge is used as an inoculum for
the incoming activated sludge
 The sludge that is not return as secondary
sludge
 Gram negative bacteria : Zooglea,
Pseudomonas, Alcaligenes, Achromobacter,
Flavobacterium
 Gram positive : Corynebacterium, etc
 Fungi : Fusarium, Trisporon, Ascoidea
 Itcontains a high level of the organic
nutrients phosphate and nitrate
 Nitrosomonas : oxidize ammonia to nitrite
 Nitrobacter : oxidize nitrite to nitrate
 Aerobicdigestion tank
 Anaerobic digestion tank
 The degradatif and fermentative process
divided into 2 stages : acid forming and
methane forming
 Genera of Methane forming stage :
Methanobacterium, Methanosarcina,
Methanococcus (convert acetate, hydrogen
and CO2 to methane)
 Complex organic compounds
(polysaccharides, fats, protein)
Hydrolisis
 Hydrolysis by extracellular bacterial enzymes
 Monomeric compounds (sugar, fatty acids,
amino acids)
 Higher organic acids Acidogenesis
 Acetic acid, H2, CO2 Acetogenesis
 CH4 methanogenesis
 In situ bioremediation:
biostimulasi,bioaugmentasi, biosparging
 Ex situ biremediation
 Composting
 Landfarming
 Above-ground bioreactors
 Biopiles
 Note filamentous bacteria

Note Vorticella and

other protozoa
L0 L
L
L

L
Composition of sludge

• Predominantly water

• Micro-organisms

• Viruses, pathogens, germs in general

• Organic particles, heavily bio-degradable

• Organic compounds, inert, adsorpted to sludge flocs

• Heavy metals

• Micro-pollutants, pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupters

 All non-degraded compounds extracted from wastewater are found in the

sludge

© PK, 2006
12 Sludge treatment Urban Water Systems - page 21
Hyperion, Playa del Rey, CA)
 Involvesome type of physicochemical
treatment such as coagulation, filtration,
activated carbon adsorbtion of organics and
additional disinfectan
 Goals of sludge treatment
Volume reduction • Thickening
• Dewatering

Elimination of pathogenic • If used in agriculture as fertiliser or compost

germs

Stabilisation of organic • Gas production

substances • Reduction of dry content
• Improvement of dewatering
• Reduction of odour

Recycling of substances • Nutrients, fertiliser

• Humus
• Biogas
© PK,
2006 -
12 Sludge treatment Urban Water Systems page 25
 Overview
Wastewater treatment

Primary, secondary, tertiary sludge

Process water

Thickening Energy

Hygienisation

Stabilisation Biogas

Thickening Agriculture

Dewatering Disposal site

Drying Construction industry

Gujer (1999) Incineration © PK, Atmosphere

2006 -
12 Sludge treatment Urban Water Systems page 26
Cryogenic air separation facility, Hyperion, Playa del Rey, CA)
Flotation unit

© PK,
2006 -
12 Sludge treatment Urban Water Systems page 29
Primary Plasmid Size Host
substrate (kb)
Toluene pWW0 (TOL) 115 Pseudomonas putida
mt-2
Alkylbenzene ASL 91.5 Pseudomonas testosroni
sulfonate
octane OCT ~500 P.oleovorans
Naphthalene Nah7 83 P. Putida PpG7
 Chromosomal gene encode ortho pathway :
acetyl CoA and succinate
 TOL plasmid encodes meta pathway :
acetaldehide and pyruvic acid
 The genes encoding catabolic enzymes : xyl
genes
 The xyl genes : xylCAB (upper) and xyl
XYZLEGFJKIH (lower/meta).....operon
 the host : capacity to degrade not only
toluena but also m- and p- xylene, other
benzena derivates
 Encodedegradation toluene and xylene to
benzoate and metylbenzoates
 Encodes
degradation of benzoate and
methylbenzoate to acetaldehyde and pyruvat
 Xyl R, xylS
 When a substrat enters the cell, it binds to
the XylR protein to form a XylR-toluene
complex (ex= toluen)
 The complex binds to promoter of the xylR
operon to activating transcription of
xylR...............activation the upper
pathway genes
Gene Enzyme
xylA Xylene oxygenase
xylB Benzyl alcohol
dehydrogenase
xylC Benzaldehyde
dehydrogenase