Suspended growth biological

processes

Farid khan
Wastewater treatment processes
 Stages of Wastewater Treatment
• Primary
– Contaminants (60% of solids and 35% of BOD
removed)
• Oil & Grease
• Total Suspended Solids (Css or TSS) – 60%
Removed
• Pathogens
• BOD – 35% removed
– Processes
• Screens
• Grit Settling
• Scum Flotation
• Primary Settling
 Stages of Wastewater Treatment
• Secondary
– Contaminants
• BOD – 90% Removed
• TSS – 90% Removed
– Processes
• Trickling Filter – rotating disk
• Activated Sludge – Suspended and mixed
• Oxidation ponds – lagoons
(promote contact between microbes and
contaminants)
 Stages of Wastewater Treatment
• Tertiary
– Contaminants
• Nutrients
• Dissolved solids (e.g., salt, other ions, etc.)
– Processes
• Nitrogen removal (Denitrification) – bacteria
• Phosphorus removal – precipitation or bacteria
• Other chemicals – adsorption and precipitation
 Secondary Treatment

• This involves treating the liquid part of the

wastewater biologically.
biologically It is carried out
after primary treatment (which removes
some of the solid material).
• The purpose of this process is to remove
the organic matter and the nitrogen
from the wastewater.
• A group of microorganisms called
bacteria are ‘employed’ to do the job.
 Secondary Treatment
Two Types (based on growth condition)
• Suspended Growth
Organisms are suspended in the treatment
fluid. This fluid is commonly called the
“mixed liquor”. Example: Activated sludge.

2. Attached growth or Fixed Film

Organisms attached to some inert media like
rocks or plastic. Example: Trickling filter.
 Suspended growth vs. Fixed film biological
treatment

• Suspended growth: • Fixed film:

– Biomass well-mixed, in – Biomass layered, attached
suspension – More diverse (snails!), stratified
– Diverse microbiology microbiology
– High energy aeration – Frequently relies on draft for
systems aeration
– Process control follows – Process control is empirically
from modeling based on organic and hydraulic
– Shocked more easily loading
– Resilient to shock loads
– Biomass recycled
– Biomass not typically recycled
– High solids production,
easy to settle – Low solids production, hard to
– High efficiency settle (low floc formers)
– Lower efficiency
– DO 2 to 3 mg/L
– Higher DO required
– Reliable N & P removal
– unreliable N & P removal
 Activated Sludge
Historical development
• Invented in 1914 by Ardern and Lockett in
England. They aerated a batch of sewage, allowing
the generated sludge to settle, decanting the
supernatant, adding a fresh batch of sewage.
• During aeration sewage is mixed with a large mass of
previously grown organisms.
• The solids formed are flocculent and can be removed
from the liquid by settling.
• Separate control is exercised over the solid and liquid
phases, so that the solids retention time in the process
is much longer than the hydraulic retention time.
Characteristics of activated sludge Process
• The mostly widely used biological process for the
treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters.
• Strictly aerobicexcept anoxic variation for
denitrification.
• Parts: i) aeration tank, ii) a settling tank, iii) solids
recycle, and iv) a sludge wasting line
• activated sludge: microbial aggregates (flocs) in the
aeration tank.
→Flocs stay in suspension with mixing by aeration.
• Recycle of the activated sludge is crucial to
maintaining a high concentration of cells.
 Basic Porcess of Activated Sludge
Effluent
Raw wastewater
or effluent from Aerobic reactor
primary treatment
CO2 , H2O Secondary
New biomass NO3, SO4 , PO4
settler

Activated sludge + Wastewater + O2

Wastage sludge
Recycle sludge
Schematic of Municipal Sewage Treatment
Characteristics of activated sludge Process
• Aerobic heterotrophic bacteria are main
“activated”organisms.
→Microbial community is highly diverse and
competative.
• Floc formation is really key –individual
bacteria do not settle fast enough to be
captured in the settling tank. Cells not in flocs
are washed out.
• The suspended flocs particles are called
“activated”.
Why “activated sludge”?

The process involves the production of an

activated mass of microorganisms capable of
aerobic stabilization of organic material in
wastewater.
Activated sludge
 Activated sludge Microbiology

Bulk mixed
Sludge liquor with
particle free floating
microorganis
ms
 Microorganisms in the activated sludge system

• Activated sludge floc

– Bacteria: major component
– Fungi: low pH, toxicity, N
deficient waste
– Protozoa: gazing on bacteria
– Rotifers: multicellular
organism (help to floc
formation)
– Organic/ inorganic particle
Process reactor configuration (fig. 8-1)

1. Plug-flow process
 Process reactor configuration
1. Complete mix activated sludge (CMAS)
or Complete stir tank reactor (CSTR)
 Process reactor configuration
1. Sequencing batch reactor (SBR)
 Activated Sludge Principles
• Wastewater is aerated in a tank
• Bacteria are encouraged to grow by providing
• Oxygen
• Food (BOD)
• Nutrients
• Correct temperature
• Time

• As bacteria consume BOD, they grow and multiply

• Treated wastewater flows into secondary clarifier
• Bacterial cells settle, removed from clarifier as sludge
• Part of sludge is recycled back to activated sludge tank,
to maintain bacteria population
• Remainder of sludge is wasted
 Schematic of activated sludge unit

• Assumptions:
• Effluent bacteria concentration is 0
• Concentration of substrate or BOD in sludge is 0
• Sludge waste flowrate (Qw) is much smaller than Q
 Key Characteristics and Terms
• Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids (MLSS)
– Indication of microbial population
– Usually between 2000 and 5000 mg/L
– Maintained by adjusting WAS
– Mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) approx.
= 0.7-0.8 × MLSS

• Food to Microorganism ratio

– Also termed sludge loading rate (SLR)

– F traditionally on BOD basis but now often on COD basis
– M biomass fraction under aeration only (MLSS or MLVSS)
– F:M typically maintained between 0.1 – 0.4 kgBOD / kgVSS ． d
Design of Activated Sludge
Designed based on
loading (the amount of
organic matter added
relative to the
microorganisms
available)
Commonly called the
food-to-microorganisms
ratio, F/M
F measured as BOD. M
measured as volatile
suspended solids
concentration (VSS)

F/M is the amount of

BOD/day per amount of
MLVSS in the aeration
tank
Design of Activated Sludge
Influent organic compounds provide the food for the
microorganisms and is called substrate (S)

The substrate is used by the microorganisms for

growth, to produce energy and new cell material.

