ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES-II

MODULE – I
ENVIRONMENTAL
POLLUTION
LECTURE – 4
WASTE WATER TREATMENT
 CONTENTS
Control Measures of
Water Pollution (Waste
Water Treatment)
Waste Water Treatment
➢ Wastewater is liquid waste discharged by domestic residences,
commercial properties, industry, agriculture, which often contains
some contaminants that result from the mixing of wastewater from
different sources.
➢ Waste water can be categorized on the basis of origin and
composition as -
1. Industrial waste water (Effluent)
2. Domestic waste water (Sewage)
➢ Wastewater treatment processes are designed to achieve
improvements in the quality of the wastewater. The various
treatment processes may reduce-
1. Suspended solids (physical particles that can clog rivers or
channels as they settle under gravity).
2. Pathogenic bacteria and other disease causing organisms These
are most relevant where the receiving water is used for drinking, or
where people would otherwise be in close contact with it.

3. Biodegradable organics (e.g. BOD) which can serve as “food” for

microorganisms in the receiving body. Microorganisms combine this
matter with oxygen from the water to yield the energy they need to
thrive and multiply; unfortunately, this oxygen is also needed by
fish and other organisms in the river.

4. Heavy organic pollution can lead to “dead zones” where no fish

can be found; sudden releases of heavy organic loads can lead to
dramatic “fish kills”.
5. Nutrients - including nitrates and phosphates. These nutrients
can lead to high concentrations of unwanted algae, which can
themselves become heavy loads of biodegradable organic load.

6. Treatment processes may also neutralize or remove harmful

wastes and toxic chemicals.

Widely used terminology refers the three levels of

wastewater treatment:
➢ Primary Treatment
➢ Secondary Treatment
➢ Tertiary Treatment
 Primary treatment (Physico-Chemical):
➢ The primary treatment is of general nature and is used for
removing suspended solids, odour, colour and to neutralize
the high or low pH in case of industrial effluents.
➢ This level also referred as “mechanical treatment”, although
chemicals are often used to accelerate the sedimentation
process.
➢ Primary treatment can reduce the BOD of the incoming
wastewater by 20-30% and the total suspended solids by
some 50-60%.
➢ It involves screening, sedimentation, floatation, filtration,
7neutralization, coagulation and precipitation etc.
1. Screening:
• Screening is the first step in the wastewater
treatment process.
• This step removes all sorts of refuse that has arrived
with the wastewater such as plastic, branches, rags,
and metals.
• The screening process is used primarily to present
the clogging and interference of the following
wastewater treatment processes.
• Screens are considered coarse if their opening are
larger than 6mm, fine if their openings are between
1.5 and 6mm, and very fine if their openings are
between 0.2 and 1.5mm.
8
 Comminuting

In order to remove coarse solids, numerous types of detritus tanks,

grinders, and cyclonic inertial separation are utilized, including
a comminutor and a grit chamber. The type of grit removal
separation depends upon the characteristics of the grit itself.
A comminutor, also known as the grinding pump, houses a rotating
cutting screen. This cutting screen shreds any large chunks of
organic matter in the wastewater into smaller pieces. This makes it
easier for the microorganisms to use the organic matter as food and
prevents the large chunks from harming the internal workings of the
treatment plant.
A grit chamber allows pieces of rock, metal, bone, and even egg
shells, which are denser than organic materials, to settle out of the
waste stream. Removal of grit prevents damage to machinery
through abrasion or clogging.
• Process of shredding of large sized
solid present in the waste water in to
small sized particles (8mm in dia.) for
effective removal of solids from the
waste water.
• A hammer mill device is often used for
this purpose.
• Shredding devices are located just
ahead of pumping devices.
10
 Grit removal:
• Municipal waste contains large amount
of inorganic solids such as pebbles,
sand, silts, glass and metal pieces.
• The grit removal facility generally
consist of an enlarged channel area
where reduced flow velocity allow grit
to settle down.

11
12
 Skimming Tank:
• A skimming tank is a chamber so
arranged that the floating matter like
oil, fat, greases etc. rise and remain on
the surface of the waste water until
removed, while the liquid flows out
continuously under partitions .

13
• It is necessary to remove the floating
matter from the sewage otherwise it
may appear in the form of unsightly
scum on the surface of settling tanks
and inter fare with the activated sludge
process of sewage treatment.

14
 Sedimentation:
• In this step the settable solids are
removed by gravitational setting under
quiescent conditions.
• The sludge formed at the bottom of the
tank is removed as under flow.
• The clear liquid produced is known as
the overflow and it should not contain
readily settable matter.

