CHAPTER FOUR

WASTEWATER TREATMENT
4.1 Wastewater
4.2 Wastewater contaminant
4.3 Wastewater treatment and objectives
4.4 Wastewater treatment method
4.5 Wastewater treatment process
4.5.1 Preliminary treatment
4.5.2 Primary treatment
4.5.3 Secondary or biological treatment
4.5.4 Tertiary treatment

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change
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to treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
4.1 wastewater
Depend on their origination, wastewater can categorized in to:
1. Biodegradable and
2. Non-biodegradable.
1. Biodegradable wastewater
➢Biodegradable wastewater (biodegradable organic matter or carbonaceous waste)
is wastewater decomposed in various gases and new cell tissue using
microorganism. The new cell tissue can removed from treated liquid by form
sludge by gravity settling.
➢Based on their ability to utilize oxygen as terminal electron acceptor in oxidation
reduction reaction, microorganism can be classified as: obligate aerobic, obligate
anaerobic, facultative anaerobe and denitrifies.
✓ Obligate aerobic microorganisms are organisms require oxygen to live. The need oxygen to for
aerobic respiration to generate energy. E.g. mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…
✓ Obligate anaerobic microorganisms are organisms that die in the presence of oxygen. E.g.
clostridium titanic. They generate energy via fermentation or anaerobic respiration.
✓ Facultative anaerobic microorganisms are organisms survive live in the presence and absence
of oxygen. Generate energy by fastening between aerobic respiration and anaerobic
respiration. E.g. Escherichia coli (E-coli).
✓ Denitrifies microorganisms are organisms those decomposing organic matter by using nitrate
end electron acceptor to produce nitrogen gas and water. E.g. nitrobacteria.
➢The general term that describes the chemical activities that performs by bacterial
cell is metabolism which divided in to catabolism and anabolism. Catabolism
include all the biochemical processes by which a substrate or food is degraded to
end products with release of energy (respiration). Anabolism include all the
biochemical processes by which the bacterium synthesize new cell.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
➢Decomposition of wastewater can be:
✓Aerobic decomposition:
O𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔. +𝑂2 + 𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 −→ 𝐶𝑂2 + 𝐻2 𝑂 + 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔. 𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙
✓Anaerobic decomposition
O𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔. +𝑆𝑂4 𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑂2 𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠 + 𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 −
→ 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠, 𝐶𝐻4 , 𝑁𝐻4 + 𝐻2 𝑂 + 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔. 𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙
✓Anoxic decomposition.
𝑂𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔. +𝑁𝑂3 + 𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 −→ 𝑁2 + 𝐻2 𝑂 + 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔. 𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙

2. Non-biodegradable wastewater.
➢Non-biological wastes are those inorganic extracted from non-living things,
specially the earth mineral constituent like debris, sand, gravel, and other
suspended and dissolved solid. And also, natural occurring organic compounds like
humic and fulvic acids. They are soluble in water under PH greater than 2 and
under all PH scale. But, they can’t degradable biological organism.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
4.2 Wastewater contaminant
The most important wastewater contaminants to be concern in
wastewater treatments are:
➢Solids:
✓ Suspended solid and
✓ Dissolved inorganic solid
➢Organic:
✓ Biodegradable organics
✓ Refractory organics
➢Nutrients
➢Heavy metals and
➢Pathogens.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated
effluent water which not harm healthy life 5
4.3 What is wastewater treatment?
Wastewater treatment is:
➢The means of removing or minimization of contaminants those exists
in wastewater for environmental protection.
➢The means of making wastewater dischargeable effluents to water
bodies.
➢The means of making wastewater useable water or reuse.
➢The means of keeping aquatic life from healthy danger pollutant.
➢The means of making economical drinking water treatment.
➢The means of managing environmental pollutantion including air and
water pollution.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated
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effluent water which not harm healthy life
A good requirement of treated effluent discharged to receiving
water bodies (wastewater treatment objectives):

