WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT DESIGN

Term Project CHE362,

Biochemical Engineering
Instructor: Dr. Sri Sivakumar
Aakash Langeh Y9004
Abhijeet Kumar Y9013
Ankesh Kumar Singh Y9090
Mitul Mundra Y9338
Shashank Y9539
Design Parameters
The overall design of the wastewater treatment plant con-
sists of 4 stages: i)Primary treatment which consists of
screening, grit removal and sedimentation ii)Secondary
treatment consists of a bioreactor iii)Tertiary treatment
consists of nitrogen removal, adsorption and pH con-
trol. For plant design, the following parameters are as-
sumed/experimentally determined for the wastewater.
Type Flow BOD Solids pH aromatic
L/h mg/L wt% ppm
Euent 1000 500 5 varies 400
Discharge 1000 4-5 traces 6.5 30
Further, the total ow rate and the concentrations keep
varying at dierent times of the day, as well as are sub-
ject to seasonal variations. For example, in morning hours
the ow rate and BOD value is high. Similarly, during rainy
season solid contents like silt are more due to surface run-o.
Screening
Screens typically consist of wedge wire. It is carried out in
two phases. In the 1st phase also called coarse screening, the
size of the opening is 20-30 mm. It captures the large ob-
jects. In the second phase called ne screening the openings
vary between 1.5 to 6.4 mm. Cross section area of the screens
is typically 1 m
2
. For a 1000 kg/h feed of wastewater the
impurities removed in this stage are nearly 10 kg/h. When
the head loss across the tank exceeds 0.6 m, the screens need
to be cleaned. The waste water is pumped into the screen-
ing tank using a centrifugal pump, with h = 0.15m on an
average.
Primary Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the process of removing solid particles
heavier than water by gravity settling. In wastewater treat-
ment, sedimentation is used to remove both inorganic and
organic materials which are settleable in continuous-ow
conditions. The sedimentation tank consists of a tank with
2 settling funnels where solid waste settles down. Baes
are provided to enhance the settling process. The wastes
removed in this stage 20 kg/h for a 1000 kg/h feed.
Grease and oil based impurities that oat on the surface
of water during sedimentation can be recovered by saponi-
cation. Skimmers are used for collecting and removing
these impurities.
Sand-bed Bioreactor
A bioreactor packed with sand of eective particle size 0.3-
0.5 mm. The uniformity coecient (a measure of similarity
of shape and size in sand particles) of sand is 4. Assuming
30% BOD is removed by sedimentation, about 92% BOD re-
moval takes place in this reactor. 12 dosages of wastewater
is given to the reactor per day, which prevents clogging, as
well as provides sucient aeration for the micro-organisms.
Since the reactor under consideration is not very deep, aera-
tion may be carried out using with air daft. However, when
the reactor is scaled up for larger ow rates, blowers may be
needed.
The recirculation is carried out in cycles using control
valves. Initially, the entire volume in the recirculation
tank is distributed onto the sand bed as a single dosage,
the treated water is collected back into the recirculation
tank, and 1/5th of it is discharged when the tank is full,
making room for fresh wastewater. This constitutes one
cycle for the reactor.
Sand and media bioreactors respond well to gradual in-
creases in wastewater loading. Therefore, they are very ap-
propriate for new developments with a gradual build-out
rate. These bioreactors also tolerate uctuations in ow,
especially changes from a negligible ow to very high ows.
Further, the installation cost of such reactors is very low.
However, these reactors cause problems of foul smell and
insects and hence need to be installed at sucient distances
from residential establishments.
Nitrogen and Phosphorus removal
For nitrogen removal, a Step Feed Anoxic Aerobic Process
is used. In this process, wastewater is introduced at sev-
eral feed points. Phosphate release and denitrication takes
place in the anoxic zone. In the aerobic zone, nitrication
and BOD removal takes place. The euent of the aerobic
stage goes to the anoxic stage for denitrication. Phosphate
removal in the form of polyphosphate also takes place in the
aerobic zone. Phosphate is removed in the form of sludge,
nitrogen is released in the form of N
2
, and BOD is converted
to CO
2
and water.
