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Wastewater Treatment
The effective treatment of wastewater to meet water
quality objectives for water reuse applications and to
protect public health is a critical element of water reuse
systems.

Municipal/Industrial wastewater treatment consists of a

combination of physical, chemical, and biological
processes and operations to remove solids, organic
matter, pathogens, metals, and sometimes nutrients
from wastewater.

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General terms used to describe different degrees
of treatment, in order of increasing treatment
level are, preliminary, primary, secondary,
tertiary, and advanced treatment.

A disinfection step for control of pathogenic

organisms is often the final treatment step prior to
distribution or storage of reclaimed wastewater.

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Goal: to design an integrated cost-effective treatment
scheme that is capable of reliably meeting water quality
objectives.

The degree of treatment varies according to:

1. Specific reuse application
2. Associated water quality requirements

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Typical Wastewater Treatment scheme

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Generalized flow diagram for municipal wastewater treatment
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The objective of preliminary treatment is the removal of coarse
solids and other large materials often found in raw wastewater.

Removal of these materials is necessary to enhance the

operation and maintenance of subsequent treatment units.

Pretreatment may include

screening, pre-sedimentation,
chemical addition, grit removal,
and aeration.

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 Preliminary Treatment
 The screens are used to remove rocks, sticks, leaves, and
other debris.
 Very small screens can be used to screen out algae in the
water.
 There are two primary types of screens - bar screens and wire-
mesh screens.

A wire-mesh screen A bar screen

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 Preliminary Treatment

Grit chamber
In grit chambers, the velocity of water through the chamber is
maintained sufficiently high, or air is used, so as to prevent the
settling of most organic solids.

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Primary Treatment
Primary sedimentation tanks or clarifiers may be round or
rectangular basins, typically 3 to 5 m deep, with hydraulic
retention time between 2 and 3 hours.
Settled solids (primary sludge) are normally removed from the
bottom of tanks by sludge rakes that scrape the sludge to a
central well from which it is pumped to sludge processing units.
Scum is swept across the tank surface by water jets or
mechanical means from which it is also pumped to sludge
processing units.
For Colloids, the primary treatment processes is not a good
option to removal. By incorporating coagulation/flocculation
upstream of gravity sedimentation colloids can be removed.
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Primary Treatment

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What is Coagulation?
Coagulation is the destabilization of colloids by addition of
chemicals that neutralize the negative charges
The chemicals are known as coagulants, usually higher valence
cationic salts (Al3+, Fe3+ etc.)
■ Colloids can be destabilized by charge neutralization.
Positively charges ions (Na+, Mg2+, Al3+, Fe3+ etc.) neutralize
the colloidal negative charges and thus destabilize them.
■ With destabilization, colloids aggregate in size and start to
coagulate

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 Colloid Stability
Colloid: Colloids have a net negative surface Colloid
H2O
charge
• Electrostatic force prevents them from
agglomeration

• Brownian motion and

particles-particles interaction
keeps the colloids in
suspension and thus,
-
-- --
Colloid - A
Repulsion -
-- --
Colloid - B
impossible to remove colloids
by gravity settling. This is
known as colloidal stability.
- -
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Relative
❑ coagulating power
Na+ = 1; Mg2+ = 30
Al3+ > 1000; Fe3+ > 1000

❑ Typical coagulants:

Aluminum sulfate: Al2(SO4)3.14 H2O

Iron salt- Ferric sulfate: Fe2(SO4)3

Iron salt- Ferric chloride: Fe2Cl3

Polyaluminum chloride (PAC): Al2(OH)3Cl3

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 Aluminum Chemistry
With alum addition, what happens to water pH?
Al2(SO4)3.14 H2O ⇔ 2Al(OH)3↓+ 8H2O + 3H2SO4

1 mole of alum consumes 6 moles of bicarbonate (HCO3-)

Al2(SO4)3.14 H2O + 6HCO3- ⇔ 2Al(OH)3↓+ 6CO2 + 14H2O + 3SO4-2

If alkalinity is not enough, pH will reduce greatly

Lime or sodium carbonate may be needed to neutralize the acid.