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated
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effluent water which not harm healthy life
4.4 Wastewater treatment methods
1. Physical treatment: screening, mixing, flocculation, sedimentation, sand
filtration, and membrane filtration.
2. Chemical treatment: removal or conversion of contaminants using adding
chemicals into wastewater. Like neutralization, oxidation, reduction,
precipitation, gas transfer, adsorption, ion exchange, and others.
3. Biological treatment: using microorganisms, removing biodegradable organic
matter in the wastewater by converting it into gases that escape to the
atmosphere and into biological cell tissue that settles. The most common
biological wastewater treatments are:
➢ Aerobic process: trickling filter, activated sludge digestion, oxidation (stabilization) pond or
lagoons.
➢ Anaerobic process: anaerobic lagoons, sludge digestion, and others.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
4.5 Wastewater treatment process
➢Preliminary treatment
➢Primary treatment
➢Secondary (biological) treatment and
➢Tertiary (advanced) treatment
Remember: water or wastewater treatment proceeded from easiest to
complex.
➢Sometimes both preliminary and primary treatments are classified
under primary treatment.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 9
How we do wastewater treatment process? Let us imagine with aid of video:
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated
effluent water which not harm healthy life 10
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to
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change to treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
4.5.1 Preliminary wastewater treatment
➢The first stage of wastewater treatment is separating the floating materials from
the waste released. The floating materials those separate or removed are: dead
animals, tree braches, papers, piece of rags, woods, old clothes and other.
➢It also used to remove heavy settle able inorganic materials, oils, and grease.
➢This treatment reduces the BOD of wastewater, by about 15% to 30%.
➢This treatment system uses units of
✓ Screening for removing floating materials (paper, rags, dead animals, clothes, etc.)
✓ Grit chamber or detritus tanks for removing grit, gravel, sand, etc.
✓ Skimming tanks for removing oils and greases.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 12
4.5.2 Primary wastewater treatment
➢Used to remove the suspended solid organic matter and inorganic matter
(particles) that have greater or less 0.2mm size and 2.65 specific gravity.
➢It is accomplished under of settling basin (sedimentation): plain sedimentation and
coagulant aid sedimentation.
➢In complete wastewater treatment, sedimentation is carried out two times: before
biological treatment known as primary sedimentation, and after biological
treatment known as secondary treatment.
➢The sludge deposited in the sedimentation tank (primary or secondary), is digested
separately in a septic tank or Imhoff tank (digestor).
➢This treatment system removes 60% to 65% of suspended solid and 30% to 35%
of the BOD from sewage.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 13
Sedimentation tank
And also, based on their functions
Based on their shape, sedimentation sedimentation tank can be classified as
tank can be classified as rectangular and intermittent (30 - 36hours) and
circular. continues.

Rectangular shape sedimentation tank Circular shape sedimentation tank

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Continues sedimentation tank design
➢The factors which to be considered for Rectangular tank x-section vs design
design of a sedimentation tank for a consideration
good performance particle settlings
are:
✓ Velocity of flow
✓ Shape and size of particles
✓ Density of particles
✓ Viscosity of sewage or temperature of
sewage
✓ Length of sedimentation tank
✓ Detention time

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 15
Cont.…
Design consideration parameters:
𝑄
1. Flow velocity: discharge per x-sectional area. 𝑣𝑓 = , in the case of uniform
𝐵𝐻
flow.
2. Particle settling velocity: discharge per longitudinal area. Flow velocity
proportional with sedimentation tank length and settling velocity proportional
𝑣𝑠 𝐻 𝑣𝑓 ∗𝐻
depth of the tank. From geometrical consideration: ൗ𝑣𝑓 = Τ𝐿; 𝑣𝑠 = ;
𝐿
𝑄Τ 𝑄
𝑣𝑠 = 𝐵𝐻 ∗ =𝐻Τ
𝐿 so the particle settling velocity using stokes’ equation should
,
𝐵𝐿
be greater or equal to discharge per longitudinal.