Flow rate = 1000 kg/h (solute free basis)
The step feed aeration tank is divided into four equal passes
with equal volumes used for the anoxic and aerobic zones.
The ow split to each pass is 0.1,0.4,0.3 and 0.2 of the inu-
1
S1: inlet wastewater from sewer 1m
3
/hr S2: froth removal S3: saponication S4: air daft S5: discharge to stream
V1: Sump tank V = 25m
3
V2: Screening system with coarse and ne screens L = 10m, A = 1m
2
V3: Primary sedimentation tank L = 5m V4: Recirculation tank V = 10m
3
V5: Secondary sedimentation tank V = 2m
3
V6: Recycle tank V = 1.6m
3
V7: Adsorbent storage V8: Adsorbent recovery unit (lter)
V9: pH regulation unit V = 5m
3
V10: Gas storage tank V = 0.05m
3
V11: Storage of slaked lime
R1: Sand-bed bioreactor A = 130m
2
, h = 4.15m R2: Combined nitrogen phosphorus removal system A:anoxic B:aerobic
R3: Continuous adsorber unit with adsorbent recovery V = 1.38m
3
R4: Anaerobic digestion of solid residue
C1: Controller for recirculation cycle C2: Controller for adsorbent recovery C3: Controller for pH regulation
Figure 1: Process owsheet
ent ow, for passes 1 to 4 respectively. Recycle ratio used
is 0.6. Anoxic volume is 20% of the total reactor volume.
Total volume of aeration tank is 10.5m
3
(2.1m
3
for anoxic
zone and 8.4m
3
for the aerobic zone).
Inlet Outlet
NH4-N-P (mg/l) 35 0.5
BOD (mg/l) 30 10
Sludge Digestion
The solids sedimented out at various units may be dried
and disposed o. Or, they can be mixed with other agri-
cultural wastes and added to an anaerobic sludge digestion
unit. Sludge digestion involves the treatment of highly con-
centrated organic wastes in the absence of oxygen by anaer-
obic bacteria. The dried sludge is fed to a cylindrical RCC
tank of 6m diameter and the height of sludge in the tank
is 6m. The pH is maintained slightly greater than 6.0 and
digestion period is 30 days. The amount of gas produced
varies from 0.014 to 0.028 m
3
per cycle consisting of 65%
methane and 30% CO
2
and 5% of nitrogen.
The gases produced are stored in a tank, and the solid
residue is disposed or used as fertilizer.
Adsorber
To remove laboratory wastes such as heavy metals, aromat-
ics, etc., a continuous adsorber is used. Activated carbon is
used as the adsorbent.
Solute in inlet = 400ppm
Adsorbent surface area = 5m
2
/kg
Adsorbent ow rate = 10g/l
Solute in outlet = 30ppm (within permissible limits)
A controller is used that takes concentration of adsorbate
in wastewater as input (measured by a sensor), and regu-
lates the ow rate of adsorbent accordingly, thus reducing
adsorbent requirements if the concentration of laboratory
chemicals is negligible at some point in time.
pH Control Unit
The water discharged to the streams should neither be
highly acidic nor alkaline. The acceptable discharge pH
6.5. The pH of water in the tank is measured, which serves
as an input to a controller. If pH is not close to 6.5, the
exit stream is shut o. If it is acidic, lime water from the
slaked lime storage tank is mixed into it, and if alkaline, the
biogas (containing CO
2
) is bubbled into the tank. When pH
is restored, the discharge resumes.
The treated water is discharged into natural water bodies,
water harvesting tanks (to replenish ground water), or used
for irrigation and recreational purposes.
References
1. C.C. Lee, S.D. Lin, Handbook of Environmental Engineering
Calculations, 2nd ed, McGraw Hill, 2007, Pages 1.418-1.510
2. K. Mancl, J. Tao, Sand and Media Bioreactors for Wastewater
Treatment, OSU bulletin 876, 2011
3. Metcalf and Eddy, Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and
Reuse, 4th ed., McGraw Hill
4. J.D.Seader, Ernest J.Henley, Separation Process Principles,
2nd ed., Wiley & Sons
5. http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/Webcourse-contents/IIT-
KANPUR/wasteWater/index.htm
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