R.A.

9275

The Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 provides the legal framework for the maintenance of effluent
streams within a set of standards.

SALIENT POINTS OF R.A. 9275 AND ITS IRR (DAO 2005-10):

 Establishment of a wastewater charge system and application for Discharge Permits

 Tax incentives (for those adopting new technologies for wastewater treatments)
 Penalties
 Wastewater effluent standards (DAO 2016-08)

THE DISCHARGE PERMIT

 All establishments that release wastewater into Philippine waters upon treatment require a
discharge permit.
 Facilities that do not treat their own wastewater but instead relegate the task to a centralized
wastewater treatment facility are exempted from obtaining a discharge permit

Example houses. But establishments like restaurants and malls need to secure a discharge
permit since they have a septic tank

 Effluent trading is allowed within the same management area

This is applied to industrial eco-parks wherein the wastewater of one process or one
establishment can be a useful raw material for another establishment therefore they can
establish an effluent trading wherein the establishments that disposes of the wastewater can
save some money because they are avoiding the treatment

 Permits are valid for 5 years and are renewable. Annual fees are collected depending on the
volumetric rate of discharge.

A higher volumetric rate of discharge would incur a higher annual fees

WATER BODY CLASSIFICATION

Based on DAO 2016-08, the following is the classification of bodies of water based on intended use:

Classification for Fresh Water Intended use

Class AA Public water supply class I – source of water that

only needs disinfection to meet the Philippine
The cleanest National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW)

o Already potable after only disinfection

o No detectable amount of BOD, nitrates
and other substances

Class A Public water supply class II – source of raw water

that needs full water treatment to meet the
PNSDW

o Are sources of our water concessionaires

like MAYNILAD and Manila Water
o Normally these are from dams, rivers or
reservoirs that are exposed to minimum
amounts of pollution. They are still
relatively clean although they need the
entire water treatment to meet the
standards of our drinking water.

Class B Recreational waters class I – for primary contact

recreation

o Like swimming and water sports

Fishery waters for propagation of fishes
Class C
Recreational waters class II – for fishing and
boating
o This is for non-contact recreation

Agriculture and Irrigation

Class D Navigable waters

Lowest class of fresh water

The only thing that classifies waters based on this classification is their cleanliness or the amount of
pollutants and other organic substances present in the water. Also this classification is useful for us to
determine what are the maximum amounts of BOD, nitrate and other wastewater quality parameters
that are needed for the discharge on these bodies of water.

Classification for Salt Water Intended use

 Protected water
Class SA
Fishery water class I – for shellfish harvesting
The cleanest class
o Normally these are breeding grounds of
important fish species as well as
estuaries
Class SB Fishery water class II (commercial raising of fish
and shellfish)

o This is normally seen in areas of salt

water wherein there are fish cages that
are intended for commercial raising of
important fish species in the Philippines,
such as bangus and tilapia

Tourist zones

Recreational waters class I – for primary contact

recreation
o Like swimming and water sports

Class SC Fishery water class III – for sustenance fishing

o For small-scale fishing

Recreational waters class II – for boating and

fishing

o This is for non-contact recreation

Class SD
Navigable waters
Lowest class of salt water

o There is no Class SAA because there is no potable salt water

EFFLUENT STANDARDS
Treated wastewater that will be discharged onto a body of water needs to have primary property
concentrations within the limits set by DAO 2016-08.

o All of these parameters are required to be analyzed for those who will be discharging their
treated effluents into bodies of water.
o For highest quality of fresh water, class AA or potable water after disinfection, all parameters
should have no detection allowed (NDA), that means that the water should be very clean before
the disposal in bodies of water. However, in a typical wastewater treatment plants, this is often
very difficult to achieve and is very costly and is not cost-effective. Therefore, some treatment
plants could choose to release their effluent in other classifications of water bodies such as Class
C or Class D for fresh water and Class SC and Class SD for salt water.

 Exemptions for effluent BOD are given to those dealing with strong wastewater (BOD>3000
mg/L)
 The reason for this is wastewater treatment becomes more disproportionately costly as the
influent BOD increases if we are trying to achieve the same BOD removal efficiency as low-
BOD wastewaters.