𝑔𝑑 2 ρ𝑠 − ρ𝑤
𝑣𝑠 = .
18ν ρ𝑤

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…
3. Overflow velocity or surface loading or over flow rate:
✓ For plain sedimentation: 40,000 to 50,000 liters/𝑚2 /day = 0.000463 to 0.000578m/s
✓ For coagulant aid sedimentation: 50,000 to 60,000liters/𝑚2 /day = 0.00058 to 0.000684m/s
✓ For secondary sedimentation tank: 25,000 to 35,000 liters/𝑚2 /day = 0.000289 to 0.000405m/s
4. Effective depth: 2.4 to 3.6m ~ ~3m.
5. Detention time (t): 1 to 3 hours. ~ ~ 2hour.
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝐵∗𝐿∗𝐻 𝑑 2 (0.011𝑑+0.785𝐻)
✓𝑡 = ; Τ𝑄 For rectangular, and For circular tank
𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑄
1 hour to be used when activated sludge treatment is used as the secondary treatment
and 2 hours of detention time is also used when trickling filters are used as the
secondary treatment. In case of no secondary sedimentation, detention time is 2.5
hour until 3hour.
6. Width of tank: not greater than 7.5m ~~6m is adoptable.
7. Length of tank: 4 to 5*width.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated 17
effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…
8. x-sectional area of sedimentation tank:
✓ To provide horizontal flow velocity of about 0.3m/minute=0.005m/s
✓ To provide a total amount of flow in 24 hours generally equal to the maximum daily flow of
sewage.
9. Maximum diameter of tank for circular kept until 60m.
Short-circuiting in the sedimentation tanks: this happens when
substantial portions of the water pass directly through the tank without being
detained for the intended period time or detention period. To overcome short-
circuiting:
✓ Properly design and construct the inlets and outlets baffles near inlets and outlets
✓ Keeping a high detention period
✓ Minimizing surface loading
✓ Provide a good displacement efficiency.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 18
Cont.…

The other important features of sedimentation tanks a good settling are:

✓Skimming trough: in the case of no separate skimming tank is
necessary, for oil and grease removal skimming tank on
sedimentation tank is necessary.
✓Cleaning and sludge removal