Optimum pH: 5.5 – 6.5

But pH is maintained near 8.
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 Alkalinity calculation
If 200 mg/L of alum to be added to achieve complete
coagulation. How much alkalinity is consumed in mg/L as
CaCO3?
Al2(SO4)3.14 H2O + 6HCO3- ⇔ 2Al(OH)3↓+ 6CO2 + 14H2O + 3SO4-2
594 mg 366 mg 156 mg

594 mg alum consumes =366 mg HCO3-

200 mg alum will consume =(366/594) x 200 mg HCO3-
= 123 mg HCO3-

Alkalinity in mg/L as CaCO3 = 123 x (50/61)

= 101 mg/L as CaCO3
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Electrical
Double
Layer

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As a result of this
EDL there is a net
electrostatic
repulsion/attraction
developed between
colloids.

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Coagulation Theories
 Double layer compression
 Adsorption and Charge Neutralization
 Adsorption and Interparticle bridging
 Enmeshment in a precipitate (sweep floc)

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Flocculation
 Flocculation is the agglomeration of destabilized
particles into a large size particles known as flocs by
slow mixing which can be effectively removed by
sedimentation or flotation.
 The flocculation process can be enhanced by adding
organic polymers. These compounds consists of long
carbon chain with active groups such as amine,
nitrogen or sulfate groups along the chain.

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Metcalf & Eddy 2003

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 Sedimentation Basins
Settling
Solid liquid separation process in which a suspension is
separated into two phases –
Clarified supernatant leaving the top of the sedimentation
tank (overflow)
Concentrated sludge leaving the bottom of the
sedimentation tank (underflow)
Types of Settling Tanks
Rectangular
Circular

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 Rectangular settling basins
Rectangular settling, basins or clarifiers, are basins that are
rectangular in plans and cross sections. The length may vary
from two to four times the width.
The length may also vary from ten to 20 times the depth. The
depth of the basin may vary from 2 to 6 m.
The influent is introduced at one end and allowed to flow
through the length of the clarifier toward the other end.

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 Rectangular settling basins
A long rectangular settling tank can be divided into four
different functional zones:
Inlet zone: Region in which the flow is uniformly distributed
over the cross section such that the flow through settling zone
follows horizontal path.
Settling zone: Settling occurs under quiescent conditions.
Outlet zone: Clarified effluent is collected and discharge
through outlet weir.
Sludge zone: For collection of sludge below settling zone.

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Rectangular settling basins

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 Circular Basins
Circular settling basins have the same functional zones as
the long rectangular basin, but the flow regime is different.
When the flow enters at the center and is baffled to flow
radially towards the perimeter, the horizontal velocity of the
water is continuously decreasing as the distance from the
center increases. Thus, the particle path in a circular basin is a
parabola as opposed to the straight line path in the long
rectangular tank.
Sludge removal mechanisms in circular tanks are simpler
and require less maintenance.

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Table Typical Dimensions of
Sedimentation Tanks

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Lamella Clarifier
 Self-cleaning baffles are achieved with an inclination of 50
to 60 degrees.
 The spacing between lamellas is generally between 5 to 10
cm in wastewater treatment.
 The effective horizontal surface is the horizontal projection
of each plate multiplied by plates number. This total
projected surface value is used to calculate the hydraulic
loading rate. An important factor to take into consideration
is the critical scour velocity.
 This is a more compact equipment and with surface
requirements considerably lower than in conventional
circular and rectangular clarifiers.

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Lamella
Clarifier

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Secondary/Biological Treatment
 Biological Treatment Process: a method of contact
between microbes and substrate.
 Suitable temperature, pH, nutrients etc. are required for
microbial growth.
 Such a growth results into the ‘removal’ of substrate.

 Objective of biological treatment:

 To stabilize the organic content

 To remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus

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Biological Treatment

Types:
Aerobic Processes Attached Growth
Anoxic Processes Suspended Growth
Anaerobic Processes Combined Systems
Combined Aerobic-Anoxic-
Anaerobic Processes
Aerobic
Maturation
Pond Processes
Facultative
Anaerobic
 Aeration

Aeration is a process that occurs naturally, not just in an

aerator.
Two purposes:
To keep biomass, food and oxygen in contact (mixing)
Oxygen supplied to bugs

In aerobic biological reactors, adequate DO must be

maintained. The typical concentration range for most
reactors is: 1.0 to 4.0 mg/L

Adding dissolved oxygen to the mixed liquor creates the

highest single electrical demand at most activated sludge
facilities
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 Surface Aerations

In this case a mixing device is

used to agitate the surface so that
there is increased interfacial area
between liquid and air.
There are many different
proprietary types of surface
aerators .
For surface aerators, the most
common way to control
the DO and mixing is through the
use of variable-speed motors.