Influent BOD
Units Class C Class D Class SC Class SD
(mg/L)
 3,000 to <6,500 mg/L 100 150 100 150
6,500 to <10,000 mg/L 200 300 200 300
10,000 to 30,000 mg/L 600 1,000 600 1,000
>30,000 mg/L 900 1,500 900 1,500

CHARACTERISTICS OF DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

 A large portion of the wastewater generated everyday comes from residential areas. Our
wastewater is a large part of municipal wastewater.
 Average strength municipal wastewater properties:
o BOD of around 200 mg/L
o Suspended solids of around 240 mg/L
o Coliform count of around 3 million CFU / 100 mL (CFU = Coliform Forming Units)
o Total nitrogen of around 35 mg/L
o Total phosphorus of around 10 mg/L

MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER

 Brown to gray in appearance

 Raw wastewater has a strong smell; the smell is greatly reduced after the secondary treatment

Mainly the smell is coming from volatile substances that are released from the decay of raw
wastewater

 Main parameters for concern are BOD/COD, nutrients, and microorganisms

These are the properties that are of highest concentrations in municipal wastewater and the
different parts of the conventional wastewater treatment system addresses all of these
parameters in different stages of the treatments.

BIOLOGICAL OXYGEN DEMAND

 BOD is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by microorganisms to consume organic load of
the wastewater.

In the conventional wastewater treatment system, we are highly reliant on heterotrophic

bacteria to consume the organic matter in the wastewater and turn it into carbon dioxide and
water.

 A high BOD means that there are plenty of organic material in the wastewater.

The higher the BOD value, the higher the concentration of organic materials is
 Sample values of BOD for scale:
  Clean river: 2 mg/L

BOD coming from the decay of leaves, dead fish and other decaying organic matter
present in the river

 Pasig river: 35 mg/L

 Average municipal wastewater: 200 mg/L

From houses: toilets and kitchen)

 Piggery wastewater: 3,300 mg/L

Contains large amounts of pig manure and uneaten feeds

 Distillery wastewater: 44,000 mg/L

If we dump high BOD concentration wastewater to the river, the river would need more oxygen for the
bacteria to consume that organic matter and since the decomposition of organic matter uses oxygen, we
are actually in danger of utilizing the dissolved oxygen of bodies of water and that leads to suffocation of
aquatic life.

That is what happens during fish kills, whenever there is an excess amount of organic matter in bodies of
water and then the bacteria are actively metabolizing that organic matter, they are using the dissolved
oxygen in the body of water and if this happens fast enough the fishes and other aquatic life are actually
suffocated to death because of the lack of the dissolved oxygen.

BOD MEASUREMENT

 BOD is determined by taking DO measurements of a water sample seeded with microorganisms

that degrade organic waste.

DO t=0−DO t=5
BOD5 = Vs
( )
Vb
Measurements are normally carried out in Amber bottles wherein a sample wastewater is diluted and
seeded with microorganisms and capped tightly. The dissolved oxygen is monitored at the start of the
experiment and after five days.

 BOD5 is the standard measure of BOD used by laboratories

The measurement of the BOD sample takes around 5 days and that is mostly due to the slow nature of
bacterial action.

 BODu or the ultimate BOD is the maximum BOD of a sample, usually taken as BOD20
The exerted BOD increases with respect to time because as time progresses more and more oxygen is
being consumed by the degradation of the BOD.

The BOD remaining as a function of time decreases as the bacteria degrades your carbonaceous BOD,
the concentration of organic matter decreases and decreases.

The BOD exerted and remaining are inverses of each other.

 The BOD remaining gives a measure of the remaining degradable organic compounds in the
water sample.

BOD remaining: Lt = Lo e –kt

 The BOD exerted gives the amount of DO needed by bacteria to consume the organic
compounds in the water sample.

BOD exerted: yt = Lo - Lt

BOD exerted at any time: yt = Lo (1 - e –kt)

 DO SAG CURVE

 The DO of a body of water is important for its capability to self-purity.

 The DO sag curve tells us the minimum DO that could be achieved upon discharge of the
wastewater. This is important in planning the discharge of wastewater in rivers.

Assuming that the treated wastewater has a remaining BOD of 50 mg/L, if we release that wastewater
to a river, what happens is we are increasing the BOD of the river and that means the river needs more
oxygen for it to be able to degrade the organic matter present in the effluent.