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Sedimentation aided with coagulation (Type 2
sedimentation)
What is chemical precipitation?
What is coagulation?
What is coagulant?
➢ Coagulants are chemicals (ferric chloride, ferric sulfate, aluminum sulfate (alum),
and chlorinated coppers) those used for coagulation.
➢Coagulation is the process of adding and mixing coagulants into wastewater.
➢Chemical precipitation is the process of formation of a separable solid from a
solution. i.e., the process of converting solution into solid by converting the
substance into insoluble form. In water and wastewater, chemical precipitation is
the change in the form of materials dissolved in water into solid particles. E.g.
forming solid from colloidal and dissolved minerals.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
4.5.3 Secondary or biological treatment
➢like to change after a chemical
reaction; there is a change in the
biological system.
➢By the aid of microorganisms organic
matter decomposed into new cells plus
new fragmental compounds.
➢Organic matter or waste is food
(substrate) for microorganisms.
➢Microorganisms need electron
acceptor elements (oxygen) or
compounds to meal the organic matter.
Especially, they need oxygen for
respiration.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 22
Cont.…
Microorganisms requires:
1. Cellular building blocks such as carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (𝑂2 ),
nitrogen, phosphorous, and minerals. These elements can be obtained through
consuming organic matter those containing these elements and also, from
inorganic compounds like carbon dioxide, water, phosphate and nitrates.
2. Energy: they obtain energy through respiration. Organic matter is oxidized to
release energy.
3. Oxygen and other hydrogen acceptor: they need for respiration process.
➢Algae and photosynthetic bacteria utilize energy from sunlight. And other types of
bacteria utilize energy from chemical reactions not involving respiration.
➢Building blocks and energy are used to synthesize more cells for growth and also
for respiration.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 23
Cont.…
➢Based on the environment where the 3. Under photosynthetic condition:
process takes place; in wastewater treatment photosynthetic organism (microalgae)
three types of process were distinguished use carbon dioxide as carbon source,
conversations of waste by microorganisms. inorganic nutrients as source of
Aerobic, anaerobic and photosynthetic. phosphate and nitrogen and utilize
1. Under aerobic condition (in presence of light energy to drive the conversion
oxygen): microorganisms utilize oxygen process.
to oxidize organic matter to obtain energy
for maintenance, mobility and for
synthesis of cellular materials. E.g.
ammonia oxidized to nitrate, phosphorous
and Sulphur oxidized to phosphate and
sulphate.
2. Under anaerobic conditions (in absence of
oxygen): microorganisms utilize nitrates,
sulphates and other hydrogen acceptor to
obtain energy for synthesis of cellular
material from organic substances.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Types of biological process for wastewater
treatment
1. Biological filtration of sewage 2. Activated sludge process:
✓ Contact beds ✓ Primary sedimentation tank-activated
sludge plant
✓ Intermittent sand
✓ Secondary sedimentation tank sludge-
✓ Trickling filters
activated plant (ASP)
✓ Dunbar filters ✓ Sludge thickener and sludge digestion
✓ Magnetic filters tank
✓ Rapid sand filters
3. Aerobic stabilization unit
✓ Stabilization and oxidation pond (exists in Haramaya University)
✓ Oxidation ditches or extended aeration lagoon

