Chapter-3

Preliminary Treatment

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 Pre-treatment
 High turbidity water which may occur particularly during the
rainy season requires pre-treatment in the form of
sedimentation, storage or roughing filtration to reduce much of
the suspended solids
 This is an advantage otherwise a very large amount of
chemicals may have to be employed for chemical coagulation
which can be expensive
 Pre-treatment provides cheaper treatment
 Water pre-treatment, also called preliminary treatment, is any
physical, chemical or mechanical process used before main
water treatment processes takes place. 2
 Pre-treatment Cont..
 Pre-treatment in water treatment operations usually consists of

removal of tastes and odors, iron and manganese, or entrapped

gases, such as hydrogen sulphide.

 Pre-treatment of surface water supplies accomplishes the

removal of certain components and materials that interfere

with or place an unnecessary burden on conventional water

treatment facilities

 Pre-treatment may be incorporated as part of the total

treatment process or may be located adjacent to the sources

before the water is sent to the treatment facility. 3

 Pre-treatment Cont..

 Typical pre-treatment processes include the following:

 Removal of debris from rivers and reservoirs that would clog
pumping equipment

 Chemical treatment of reservoirs to control the growth of

algae and other aquatic growths that could result in taste and
odor problems

 Pre-sedimentation to remove excessively heavy silt loads prior

to the treatment processes

 Aeration to remove dissolved odor-causing gases such as

hydrogen sulfide and other dissolved gases or volatile
components and to aid in the oxidation of iron and manganese.4
 Types of preliminary treatment

 Intakes

 Screens

 Plain sedimentation

 Tube settlers

 Storage

 Roughing filter

 Infiltration galleries

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 Silt trap
Fig: Unit operations in water treatment

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 1. Intakes
 Proper design of the intake structure is one way of achieving preliminary
treatment

 The intakes should be located in such a way that rolling debris at the
bottom is prevented from entering via the intake

 Bar screens are provided to screen out larger size floating and suspended
materials

 Sometimes two filters are provided successively for coarse and fine
screening

 A floating intake ensures intake from the top and relatively clean layer

 Multiple level intakes (low level intake in the dry season and to avoid
algae at the top and high level intake in the wet season to avoid
suspended solids at the bottom) are provided in lakes and reservoirs. 7
 2. Screens
 Screening of water is one form of pre-treatment which is done
by passing the water through closely spaced bars, gratings or
perforated plates.
 Screening does not change the chemical or bacteriological
quality of the water.
 It serves to retain the coarse material and suspended matter that
are larger than the screen openings.
 Screens remove course material (such as wood, leaves and plant
debris) and some other solid wastes from the water
 Screens are usually placed at the intake and thereby protect the
subsequent installations from blockage and damage. 8
 Screening Cont…

 Screens can be classified as course screens and fine screens

 Water usually flows through a bar screens

 The distance between single bars varies from 10 to 30 cm for

course screen and 0.5 to 5cm for fine screen

 Solid matter is retained by the bar.

 Course Screens or Racks: often termed as bar screens and must

provided to intercept large, suspended or floating

 Fine Screens: surface water requires fine screens for removal of

material too small to be intercepted by the course rack

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 Screening Cont…
 These may be basket- type in line strainers, manually or
hydraulically cleaned by backwashing, which are cleaned by
water jets

 The velocity of water in the screen openings should be less

than 1m/s at maximum design flow through the screen & at
minimum screen submergences which occur at minimum
anticipated flows.

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 Screening Cont…
 Design: Fixed screens are usually constructed of parallel bars
which are rectangular in x- section

 The use of course screens followed by a fine screen is advised

for a step by step separation of floating materials

 The velocity (Va) of water u/s from screen should not be lower
than 0.3 to 0.5 m/s

 This will prevent sedimentation of suspended matter

 The velocity (vs) of water following through the screen bars

should not exceed 0.7 to 1.0m/s, to prevent soft, deformable
floating materials from passing through the screen.
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 Screening Cont…
 Screening is a unit operations that remove floating or
suspended matters

 Types:

– Coarse (Trash rack)

– Fine

– Microstrainer

 Location

– Intake structure

– Raw water pump station

– Water treatment plant 12

 a) Coarse screen Screening Cont…

 Purpose: to prevent large objects

from entering the conveyance
system
 Design considerations:
– Design flow: Q max-day
– Layout: located slightly projected
away from intake ports, on the
water side
– Bar arrangement: 5-8 cm of clear
opening
– Velocity of flow: < 8.0 cm/s
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 Screening Cont…

 Head losses through bar screen is given by:

 Where:
 c=empirical discharge coefficient to account for turbulence
and eddy motion. (c=0.7 for clean bar and 0.6 for clogged bar
screen)

 V2=velocity of flow through openings

 V1= approaching velocity of upstream channel

 g= gravitational acceleration (9.81m/s2)

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 b) Fine screen Screening Cont…

 To remove smaller objects that

may damage pumps or other
equipment

 Heavy wire mesh with 0.5 cm

openings

 Design velocity: 0.4-0.8 m/s

 Automatic cleaning may be

required.

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 Screening Cont…
 Head Loss through Fine Screen is given by:

 Where
 c=empirical discharge coefficient to account for turbulence
and eddy motion. (c=0.6)

 g= gravitational acceleration (9.81m/s2)

 Q= discharge (m3/s)

 A=effective opening area of the screen, m2

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 c) Microstrainer Screening Cont…

 To remove plankton and algae

 Before pre-chlorination and

coagulation

 Consists of a rotating cylinder

covered with fine wire mesh

 Operational problems due to

biofilms.