If we assume the flow of the river to be from left to right direction, as the effluent released is being
transported down the river, it consumes more and more oxygen, that’s why the dissolved oxygen of the
river is decreasing.

After some time, we would be reaching a critical point or a minimum amount of dissolved oxygen
wherein it is in this point that the BOD in the wastewater has already been consumed.

The dissolved oxygen slowly increases because of the re-oxygenation properties of the river, that could
be because of the turbulence or surface agitation or of other factors. Therefore, as the re-oxygenation
becomes faster than the deoxygenation, the dissolved oxygen levels of the river are restored to their
original value or near the original value.
 CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND

 An alternative way of measuring the amount of oxygen needed to degrade organic compounds
is by using strong oxidizing agents.
 COD is a faster way of measuring the organic load of a water sample.

If BOD needs at least 5 days for the measurements of the BOD, COD only needs around two
hours for the digestion and for the measurement.

The general process is you prepare the sample, add potassium dichromate – a strong oxidizing
agent plus sulfuric acid and other catalysts on the wastewater and then digest at 140°C for 1
hour. After digestion is complete, simply subject the samples for spectrophotometric
measurements. You are either measuring excess concentration of the dichromate ion or any
other colored substance that would indicate the COD value.

 However, COD measurements are almost always higher than BOD readings and could include a
significant error depending on the composition of the water sample.

Since COD involves the use of a strong oxidizing agent to oxidize organic matter in your
wastewater sample, it could also oxidize inorganic species like chlorides, sulfates and other
metal ions. That means depending on the amount of inorganic anions and cations in your
wastewater sample, you could get a disproportionately high value of COD compared to the BOD.

Generally, for a specific type of wastewater, we can draw specific relationships between the COD
and the BOD, such that we can get away by just measuring the COD and then just converting it
to a theoretical value of BOD based on the established relationship.

NUTRIENTS (N, P)

 Nitrogen and phosphorus are major nutrients that enable the growth of plants.

 When present in excess quantities in bodies of water, nutrients can cause eutrophication on the
rapid growth of algae, often leading to the suffocation of aquatic life.

This is what we characterize as the water turning green or brown or reddish. That is because of
the very rapid growth of microalgae species.

They rapidly grow because of the abundance of the nutrients present in the water and those
microalgae species generate oxygen during photosynthesis, that is, during day time while during
night time, they actually consuming some oxygen that are used for respiration.

If you have a critical concentration of microalgae in water when they respire by nights, they
could deprive the body of water with dissolved oxygen and a lower value of dissolved oxygen
could be very dangerous to the other types of aquatic life. This condition is known as
eutrophication and is very disastrous for aquatic ecosystems.
 Nitrogen in water can be present as ammonium (NH 4+), nitrite (NO2-), or nitrate (NO3-). Free
ammonia and nitrite are highly toxic with concentrations of as little as 0.5 ppm.

If we convert nitrites and ammonium into nitrates, we can get away with higher concentrations
without endangering aquatic life. However, the problem with nitrate is it’s very stable in the
environment and is still a contributor to eutrophication. In general, we do not want nitrogen
compounds being disposed into our bodies of water.

 Phosphorus is mainly present in water as phosphate (PO43-) or as organic phosphorus.

Phosphorus is often easier to remove in water compared to nitrogen because nitrate is highly
soluble while phosphorus can be largely found as part of the solids with the minimal amount of
dissolved phosphates in water.

EUTROPHICATION: A THREAT TO AQUATIC LIFE

 Several common discharges trigger eutrophication and threaten surface water quality:

For agricultural lands that are near a body of water:

 Excess fertilizer runoff

This is the result of indiscriminate and unplanned used of fertilizer in farmlands.

The excess fertilizers are simply washed away by precipitation and are carried
into surface waters. Once the excess fertilizers are in surface water, they are
very rich in nitrogen and phosphorus and they kick-start the process of
eutrophication.

 Untreated or poorly treated wastewater

WASTEWATERS OF COMMON INDUSTRIES

 It is important to recognize the common values of parameters of some industries

 Knowledge about the usual composition of a wastewater would help in the design of an
appropriate wastewater treatment facility.
 AGRICULTURAL PROCESSING WASTEWATER

 Typically contains elevated levels of BOD, suspended solids, and color

 Treatment is typically done in-house

This is because the very high amount of BOD might be inappropriate for treatment for a typical
municipal wastewater treatment plant. It would be either very expensive for agricultural
processing industry to pay the municipal wastewater treatment plant to treat their wastewater
or the municipal wastewater facility might refuse these types of wastewater because the
treatment process could vary significantly.