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated effluent water
which not harm healthy life 25
Trickling filters for biological filtrations of
sewage
what is trickling filters?
Why we say biological filtrations?
➢Trickling filters also known as percolating filters or sprinkling filters. It consists of
coarser or biofilm reactor filtering media over which the sewage is allowed to
sprinkle or trickle down by means of spray nozzle or rotary distributors.
➢The purification of sewage is mainly by aerobic bacteria which form of a bacterial
film around particles of the filtering media.
➢To ensure the scale growth of aerobic bacteria, sufficient quantity of oxygen is
supplied by providing suitable ventilation facilities in the body of the filter.
➢Sewage influent entering the filter must be given pre-treatments including
screening and primary sedimentation.
➢Effluent obtained from filter taken to secondary sedimentation for settling out the
organic matter.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Contents of trickling filter
➢Filter media
✓ coarser media: rock or gravel,
✓ biofilm reactor: plastic
➢Feed pipe and distributor arms with fixed
nozzle or spray
➢Central column which feed up sewage to
distributor
➢Under drain
➢Electric motor
➢Ventilation riser
➢Effluent channel
➢Guy wire or support cable
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
 The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove
contaminants from the influent water to change to treated 28
effluent water which not harm healthy life
Principles of trickling filter
➢Trickling filter tanks which may rectangular or circular constructed above ground.
➢The distributors rotate around the central support either by electric motor or by the
force of reaction on the spray.
➢The rate of revolution varies from 2RPM for small distributors to less than 0.5
RPM for large distributor.
➢Distribution arms should remain about 15 to 20cm above the surface of filtering
media in the tank.
➢The distribution arms should be two and above for:
✓ To get reaction sufficient to rotate the entire arms
✓ To fill fluctuation demands by taking flow in two arms and the remaining two arms coming
into operation only at the times of higher flow.
➢Filtering media consists of coarser materials like cubical broken stones free from
dust and small pieces. The size of them may vary between 25 to 75mm.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 29
Cont.…
➢The depth of filtering media may vary between 2 to 3m
➢The filtering materials placed in layers; the coarsest stone used near the bottom
and the finer materials may be towards the top.
➢The walls of filtering tank provided with openings (honey-combed) for air
circulations from the surrounding atmosphere.
➢Forcing ventilation by forcing the air vertically upwards through the filter by the
use of mechanical equipment (like air diffuser).
➢Under-drain block should provided according to the trickling filter type.
➢Under drain flow should be sufficient to ensure a flow velocity of 0.9m/se.
Types of trickling filters
1. Conventional trickling filters: standard rate or low rate of filters
2. High rate trickling filters: high rate filters.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Design of trickling filters
Design of trickling filters involves:
➢ Diameter and depth of circular filter tank
➢ Design of rotary distributors and
➢ Under drainage system
The filter size is designed using:
a. Hydraulic loading rate (quantity of sewage applied per unit surface area of the
filter per day) expressed in million liters per hectare per day. It depends on type
of filters.
✓ For conventional filters may vary between 22 and 44, normally 28ML/hectares/day.
✓ For intermittent sand filters 1.1ML/ha/day.
✓ For high rate trickling filters 110 to 330, normally 220 ML/ha/day.
b. Organic loading rate (by mass of BOD per unit volume of the filtering media per
day. It expressed in kg of 𝐵𝑂𝐷5 per hectare meter of the filter media per day.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…
The value organic loading rate:
✓ For conventional tickling filter, it vary between 900 to 2200 kg of 𝐵𝑂𝐷5 /hectare meter/day
✓ For high rate trickling filter, it vary between 6000 to 18000 kg of 𝐵𝑂𝐷5 /hectare meter/day
➢Using assumed organic loading (900 to 2200 kg/ha-m/day),
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑘𝑔 𝑜𝑓𝐵𝑂𝐷5 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟/𝑑𝑎𝑦
T𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 =
𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒
➢ Using assumed hydraulic loading (22 to 44 ML/ha/day),
𝑠𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟/𝑑𝑎𝑦
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 =
𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒
𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 = 4𝐴ൗπ
➢ Depth of cylindrical filter, the ration of volume to area
➢ The rotary distributors, under drainage systems and other connected pipe lines designed on the
peak flow and checked by average flow. Rotary distributors assumed up to 60m. If the filter tank
size is 60m or less; it is better to use more units of lesser diameter.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Performance of conventional filters and their
efficiencies
➢The effluent obtained from a conventional trickling filter plant is highly nitrified
and stabilized.
➢The BOD is reduced to about 80% to 90% of original value. i.e., the BOD left in
the effluent is less than 20%.
➢The sludge obtained in secondary clarifier is thick with moisture content of about
92%. It is heavy and easily digestible.
➢The filter is very flexible. It is useful to medium towns and industrial cities.
➢The efficiency of such conventional filter plant expressed by the amount of
organic loading:
100
η% =
1 + 0.0044 𝑢
Where, η-efficiency of filter and secondary clarifier, in terms of percentage of applied BOD removed
BOD removed.
u-organic loading in kg/hectare meter/day applied to the filter.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to 33
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Activated sludge process (aerobic suspended culture)
➢The activated sludge process provides an excellent methods of treating either raw
sewage or more generally settled sewage.
➢The sewage effluent from primary sedimentation tank, which utilized in activated
sludge process is mixed with 20 to 30% of own volume of settled sludge which
contains a large concentrations of highly active aerobic microorganisms.
➢The mixtures enters an aeration tank where the microorganism coated around the
sludge solids and the sewage are intimately mixed together with a large quantity of
air for about 4 to 8 hours.
➢After 4 to 8 hours mixing conditions, the moving organisms will oxidize the
organic matter and the suspended and colloidal matter tends to coagulate and form
a precipitate.
𝑠𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 + 20 𝑡𝑜 30% 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑃𝑆𝑇 +
𝑎𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 + 𝑚𝑖𝑥𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 4 𝑡𝑜 8ℎ𝑟𝑠 =
𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