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 Diffused aeration
 Providing maximum water surface
per unit volume of air.
 Air bubbles brought with water in a
mixing or contact chamber.
 A common way to aerate water is via
diffused air.
 Air is pumped through some sort of
diffuser to generate small bubbles.

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diffusers would be arranged by a manifold on the bottom
of an aeration tank.

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 Turbine Aeration
In this system coarse bubbles are injected into the bottom of
the tank and then a turbine shears the bubbles for better
oxygen transfer.
Efficiency of turbine aerators is generally higher than diffused
aeration.

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 Perforated Tube Aeration

Cascade Aeration

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Tertiary Treatment
Porous Media Filtration:

Definition: Removal of colloidal (usually destabilized) and

suspended material from water by passage through layers of
porous media.
Wastewater treatment: tertiary filtration (removal of very fine
suspended particles)
In all filters the primary design/operating parameters are:
-quality (SS concentration) of the effluent.
-headloss through the filter.
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Deep Granular Filters
Deep granular filters are made of granular material (sand,
anthracite, garnet) arranged in a bed to provide a porous
media as shown in the figure below. Filter bed is supported
by gravel bed as also shown below.
Flow is typically in the downflow mode.
Upflow mode is used but much less frequently.

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Typical Sand filtration process

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Breakthrough Curve

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 Head loss patterns
When depth removal is
the primary mechanism
for SS removal the
head loss pattern is
shown in the following
figure. Head loss
increases with surface
loading rate due to
higher solids loading
rate as well as higher
frictional head loss.
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Mechanisms of filtration

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Tertiary-Membrane Treatment
 A membrane is a selective barrier that permits the
separation of certain species in a fluid by combination of
sieving and diffusion mechanisms
 Membranes can separate particles and molecules and over
a wide particle size range and molecular weights

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Microfiltration
Ultrafiltration
Nanofiltration
Reverse
Osmosis

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Typical Size Exclusion

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 Microfiltration
 Typical pore size: 0.1
microns (10-7m)
 Very low pressure
 Removes bacteria, some
large viruses
Microfiltration water plant, Petrolia, PA
 Does not filter
 small viruses, protein
molecules, sugar, and
salts

A microfilter membrane
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Sources: http://www.waterworksmw.com/rack%201%20&%202b.jpg http://www.imc.cas.cz/sympo/41micros/Image126.gif
 Ultrafiltration
 Typical pore size: 0.01
microns (10-8m)
 Moderately low pressure
 Removes viruses, protein,
and other organic
molecules
 Does not filter ionic
particles like
 lead, iron, chloride ions;
nitrates, nitrites; other
charged particles An ultrafiltration plant in
Jachenhausen, Germany
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Source: http://www.inge.ag/bilder/presse/bildmaterial/referenzen/jachenhausen.jpg
 Nanofiltration
 Typical pore size: 0.001
micron (10-9m)
 Moderate pressure
 Removes toxic or unwanted
bivalent ions (ions with 2 or
more charges), such as
 Lead
 Iron
 Nickel Nanofiltration water cleaning
 Mercury (II) serving Mery-sur-Oise, a suburb
of Paris, France
Source: http://www.wateronline.com/crlive/files/Images/10899070-E891-11D3-8C1F-009027DE0829/newwater1.gif
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Reverse Osmosis (RO)
 Typical pore size: 0.0001
micron (10-10m)
 Very high pressure
 Only economically
feasible large scale
method to remove salt
from water
 Salty water cannot
support life
Reverse osmosis (or desalination)
 People can’t drink it water treatment plants, like this one,
and plants can’t use it are often located close to the ocean
to grow Source: http://iclaro.com/users/18342/pictures/Desalination%20Plant.jpg
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 How RO Works?
 Osmosis is a natural process
that moves water across a semi-
permeable membrane, from an
area of greater concentration to
an area of lesser concentration
until the concentrations are
equal
Osmosis

 To move water from a more

concentrated area to a less
concentrated area requires
high pressure to push the water
in the opposite direction that it
flows naturally Reverse Osmosis
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Modes of Flow

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Tubular
Hollow
Fiber

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Cleaning of Fouling

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AOP
 Advanced chemical oxidation typically involves the
use of chemical oxidants (e.g. ozone or hydrogen
peroxide) to generate hydroxyl radicals (i.e. •OH),
one of the strongest oxidants known.
 Hydroxyl radicals are reactive and non-selective,
capable of rapidly degrading a number of organic
compounds.