The rate of new cell production as a result of the use of

substrate may be written mathematically as:

dX/dt = - Y dS/dt

Y is called the yield and is the mass of cells produced

per mass of substrate used (g SS/g BOD)
Activated sludge process modeling
(Chap.7-6)
• Biochemical reaction

• The concentration of biomass, X (mg/L),

increases as a function of time due to
conversion of food to biomass:

Where µ is the specific growth rate constant (d-1).

This represents the mass of cells
produced/mass of cells per unit of time.
• Biomass production

• Where kd represents the endogenous

decay rate (d-1) (i.e., microorganism death
rate).
– Substituting the growth rate constant:
• Substrate utilization

Where Y is the yield (mg of biomass

produced/mg of food consumed)
• Y range:
– Aerobic: 0.4 - 0.8 mg/mg
• Food to microorganism ratio (F/M)
• Represents the daily mass of food supplied to the
microbial biomass, X, in the mixed liquor
suspended solids, MLSS
• Units are Kg BOD5/Kg MLSS/day
• Since the hydraulic retention time (HRT),
θ = V/Qo, then

F So
=
M θX
Food/Microbe Ratio
The higher the waste rate, the higher the ratio.

0.2-0.5 lb/BOD5/day/lb MLSS is normal

A low ratio means that the microbes are

starving.
Typical range of F/M ratio in activated sludge processes

Treatment Process F/M

Kg BOD5/Kg MLSS/day

Extended aeration 0.03 - 0.8

Conventional 0.8 - 2.0

High rate > 2.0

Mean Cell Residence Time(θc) or Solids Retention
Time (SRT) or Sludge Age
Mean cell residence time (MCRT, θc) is the mass of cells in
the system divided by the mass of cells wasted per day.

Consider the system:

θc = VX/QX = V/Q

At SS the amount of solids

wasted per day must equal the
amount produced per day:

θc = XV / [Y(dS/dt)V] = X / Y(dS/dt)
 Mean Cell Residence Time(θc) or Solids
Retention Time (SRT)
• θc = 1/μ = 1 / μmax S/(KS +S)
minimal θc = 1/μmax
• SRT typically 4-20 days, HRT usually 6-24
hours
Now consider a CSTR with cell recycle:
Activated sludge process modeling
Mass balance of biomass production
• Influent biomass + biomass production = effluent
biomass + sludge wasted

• Substitute biomass production equation

• Assume that influent and effluent biomass

concentrations are negligible and solve
 Mass balance of food substrate
• Influent substrate + substrate consumed = effluent
susbtrate + sludge wasted substrate
•

• Substitute substrate removal equation

•

• Assume that no biochemical action takes place in

clarifier. Therefore the substrate concentration in the
aeration basin is equal to the substrate concentrations in
the effluent and the waste activated sludge. Solve:
•
 Overall equations
– Combine the mass balance equations for food and biomass:

• The cell residence time is:

• and the hydraulic retention time is,θ= V/Qo

Substitute and rearrange:

• Compute the F/M ratio

 Other important Operating Parameters
• Organic loading rate
• Oxygen supply
• Control and operation of the final settling tank
Functions:
Final settling tank Clarification
Thickening

Sludge settleability is determined

sludge
by sludge volume index (SVI)
V x 1000 where V is volume of
SVI (ml/g) = ___________
settled sludge after 30 min
MLSS
 SVI
 One-liter graduated cylinder,30 minute settling
period
 SVI = (mL/L)/(g/L) = mL/g, i.e., volume occupied by
one gram of settled solids

1-L

mL

 A high SVI (>150 ml/g) indicates bulking

Settling Problem in Activated Sludge
Processes

Settling well

Settling problem
 Definition of BOD
Microorganisms (e.g., bacteria) are responsible for
decomposing organic waste. When organic matter such
as dead plants, leaves, grass clippings, manure, sewage,
or even food waste is present in a water supply, the
bacteria will begin the process of breaking down this
waste. When this happens, much of the available
dissolved oxygen (DO) is consumed by aerobic bacteria,
robbing other aquatic organisms of the oxygen they need
to live. Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a measure
of the oxygen used by microorganisms to decompose this
waste. If there is a large quantity of organic waste in the
water supply, there will also be a lot of bacteria present
working to decompose this waste. In this case, the
demand for oxygen will be high (due to all the bacteria)
so the BOD level will be high. As the waste is consumed
or dispersed through the water, BOD levels will begin to
decline.
 BOD bottles

BOD as a
function of
time
 5-day BOD test

P is volume fraction of
D0 – D5 1 liter used in test
BOD5 (mg/l) = __________

P D is dissolved oxygen
concentration at Time=0
and Time = 5 days
 Sample calculation
Determine the 5-day BOD for a 15 ml sample that is diluted
with dilution water to a total volume of 300 ml when the initial
DO concentration is 8 mg/l and after 5 days, has been reduced
to 2 mg/l.

D0 = 8
D5 = 2
P = 15 ml/300ml = 0.05
8-2
BOD (mg/l) = _______ = 120
0.05