LAUNDRY WASTEWATER

 Typically contains elevated levels of nutrients (N, P, S)

 These nutrients are mainly coming from the surfactants or some of the builders used in the
manufacture of the detergent. Although in recent years, some of the new detergents are lower
in phosphorus content.

 May also contain textile dyes

These are the dyes used to color our clothes. These textile dyes often persist in the environments
and are very difficult to degrade.

 Wash water is differentiated from rinse water, although both mixed together in most cases

Wash water contains a higher concentration of surfactants or detergent itself as well as higher
concentration of dirt, fat oils and grease coming from dirty clothes.

Rinse water is a milder version of the wash water because it is much more diluted. Although in
most cases, the wash water is simply mixed with rinse water such that the concentration of the
wash water will be diluted.

SCRUBBER WASTEWATER

 Coal-fired power plants typically have a wet-scrubber that removes SO2 from the flue gas
 The wastewater generated is called Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) wastewater and contains
substantial amounts of metals and anions
 Most of the metals and suspended particles comes from the combustion of coal.

The treatment of this wastewater would involve transferring all of these metals and all of this
anions in the sludge and then disposing of the sludge.
 MINE TAILINGS

Mine tailings is a special type of wastewater because these are not normally being treated.

 Mine tailings are notoriously difficult to handle because of the large amounts of metals present.

Mine tailings are a byproduct of the refining process of ores.

 Most mine tailings are not treated, and are instead concentrated and stored.

The treatment of tis wastewater would be very costly. They are not cost effective, that’s why,
instead of treating they are simply stored, dewatered and are disposed of properly.

Mine tailings are simply kept in open ponds wherein they are allowed to dry and when they are
dried to a sufficiently low amount of water we can simply store them in areas wherein they will
not be easily picked up by water or air. Basically, we are immobilizing the metals present in mine
tailings.
 METAL FINISHING AND ELECTROPLATING WASTEWATER

 Metal finishing is the cleaning of metal surfaces to prepare it for surface treatment.

Surface treatments could involve painting, electroplating or finishing with a polymer coating.

 Electroplating is the electrolytic deposition of metal ions onto a surface.

Basically, we are using electricity to convert metal ions to metal particles and then deposit them
to a conductive surface.

 Metal ions are the primary causes of concern for this type of wastewater.

CONVENTIONAL MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM

 Majority of wastewater treatment plants follow the conventional treatment scheme of primary,
secondary, tertiary and sludge treatment.
 New technologies are adopted to deal with a particular substance in the raw water.

PRELIMINARY TREATMENT PROCESS

SCREENING

 This step is done to remove large particles that could damage equipment like pumps and other
moving parts.
 Can be as simple as a coarse screen that is cleaned manually or an automated system that
regularly withdraws the collected solids.

All of the collected solids from the screening part are sent straight to the landfill.

GRIT CHAMBER

 Its main function is to settle dense, inorganic particles that are not removed by screening.
 Those particles can still damage pipes and pumps.

For some grit chambers, they are as simple as letting the wastewater stand and then letting the
grits naturally settle down. But for some grit chambers, air is also added.

 Aeration is optional; the flow introduced by aeration is helpful in maintaining a vortex flow,
allowing grit to settle down faster.

Basically, we are introducing a helical flow into a conical grit chamber and that allows the dense
particles to settle faster.
 FLOTATION TANKS

 Flotation is the opposite of sedimentation. Less-dense particles are encouraged to float to the
surface for easier withdrawal.

Instead of letting the particles settle down, we are letting the particles float to the surface.
This is applicable for particles that are naturally suspended in the water and are encouraged to
float by the use of small bubbles.

 Diffused aeration is done in this stage. It enhances the flotation of suspended particles and small
droplets of oils

Since oils and fats are typically less dense than water, they will easily float into the surface of the
wastewater if aided by aeration.