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34
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…
➢Effluent obtained from properly operated activated sludge plant has:
✓ Lower than BOD of trickling filter. i.e., 80 -95% BOD removal.
✓ 90-95% bacterial removal
✓ In process, it needs less land area required related to trickling filter.
➢In process, properly it needs:
✓ Supply of oxygen
✓ There is intimate continues mixing of the sewage and the activated sludge
✓ The volume of activated sludge added to the volume of sewage being treated is kept
practically constant.
➢Problem associated with new activated sludge process plant:
✓ A period of about 4 weeks is required to form a suitable return sludge
✓ All the sludge from the secondary sedimentation tank will be returned through the aeration
tank.
✓ May be seeded with the activated sludge from another plant as much as to start quickly the
new plant.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 35
Operation and units of activated sludge
plant
➢Important units required for
activated sludge process plant:
✓ Primary treatment units of activated
sludge treatment plant (screening,
grit chamber and primary
sedimentation tank for removal of
settable solids)
✓ Aeration tank for mixing air with
mixed sewage solution (diffused air
diffusion and/or mechanical aeration)
✓ Secondary sedimentation tank of an
activated sludge plant
✓ Sludge thickener and sludge
digestion tank of an activated sludge
plant

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
36
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Aerobic stabilization unit
➢Oxidation pond ➢ Oxidation ditches ➢ Mechanically aerated
Oxidation pond lagoons
➢Known as a stabilization pond or lagoon or wastewater treatment pond
➢Open flow through earthen basins specifically designed and constructed to treat
sewage and biodegradable industrial wastes.
➢It is the simplest biological system of wastewater treatment, especially when high-
quality effluent is not required and when a large area of land is available for such
treatment.
➢Provide comparatively long detention periods extending from a few days to
several days.
➢May classified depending on their depth and the biological reactions that occur in
the pond. Aerobic, facultative, and anaerobic.
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 37
Cont..
❑Aerobic pond: the stabilization of wastes about the aerobic bacteria that flourish in
the presence of oxygen.
➢The oxygen demand is met by the combined action of algae and other
microorganisms such as bacteria and protozoa which is known as algal
photosynthesis or algal symbiosis. In symbiosis, algae growth in the presence of
sunlight produces oxygen by the action of photosynthesis, and this oxygen is utilized
by bacteria for oxidizing the waste organic matter and results in carbon dioxide,
ammonia, and phosphates which are required by the algae to grow and continue to
produce oxygen. Algae

Sunlight

𝐶𝑂2 , 𝑁𝐻3 ,
𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑒 symbiosis oxygen

Organic matter
Bacteria

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to 38
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont..
➢In case of depth, aerobic ponds will have less than 0.5m and may require
occasional stirring to prevent anaerobic condition in the settled sludge.
➢Practically it is difficult to construct and use pure aerobic.
❑Anaerobic pond: the stabilization wastes about anaerobic conversions of organic
wastes to carbon dioxide, methane, gaseous end products, with eruptions of foul
odors and pungent smells.
❑In depth, it may constructed in the range of 2.5 to 4m.
❑Facultative pond: the upper layers work under aerobic conditions, while the
anaerobic conditions prevail in the bottom layers. The upper aerobic layer of the
pond acts as a good check against the evaluations of the foul odors from such a
pond. The treatment affected from such pond is comparable to conventional
secondary treatment process.
➢In depth it may varying between 1m to 1.5m and most widely used for treatment
of sewage.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to 39
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont..
➢The term oxidation pond widely used as collective term for all types of ponds,
most particularly the facultative stabilization ponds.
➢The results of oxidation pond treatments are:
✓ The oxidations of the original organic matter
✓ The productions of algae
✓ Net reductions in BOD, since the algae are more stable than the organic matter in wastewater
and degrade slowly in the river stream in to which the effluent is discharged.
➢The oxidation ponds throwing in rivers just up streams of lake or reservoirs, are
therefore not referred as the discharged algae may settle in reservoirs and cause
anaerobic decomposition and other water quality problems.
➢The effluent from oxidation ponds can be easily used for land irrigation,
particularly at places, where they can not be discharged into river streams.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Cont..
Construction details or contents:
➢Earthen pond, dug in to ground with shallow
depth; Facultative character, 1m to 1.8m
depth.
➢Collection chamber and inlet chamber
➢Inlet pipe
➢Bell mouth
➢Outlet chamber to common sump well
➢Flagstone around the pond

