Physical Unit Operations
Physical Unit Operations
OPERATIONS
Industrial wastewater
One classification of wastewater,
other than municipal wastewater
Require pretreatment to remove
noncompatible substances prior to
discharge into municipal sewers
Characteristics vary from industry to
industry and hence the treatment
also vary
Screening
Used to remove coarse
solid (sticks, rags, boards)
from WW. Coarse solid can:
-Damage process
equipments
-Reduce treatment process
reliability, effectiveness
-Contaminate waterways
Protect pumps and other
mechanical equipment
Prevent clogging of valves
Bar racks
Perforated plates
Wire cloth
Solid reduction
Located across the flow
path of WW
Intercepts the coarse
solids and shreds to
smaller, more uniform
size
Comminutor,
macerator, grinder
Basic parts include
screen and cutting teeth
High-maintenance items
Flow equalization
Flow equalization is the process of
mitigating changes in flow rate
By providing storage to hold water
when it is arriving too rapidly,
Supply additional water when it is
arriving less rapidly than desired
It is convenient to equalize the flow
before feeding it to the various
treatment steps
Principal benefits:
Disadvantages:
Gravity separation
Removal of particle suspensions by
gravity settling
Refer Table 5.15
Grit removal
Grit material compose of inorganic and organic
solids
Substances in grit abrasive in nature and cause
accelerated wear on pump & sludge-handling
equipment
Grit chamber- horizontal flow, rectangular, vortex
type
protect moving mechanical equipment from
abrasion,
reduce formation of heavy deposits,
reduced frequency of digester cleaning
Basically consist of an
enlarged channel area
reduce velocity and
hence settle out the grit
Most common channel
type or aerated
rectangular basin
Deposited grit is
removed by mechanical
scrapers
Sedimentation
Remove settleable solids and floating
material
Accomplished by long-rectangular
tanks or circular tanks
Quantity of sludge removed depends
on
Strength of the incoming waste
Efficiency of clarifier
Condition of sludge sg, water content
Floatation
Separate solid or liquid particles from
liquid phase
Using fine gas (air) bubbles into
liquid phase
Bubbles attach to particulate, then
particle rise to surface
Dissolved-air flotation, dispersed-air
flotation
Lag phase
The acclimation period
Log-growth phase
Maximum growth that occur at a
logarithmic rate
Stationary phase
Time during which the production of new
cellular material is roughly offset by death
and endogenous respiration
Endogenous phase
Biomass slowly decreases, approaching
zero asymptotically after a very long of
time
Facultative pond
Phosphorus removal
Chemical precipitation by combining
with trivalent aluminum or iron cations
Secondary sludge
Composed of biological solids
Consistency depends on treatment process
Acid formers
Consist of facultative and anaerobic bacteria
Include organism that solubilize the organic
solids through hydrolysis
Soluble products are fermented to acids and
alcohols of low MW
Irrigation
Rapid
infiltration
3.2.3
Groundwater recharge
Inadvertent consequence of land
application for irrigation and from rapid
infiltration
3.2.4
Reuse in potable water systems
Direct reuse the treated effluent from
WW treatment is piped directly to the
influent of the water treatment plant
Indirect reuse storage of treated
effluent in natural or artificial water
bodies for a period of time prior to
withdrawal
TUTORIAL
5.10, 5.11, 5.15, 5.28