 Mainly used for the removal of FOG (fats, oils and grease)

Floatation tanks are used for wastewaters that contain a large amount of FOG that is because
fats, oils and grease interfere with the biological process that is in the secondary treatment part.
So the removal of FOG in the influent wastewater can greatly help in increasing the efficiency of
the secondary treatment process.

EQUALIZATION BASINS

 Equalization pertains to the slowing of the flow of influent wastewater and controlling its
feeding to the treatment.

Equalization affords us to take control over how much wastewater will we be sending into the
treatment plant process.

 This is accomplished in equalization basins.

This is simply a buffer so that the influent wastewater can be gathered into one container and
then we can constantly supply that influent into the treatment process.

 Equalization removes the variability of flow of wastewater from the sources and supplies a
constant amount to the treatment process.

SETTLING / SEDIMENTATION TANKS

 Also called clarifiers

  The primary clarifier removes most of the settleable organic matter and concentrates it as a
sludge slurry.
 It reduces the organic load of the wastewater to save energy in aeration.

Basically, we are removing some of the organic matter here that can be settled such that
succeeding processes would have less and less organic matter to deal with.

SECONDARY TREATMENT PROCESS

SUSPENDED GROWTH BIOREACTORS

 This is the main step that removes BOD

 Also called activated sludge process or return activated sludge (RAS)

In this process, we have a primary aeration tank wherein we are simply introducing air into the
system for two reasons: 1. To mix the wastewater 2. To introduce dissolved oxygen into the
process.

In the return activated sludge process, after a set amount of time in the aeration tank, the
wastewater now enters the secondary clarifier wherein most of the sludge is settled down and
then the clear water is then sent to the next steps of the treatment.

The settled sludge in the secondary clarifier is actually very rich in microfauna.

 Microfauna-rich sludge is recycled back to the influent to enrich its microorganism loading.

Basically, we want to inoculate the raw wastewater with the microorganisms coming from the
secondary clarifier. That gives our raw wastewater a starting boost to the population of the
microorganisms which helps degrade the organic compounds faster.

Not all of the sludge is recycled back to the aeration tank, just a small portion of it. Majority of
the settled sludge is removed and is sent to the sludge processing. That ensures that we are not
adding to much organic compound into our influent wastewater, we just want to add an initial
spike of microorganisms.

This is called suspended growth bioreactors because the bacteria are residing at the surface of
the solids, that is, the bacteria are colonizing the surfaces of the solids present in the
wastewater.

A larger amounts of solids would equate to a larger amount of bacteria that are in the system.
 For treatment plants lacking enough space, we can replace the secondary clarifier with a
Membrane Bioreactor (MBR).

MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR (MBR)

 Instead of a clarifier, a membrane module separates the biosolids from the water after aeration.
 This enables the combining of aeration and solid-liquid separation in the same space.
 Faster and more efficient in removing BOD, TSS, ammonia, phosphate, and coliform.

The only downside to this process is sometimes membranes can be quite expensive and they can
be quite short-lived because they are easily fouled and clogged.

ATTACHED GROWTH BIOREACTORS

 The bacteria responsible for treatment are grown on media with a high specific surface area.
The wastewater is then made to contact the media.
 These typically use less energy compared to suspended growth reactors.

Because the pumping of air in the suspended growth bioreactors is very energy intensive.

TRICKLING FILTER

 Influent wastewater is made to trickle down a column of porous media. A higher surface area
means that more bacteria will degrade the organic matter.

In the trickling filter we have an inert media typically plastic particles, rock particles or
sometimes even slag and that media creates an environment wherein the water is contacted
with a large amount of air. Therefore, we call this a passive oxygenation process.

 This highly oxygenated environment that does not require active aeration.

The energy used is not being spent in diffusing oxygen into the water. All we have to do is to
pump the wastewater at the top of the trickling filter, distribute it evenly and as the wastewater
trickles down that tower it gets into contact with oxygen and also with the bacteria that
degrades the organic matter.

In theory, the effluent of the trickling filter is already clean and contains less organic compounds.

These types of filters are of great use in aquaculture systems wherein the main goal is to
introduce oxygen in the water as well as to convert ammonia to nitrates. Ammonia being
converted to nitrates requires oxygen and a trickling filter provides large amounts of oxygen to
the process.
 ROTATING BIOLOGICAL CONTRACTOR (RBC)

 A slowly-rotating disk containing a large specific area favorable for housing a large amount of
microorganisms is contacted with wastewater.