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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life 41
Cont..
➢The detention time in the pond is usually 2 to 6weeks; depend up on
sunlight and temperature.
➢Better efficiency of treatment is obtained, If several ponds are placed
in series. The sewage flows progressively from one unit to another unit
until it is finally discharged.
➢The effluent should be at center above or below the liquid surface for
a uniform mixing of the influent with the oxygen saturated pond
liquor.
➢The outlet should provide withdrawal of effluent from different depth
of pond.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Design criteria
1. Surface area: by assuming a suitable value of organic loading which may range
from 300 – 150kg/hectare/day. In hot tropical areas 90 – 60kg/hectare/day. Each
unit may have an area ranging between 0.5 to 1 hectare.
2. Length of the pond may about the twice of the width. L= 2*W
3. The depth may kept between 1m to 1.5m.
4. A free board of 1m or less may provided above capacity corresponding to 20 -30
day of detention period.
5. Per capita daily BOD production of about 0.08kg. For assuming organic loading
300 to 60kg/hectare/day, One hectare land area may sufficient for:
300 60
= = 3750 𝑡𝑜 = 750 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑠
0.08 0.08

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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Cont..
➢BOD loadings over different parts of the country, depend up on temperature by
latitude:

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated effluent
44
water which not harm healthy life
Cont.…
6. Detention period: for stabilization ponds, detention period may vary between 7 to
24 days. Depend on BOD reaction, detention period estimated as:
1 𝐿
𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔10
𝑘𝐷 𝐿−𝑌
Where L- BOD of the effluent entering the pond, Y- BOD removed, may 90 -95%
L, 𝑘𝐷 -deoxygenation constant, at 20𝑜 𝑐 is approximately 0.1 per day.
7. Inlet pipe: inlet pipe size should be designed by considering velocity of sewage
0.9m/se.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Oxidation ditches
➢Known as pasver ditches or extended aeration lagoons.
➢It is a modifications of conventional activated sludge plant modified to eliminate
the primary sedimentation tank.
➢The sludge digestion in a process called extended aeration, which aims to provide
aeration which aims at providing an aeration tank with longer aeration time.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
Mechanically aerated lagoons

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
47
4.5.4 Tertiary treatment
➢The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final treatment stage to raise the
effluent quality before it discharged to receiving water bodies or ground.
➢Disinfection is the always practiced final process known as effluent polishing.
➢More than one tertiary treatment process may be used at any treatment plant. Some
of them are:
✓ Filtration: filtration over activated carbon called carbon adsorption.
✓ Lagoon: provides further biological improvement through storage in large manmade ponds or
lagoons. Small filter feeding invertebrates such as Daphnia and species of Rotifera greatly assist
in treatment by removing fine particulates.
✓ Nitrogen removal: nitrification [oxidation of ammonia (𝑁𝐻3 ) to nitrite (𝑁𝑂2− )], denitrification
(reductions of nitrate (𝑁𝑂3− ) to nitrogen).
✓ Phosphorus removal: using biological process called polyphosphate accumulating organisms
(PAOs). And also, using chemical precipitation (ferric chloride, alum or lime) with salts of iron.
✓ Disinfection: using chlorine, ozone, UV (ultraviolet light), sodium hypochlorite
✓ Odor control: using addition of iron salts, hydrogen peroxide, calcium nitrate, small dose of
chlorine, and other.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to
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treated effluent water which not harm healthy life
 Thank you!!!

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants from the influent water to change to treated
49
effluent water which not harm healthy life