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 3. Plain Sedimentation
 Plain sedimentation is a form of pre-treatment that provides a
low velocity of flow through a tank preferably excavated in the
ground

 The purpose is to settle some solids because of this low velocity

by gravity sedimentation

 Plain sedimentation is favorable in a tropical climate due to the

high load of suspended solids to be settled as a result of erosion
by tropical high intensity rains, and also, because of the high
temperature in the tropics and the associated low viscosity
water in the sedimentation tank. 18
 Plain sedimentation Cont…
 Significant reduction in solids is obtained for high turbidity
waters, and the feasibility of reducing the turbidity below 30
NTU- if the tank is provided as a pre-treatment unit for a slow
sand filter must be tested through a settling column test

 The settlement of solids is dependent on the nature of the

suspension

 Design parameter for plain sedimentation is as follows:

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 Plain sedimentation Cont…

 The tank may be rectangular, or to minimize the need for

thicker walls trapezoidal shape (which also facilitates settlement
to the bottom) tank can be used

 Baffle walls are provided at the inlet to dissipate the kinetic

energy of the incoming water and provide quiescent settlement

 Less importantly though, they are also provided at the outlet to

prevent turbulence in the outlet zone

 Manual cleaning can be done

 Fixed nozzles and fire hoses can be used to help with cleaning.

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 Fig. Plain sedimentation

Table: Turbidity removal

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 4. Tube Settlers
 Inclined plates or tubes are fixed in the tank and water is let to
pass through this tubes/ plates

 The surface area of settlement increases and hence the

efficiency of settlement

 Tube settlers are employed for upgrading the performance of

existing tanks and for reducing the size of new tanks

 Best angle of inclination is 40-60o.

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 Tube settlers Cont…

 Tube settlers use multiple tubular channels sloped at an angle

of 60° and adjacent to each other

 Tube settlers capture the settleable fine floc that escapes the
clarification zone beneath the tube settlers and allows the larger
floc to travel to the tank bottom in a more settleable form

 The tube settler's channel collects solids into a compact mass

which promotes the solids to slide down the tube channel.

 Lamella tube settler media is also called Honeycomb

 It is made up of lightweight PVC tubes which are adjacently

placed and joined at 60 degrees to increase the settling area.
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 Tube settlers Cont…

 Tube settlers are very effective in both pre and post water
treatment

 They are effective, reliable and affordable compared to the

other water treatment

 This makes them the most ideal method of treating water

 Their upgrade is also easy since their materials are lightweight

and do not have complicated procedures.

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 Tube settlers Cont…
Tube Settler Advantages

 It is made of PVC lightweight material. This makes it easily portable

 They can be fitted in different sizes and shapes in tanks. This is

because of their lightweight and portability.

Tube Settler Disadvantages

 You will notice that the incoming water will be interfered with due
to their poor design

 The PVC can break and its chards clog the expensive membrane. This
becomes a big problem in the removal of these chards.

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 5. Storage
 Storage is very effective for high turbidity water

 The detention time is greater than for plain sedimentation tanks

 For extremely turbid waters annual average turbidity >

1000NTU storage provides the best pre-treatment

 Advantages:

 Natural sedimentation

 Attenuation of sudden water quality fluctuation

 Reduction in the number of pathogenic bacteria

 Improved reliability of supply

 Excessively turbid water can be diverted away. 26

 Storage Cont…
 The storage can be in the form of ponds or lagoons which are natural
or excavated in the ground, or in the form of man-made earth dams

 Capacity should make allowance for seepage and evaporation

 The bottom of the pond should be covered with clay or other

impermeable material

 In order to minimize pollution from outside, access to outsiders

should be restricted

 Fences can be provided with vegetation (bush) which can acts as a

wind breaker

 The costs of providing storage can be very high, however

 Depths of ponds can be as high as 15m. 27

 6. Roughing Filtration
 Roughing filtration allows a deep penetration of the filter layer
and holds a large silt storage capacity

 Diameters:
• Rapid sand filters: 0.4 - 0.7mm

• Slow sand filters: 0.15-0.35mm

• Roughing filters: >2.0mm diam.

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 Roughing filtration Cont…

 Rate of filtration is variable depending on the nature of the media,

turbidity of the incoming water, etc.

 Roughing filters if designed well, can serve as effective pre-

treatment units prior to slow sand filtration for water with raw
water turbidity of 20 to 150 NTU

 For high turbidity waters, it may be difficult to clarify to below

30NTU without sedimentation or other pre-treatment such as
storage

 This arrangement can result in reduction of cost almost by 50%

compared with the conventional designs involving coagulation,
sedimentation and filtration. 29
 Roughing filtration Cont…
 The following reasons are given to advocate the use of
roughing filters in developing countries:
 Roughing filters do not require the addition of chemicals to
reduce solids to the extent necessary for slow sand filters
downstream.
 They ensure long filter runs owing to their excellent solid storage
capacity
 They do not require a very high construction (sometimes simple
ditches as done in some refugee camps in Sudan can be adequate)
 They do not require high skills to build them
 Because of low head no substantial head is required (energy
requirement is therefore reduced).
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 7. Infiltration Gallery
 It is underground tunnel which have holes on its sides, used for
tapping underground water near river, lakes and stream

 This type of treatment is used when the water depth is very small
and difficult to construct weir or dam to store water due to the
seepage of the water

 Sedimentation of silt is the main problem.

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 8. Silt trap
 This is a box like structure to remove particles that have higher
density than density of water.

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