The concept here is as the RBC slowly rotates, some parts of the RBC are exposed to the nutrient-
rich wastewater which the bacteria is feeding on and some parts are exposed to the air which
oxygenate the water.

 The contractor is submerged

 Combination of passive and active aeration.

The passive aeration is coming from the exposure of the RBC to the air while the active aeration
is supplemental and that is achieved by placing aerators at the bottom of the tank of the RBC.
RBCs are still common in small scale wastewater treatment plants that cater to municipal
wastewater.

PACKED BED / FLUIDIZED BED REACTOR

 This is a combination of attached growth and suspended growth

Attached growth is coming from the media present inside of the packed bed or fluidized bed
while the suspended growth is achieved by the presence of the biosolids or other suspended
solids that are trapped inside of the bioreactor.

 Low velocities for packed bed, increased velocities for fluidization.

 Functions in the same way as MBRs or Membrane Bioreactors

We are accomplishing the aeration and filtration on the same step. Although it is less efficient
because it can only filter large particles while the smaller particles would still go through the
bioreactor.

TERTIARY TREATMENT: NUTRIENT REMOVAL

 Nitrogen and phosphorus are potent inducers of eutrophication; as such, they are addressed in
the tertiary treatment

For primary treatment – removal of physical properties of wastewater: solids, color and turbidity
For secondary treatment – removal of organic matter
For tertiary treatment – removal of nutrients
 Treated water destined to be used for crop irrigation may not need tertiary treatment
 Most of phosphorus is removed as part of the sludge after the secondary

Organic phosphorus in the system tends to stick with the biosolids.

 Most of the nitrogen is present as stable nitrate as a result of oxidation in the secondary
treatment

DENITRIFICATION

In the biological process, we are introducing air such that the dissolved oxygen can be utilized by
bacteria to degrade organic matter. A beneficial byproduct of that is what we call nitrification, a
process wherein ammonia which is very toxic is converted to nitrate which is relatively less toxic.
Therefore, nitrate is largely formed in the secondary treatment. However, nitrate is stable and
very water soluble and we still have to remove it from our water, that’s why, we have
denitrification.

 Denitrification refers to the removal of nitrate through an anaerobic process.

 Nitrification needs oxygen, while denitrification needs the absence of oxygen. This
incompatibility presents a challenge to the design of treatment systems.

Nitrogen gas is the final product of the denitrification process.

The denitrification process also consumes carbon-based compounds or organic compounds,

that’s why, in some cases, denitrification is coupled with the secondary treatment process.

DISINFECTION

 Before the effluent water is released, it is disinfected to eliminate pathogens.

 Disinfection is done by contacting the clean water with disinfectants such as chlorine gas,
chlorine dioxide, hypochlorite, ozone, and UV irradiation.

SLUDGE HANDLING AND TREATMENT

 The wastewater treatment process does not end with the release of clean effluent.
 Sludge is mainly the thing that we don’t want in the wastewater. It includes the grits, the settled
solids, organic matter and other substances that have been separated from the water.

 It should also involve methods of dealing with the sludge generated from the treatment.

ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

 This is the most common method employed for sludge stabilization

 The sludge is kept in anaerobic conditions to facilitate methanogenesis through the breakdown
of organic matter.

We are further degrading this sludge or the organic matter in the sludge by the use of anaerobic
bacteria which turns the organic compounds into methane.

Methane being one of the primary outputs of the anaerobic digestion can be used as a source of
fuel.

 The outputs are methane and a slurry of digested sludge.

Digested sludge commonly contains compounds that cannot be broken down by bacteria.

DEWATERING

 Dewatering is done to reduce the moisture content of digested sludge before disposal.
 The cheapest way to do this is to dry the settled sludge in open beds
 Other mechanical process can be employed to hasten the dewatering process such as using filter
press and centrifuge

SLUDGE DISPOSAL

 Dried sludge or biosolids are utilized differently depending on the country, region, and
preferences.
 Some are disposed in landfills.

If the influent is known to contain hazardous substances, it is best to disposed sludge to landfills.

 Some are applied to agricultural soil as a conditioner.