15
Sedimentation simply entails the physical
settling of matter, due to its density, buoyancy,
and the force of gravity.
Through sedimentation, the larger solids are
removed in order to facilitate the efficiency of
the following procedures.
17
 Neutralization:
• When pH of the industrial waste is too
high or too low then it should be
neutralized by acid or alkali and only
neutralized effluents should be
discharged into the drain or public
sewer.
• Lime stone caustic soda, Sulphuric
acid etc are utilized to neutralize the
pH.
18
 Coagulation & Flocculation
Coagulants and flocculants are chemicals used to precipitate
insoluble substances.
The purpose of coagulation and flocculation is to cause small
pollutant particles such as metals to aggregate and form large
enough floc so that they can be separated from the wastewater.
➢ Coagulation targets dissolved ions such as metal and
radionuclides. This technology has been used consistently in the
electronics and electroplating industry as well as for applications in
groundwater treatment.
➢ Coagulation is the process of destabilization of colloids by altering
surface properties in order to allow the individual particles to
combine into larger ones
➢ Flocculation is the actual accumulation of the particles into a
settable mass.
• There are three main types of coagulants (Alum,
Ferric chloride, and hydrated lime in solid form)
that are used to overcome the repulsive forces of
particles, thus causing them to aggregate.
• Electrolytes, organic polymers, and synthetic poly
electrolytes are mixed in wastewater for
flocculation that promote flocs and subsequent
physical separation.
• Rate of flocculation is dependent upon many
factors including concentration of particles, particle
contact, and range of particle sizes.
 Secondary Treatment
(Biological treatment)
➢ In this process dissolved organic matter that escapes
primary treatment.
➢ This is achieved by microbes consuming the organic matter
as food, and converting it to carbon dioxide, water, and energy
for their own growth and reproduction.
➢ The biological process is then followed by additional settling
tanks to remove more of the suspended solids.
➢ About 85% of the suspended solids and BOD can be
removed by a well running plant with secondary treatment.
➢ Secondary treatment technologies include the basic
activated sludge process, the variants of pond and constructed
wetland systems, trickling filters and other forms of treatment
which use biological activity to break down organic matter.
Activated sludge process:
• Waste water after primary treatment
enters in to an aeration tank where the
organic matter is brought in to contact
with sludge from the secondary
clarifier.
• This sludge is heavily laden with
microorganisms which are in the
active state of growth.
23
• In proper aerated condition microbes
convert organic matters in to low energy
compounds like SO4, NO3, CO2 etc.
• In a sewage or industrial wastewater
treatment plant, the activated sludge
process is a biological process that can
be used for one or several of the following
purposes:
1. Oxidizing carbonaceous biological
matter.
24
2. oxidizing nitrogenous matter:
mainly ammonium and nitrogen in biological
matter.
3. Removal of phosphates.
4. driving off entrained gases such
as carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitrogen, etc.
5. generating a biological floc that is easy to
settle.
6. generating a liquor that is low in dissolved
or suspended material.
25
• The process involves air being
introduced into a mixture of screened,
and primary treated sewage or industrial
wastewater combined with organisms to
develop a biological floc which reduces
the organic content of the sewage.

26
27
28
Trickling Filters:
• It consists of a fixed bed
of rocks, lava, coke, gravel, slag, polyur
ethane foam, sphagnum peat
moss, ceramic, or plastic media over
which sewage or
other wastewater flows downward and
causes a layer of microbial slime
(biofilm) to grow, covering the bed of
media.

29
• Aerobic conditions are maintained by
splashing, diffusion, and either by forced
air flowing through the bed or natural
convection of air if the filter medium is
porous.
• The removal of pollutants from the
wastewater stream involves both
absorption and adsorption of organic
compounds by the layer of microbial
biofilm.
30
• The filter media is typically chosen to
provide a very high surface area to
volume. Typical materials are often
porous and have considerable internal
surface area in addition to the external
surface of the medium.

31
• Passage of the wastewater over the media
furnishes dissolved air, the oxygen which
the slime layer requires for
the biochemical oxidation of the organic
compounds and releases carbon
dioxide gas, water and other oxidized end
products.
• As the bio film layer thickens, it eventually
sloughs off into the treated effluent and
subsequently forms part of the secondary
sludge.
32
33
Rotating Biological Contactor
(RBC)
• It consist of circular plastic discs which arranged on a
rotating shaft. The first RBC was installed in West
Germany in 1960.
• Circular discs have microorganisms grown on them.
About 40% area of discs is submerged in the waste
water containing tank.
• The discs rotate in in and out of water as the RBC
rotates.
• The microorganisms present on the discs absorb
organic matter when they are in water and obtain
required oxygen when the disc are out of water.
• It can removed high concentration of Organic matter.
Biofilms, which are biological growths that become
attached to the discs, assimilate the organic
materials in the wastewater.
Aeration is provided by the rotating action, which
exposes the media to the air after contacting them
with the wastewater, facilitating the degradation of
the pollutants being removed.
The degree of wastewater treatment is related to the
amount of media surface area and the quality and
volume of the inflowing wastewater.
Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket
(UASB) Reactor:

• In this method pollutants are treated anaerobically. It has four

stages – i. Acidogenesis ii. Acetogenesis
iii. Hydrolysis iv. Methanogenesis
Anaerobic biomass is used to convert organic matter in to CH4 ,
CO2, acetate, H2 etc.
Methane is collected and can be used for domestic purposes.
Working - A dense blanket of granular anaerobic biomass passed
through the sludge blanket continuously. Biogas produced is
collected in reactor chamber. Water produced after hydrolysis
and other liquid forms are removed from outlet. It is effective
method and have economic advantages.
 Disinfection
Disinfection, typically with chlorine, can be the
final step before discharge of the effluent.
However, some environmental authorities are
concerned that chlorine residuals in the effluent
can be a problem in their own right, and have
moved away from this process. Disinfection is
frequently built into treatment plant design, but
not effectively practiced, because of the high
cost of chlorine, or the reduced effectiveness of
ultraviolet radiation where the water is not
sufficiently clear or free of particles.
 Tertiary treatment
It is simply additional treatment beyond secondary!
Tertiary treatment can remove more than 99 percent of all
the impurities from sewage, producing an effluent of
almost drinking-water quality. The related technology can
be very expensive, requiring a high level of technical know-
how and well trained treatment plant operators, a steady
energy supply, and chemicals and specific equipment
which may not be readily available. An example of a typical
tertiary treatment process is the modification of a
conventional secondary treatment plant to remove
additional phosphorus and nitrogen.
Water filtration technology has advanced to the point
where wastewater can be rendered safe for drinking,
according to a new report, but legislative and
psychological hurdles will need to be overcome before
widespread adoption can happen.