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Reactivity of hydroxyl radical (•OH)

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•
Advantages of AOP
• Effective in removing resistant organic
compounds
• Capable of complete mineralization of organic
compounds to CO2.
• Not susceptible to the presence of toxic chemicals
• Generally produce innocuous end products
• Can be used to pretreat toxic compounds so that
they can be bio-treated

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 O3/H2O2 has gained the widest acceptance because
of effectiveness and low cost.
 H2O2/UV has the advantage of simplicity (only
chemical is H2O2, cheap and soluble). Suited to
small, minimum maintenance or intermittent
operation systems. Some problems if materials in
water absorb UV.

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 O3/UV considered less favorable because of high
pH requirement (chemical costs) but okay for low
flows.
 Least used are the TiO2 systems although they
have some advantages such as photocatalysts made
be used, natural light may be used as a UV source,
additional radical initiators are not required.

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UV/H2O2 Process

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UV/H2O2 Process

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 What is Adsorption?
Adsorption is a process
that occurs when a gas or
liquid solute accumulates
on the surface of a solid or
a liquid (adsorbent),
forming a molecular or
atomic film (adsorbate)

ADSORBENT ADSORBATE SOLUTION

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Why does Adsorption occur ?
 Consequence of surface energy
 Atoms on the surface experience a bond
deficiency, because they are not wholly
surrounded by other atoms

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 Adsorption Isotherms
 Plot of the amount of adsorbate on the
adsorbent as a function of its pressure (if gas) or
concentration (if liquid) at constant
temperature.
 Langmuir isotherm (adsorbed layer one
molecule thick)
 Freundlich isotherm (Heterogeneous adsorbent
surface with different adsorption sites)
 Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) isotherm
(molecules can be adsorbed more than one
layer thick)
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 Freundlich Isotherm
 Freundlich and Küster (1909)
 Empirical formula:

 Limitation: Fails at high pressures

Q- Mass of adsorbate /
mass of adsorbent
p- equilibrium pressure of
adsorbate
c- equilibrium con. Of
adsorbate in solution
K,n- constants
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 Langmuir Isotherm
 Irving Langmuir (1916)
 Assumptions:
Uniformity of sites Non interaction
Common Mechanism Monolayer only
 Semi-Empirical Formula:

Q- Mass of adsorbate / mass of

adsorbent
Qmax- Maximum Q to form a
mono-layer
c- equilibrium con. of adsorbate
in solution
K - constant
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BET Isotherm
 Stephen Brunauer, Paul Hugh Emmett
and Edward Teller (1938)
 Assumptions:
Multilayer No Transmigration
Equal Energy Langmuir to each layer

CS - saturation (solubility limit)

concentration of the solute(mg/liter)
KB - a parameter related to the binding
intensity for all layers.
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 Applications
 Activated Carbon
Hydrophobic Surface area-500-1000m2/g
 Waste water treatment
 Decontaminant in pharmacy

 Silica Gel and Zeolites

Hydrophilic Polar
 Drying of process air
 CO2 and Hydrocarbon removal from natural gas
 Vapor Adsorption Refrigeration

 Protein Adsorption on biomaterials(cells)

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Activated Carbon

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Carbon Contactors
 Activated carbon reactors are usually called carbon
contactors because the waste stream is “contacted” with
the carbon. Many times the contactor is of the columnar
fluidized or fixed-bed type. Sometimes (less often) the
contactor is in a slurry form.
 Fixed or fluidized beds have the advantage of not having to
separate the carbon from the liquid stream after the
contact period.
 Slurry systems need some sort of activated carbon removal
process to separate the AC from the liquid stream.

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A typical packed (fixed)
bed contactor looks like :

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Break Through Curve

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Carbon Regeneration
 Since activated carbon is relatively expensive,
adsorption would not be feasible unless the carbon
can be regenerated after exhaustion. Spent carbon is
usually regenerated at 500 oC under low oxygen
conditions in the presence of steam.
 Activated carbon loss is about 5-15% for each
regeneration. Adsorbed organics are volatilized and
oxidized during the regeneration process. A
regeneration scheme is shown below.

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