If the influent to the treatment process are largely of biological origin, such as human waste,
then we can apply the de-water sludge to agricultural soil as a conditioner.
 Some are composted to further break down the organic matter.
 Some are incinerated.

Incinerated to recover energy. This is done in conjunction with the combustion of methane
generated from the anaerobic digestion. The generated energy from incineration and from the
burning of the methane can be used to power the wastewater treatment plant itself.

OTHER TECHNOLOGIES FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

1. STRUVITE PRECIPITATION

 Struvite (NH4MgPO4 . 6H2O) is a mineral that can be precipitated from wastewater as a

form of nutrient recovery.

Struvite contains nitrogen, magnesium and phosphorus – three elements that are vital
to the growth of plants. Also, nitrogen and phosphorus are common in wastewater.

 It is valued as a slow-release fertilizer

 It is better precipitated from collected urine (yellow water) separate from blackwater.

Black water contains many substances that can hinder the formation of Struvite.

2. CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS

 A constructed wetland is a biologically-active system that naturally cleans wastewater

from the combined action of plants and microorganisms.

It is a depression in the natural land that is lined with a non-permeable material such as
clay or a polymer lining that prevents the wastewater from seeping into the ground and
affecting our groundwater.

 Natural flow can be adopted to induce a slow flow through inert media (sand and
gravel) with wetland plants that harbor beneficial microorganisms in their root zones.

Basically, we are combining the treating action of the plants, normally they are wetland
plants and the bacteria that are residing on the roots of the plants. This is a biological
treatment process that utilizes a very small amount of energy. All we have to do id to
 provide the energy needed for pumping the wastewater through the constructed
wetlands.

3. ELECTROCOAGULATION

 Electrocoagulation is the application of electricity through iron or aluminum electrodes

to induce a redox reaction that releases metal ions into the wastewater.

Electrocoagulation is an emerging technology that promises a one-step process in

wastewater treatments. Basically, we have to apply electricity on two electrodes,
normally these are irons or aluminum electrodes and that results to the release of
hydroxide ions and metal ions. The metal ions are responsible for binding with the
hydroxide ions as well as the other organic substances present in the wastewater. This
process enhances coagulation therefore enhancing the separation between the clean
water and the sludge.
 The metal ions are the coagulants. They form flocs that can either be settled or floated
and skimmed.

The disadvantage of the electrocoagulation process is the electrodes are being

consumed. Therefore, you are introducing metal ions into the water.

MICROBIAL FUEL CELLS

 MFCs utilize bacteria to consume the organic substances in wastewater, while

generating electricity in the process.
 The net effect is the reduction of organic substances in the wastewater and the
generation of electricity. The generated electricity can be used to power the wastewater
treatment plant.
 WATER DISTRIBUTION

 Saltwater represents most of our water source

o Saline (oceans) makes up about 97% of the total water on earth that we cannot directly
use, it needs further treatment before we can use it.

 Surface freshwater surprisingly represents a tiny portion of our available freshwater

o Freshwater makes up 3% of the total water on earth and is further divided into:

 Icecaps and glaciers – 68.7%

 Groundwater – 30.1%
 Other – 0.9 %
 Surface water – 0.3 %

 Lakes – 87%
 Swamps – 11%
 Rivers – 2%

SURFACE WATER

 The water we use in our households come from either surface water or ground water.
 Water in urbanized areas often come from treated surface water from dams and reservoirs.

GROUND WATER

 Water extracted from the ground is often found in rural areas that are out of reach of
commercial water services.
  Sometimes, water concessionaries also use groundwater to supplement their surface water
extraction.

SURFACE WATER VS. GROUNDWATER

Surface water Groundwater

Availability Localized availability; often Localized availability; needs a
needs dams or reservoirs to drilled well to access the water
keep a stable supply for large
populations
Pollution Highly susceptible to pollution Depending on the location,
as it exists on the surface groundwater may be naturally
purified through its percolation
in the topsoil
Components Contains noticeable levels of Contains noticeable levels of
suspended solids as well as dissolved inorganic substances
dissolved organic substances, (minerals) but is low on
depending on the source suspended solids
Treatment Requires full conventional water Depending on the source,
treatment system treatment could be as simple as
disinfection upon extraction and
depending on the use,
groundwater can also be
softened (removal of hardness)