Lecture 5

Classification and Evaluation of Solids

in Water and Wastewater

1
Summary of Last Lectures

Objective: Use simple parameters to evaluate organic pollutants in water.

Goals

Organic pollutants are oxidised (degraded) to CO2 and H2O

C6H12O6 + O2 = CO2 + H2O

– O2 required by microorganisms during degradation – BOD

– O2 require by chemicals during oxidation – COD
– CO2 generated from combustion – TOC
1) BOD – biodegradable and soluble organic compounds, BOD5
2) COD – soluble organic pollutants
3) TOC – all carbonic organics Slide 2
Solids
Most important physical characteristic
of wastewater is total solids content:
– floating matter
– settleable matter
– colloidal matter
– dissolved matter

Can be characterised by:

– Turbidity
– Colour
– Absorbance
(or transmittance)

Concentrations usually are reported as mg/L (ppm)

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Classification of Solids
• Objective
– Summarize simple solids classification

• Goals (on conclusion of reading this summary)

➢ Understand some solids fractions often utilised in water and

wastewater treatment

➢ Understand some measures used to given an indirect measure of

these solids

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Solids
Figure 1: Size ranges of organic
contaminants in wastewater and
size separation and measurement
techniques used for their
quantification.
(Metcalf & Eddy, 2003)

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 Solids
• Example of Classification

(40 mg/L)

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Solids

Figure 2: Relationship of solids found in water and wastewater (Metcalf & Eddy, 2003)
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 Solids
Figure 3: Definitions for solids
found in water and wastewatera
(Metcalf & Eddy, 2003)

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Solids Measurement

• Determination of Volatile & Fixed

– Volatile
• Material heated to 550 ± 50 ºC (so called “ignition”); organic
content is decomposed to water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide,
& ammonia, which are all volatilized and removed from the sample
(“volatile” component)

– Fixed
• Inorganic content of material (oxides, carbonates & other salts) not
volatilized and remains as residue (“fixed” component)

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Cont’d
• Suspended Solids (TSS)
– dry weight retained on 1 mm filter
– classified as fixed & volatile (organic)

• Dissolved Solids (TDS)

– remains after SS test
– salinity indicator; can be measured by conductivity
(mS/cm) may often see as EC (electrical conductivity)

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Settleable Solids
• Settleable Solids
– Solids > 10 mm can be filtered or will sediment out
– Called settleable solids
– Fraction determined by settling for 1 hr in an Imhoff cone
– Reported as volume of solid mL/ volume (L) wastewater

Imhoff Cone Settleable

Sample
Solids

Wastewater
sample

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Sludge volume index (SVI)
• Sludge settleability:
– typically expressed as SVI (sludge volume index) [mL/g]
• Definition of SVI
– volume (mL) occupied per gram of sludge from 1L of wastewater
settled in a cylinder for 30 min
– Range: 50-150 mL/g
mL mg
sludge volume after settling x 1000
L g
𝑆𝑉𝐼 = mg
suspended solids concentration ( )
L

– 100 mL/g settleable

– > 150 mL/g filamentous bacteria – bulking, poor settling

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 Suspended Solids in Activated
Sludge (AS) Reactors

MLSS & MLVSS

– Microorganisms: bacteria, yeasts and fungi (microbial flocs &
suspended biomass) are responsible for consuming and degrading
biodegradable organics.
– Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), a measure of biomass & inerts
in AS reactor, i.e. total suspended solids concentration (in mg/L)
– A more precise measure of biomass concentration alone is given by the
mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS), as organic material is
present as biomass. The MLVSS is typically 80% of the MLSS value.

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Turbidity (NTU)
• A measure of the light-transmitting properties of a water gives an indication
of colloidal and suspended material
• Measured as the amount of light scattered 90◦ relative to a light source
relative to a formazin standard
• Reported as nephelometric turbidity units (NTU)

• Generally no direct relationship to TSS

• May assume linearity over a limited range in some instances
(eg. for a fixed single contaminant)
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Turbidity – Secchi disk

• Disk lowered to depth where no longer visible – Secchi depth

• Measure of turbidity

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Colour (HU)
• Originally intended to describe the colour of a wastewater – sometimes referred to
as a ‘yellowness’ index
• Standard of American Public Health Association (APHA) – defined according to
the platinum/cobalt colour scale
• Introduced in 1892 by Allen Hazen to evaluate pollution levels
• Defined relative to a 500ppm Platinum cobalt solution – reported as Pt/Co colour
units or more commonly Hazen units (HU)
• Indication of dissolved organic substances – tannins, humics
• Apparent Colour – Measured on unfiltered sample (ie. includes particulates)
• True Colour – Sample first filtered at 0.45mm to remove particulates

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Absorbance
• Amount of light, of a specified wavelength, that is absorbed by constituents in a solution
• Usually measured using a spectrophotometer over a path–length of 1 cm
𝐼0
𝐴 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔10
𝐼

Where A = absorbance, absorbance units/cm (au/cm)

I0 = initial detector reading for blank (ie. distilled water) after passing through a
solution of known depth
I = final detector reading after passing through solution of interest

Typically measured at 254 nm:

Primary effluent: 0.55 – 0.30 cm–1
Secondary effluent: 0.35 – 0.15 cm–1
Filtered secondary effluent: 0.25 – 0.10 cm–1
Microfiltration effluent: 0.10 – 0.04 cm–1
Reverse osmosis effluent: 0.05 – 0.01 cm–1

NOTE: Influenced by selected inorganics (copper, iron), organics (humics, conjugated ring compounds)
and TSS
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Conductivity
• The electrical conductivity (EC) of a water is a measure of the ability of the
solution to conduct electrical current
• Related to dissolved ions in solution
• Surrogate measure of Total dissolved solids TDS
• EC important in reuse of wastewater for irrigation

TDS may be estimated from EC with some caution as:

TDS (mg/L) = EC (mS/cm) × Cf

Where Cf = a ‘correction’ factor, typically from 0.55 to 0.7

• Above relationship is not applicable to raw wastewater or high strength

industrial wastewater. Why ?

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Example
Using the data presented below, determine the concentration of total solids,
total volatile solids, suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, total dissolved
solids and total volatile dissolved solids. The samples used in the analysis were
either evaporated, dried, or ignited to a constant weight. The sample volume
was 50 ml.

Tare mass of evaporating dish = 53.5433 g

Mass of dish + residue at 105C = 53.5794 g
Mass of dish + residue at 550C = 53.5625 g
Tare mass of GF filter at 105C = 1.5433 g
Mass of GF filter + residue at 105 = 1.5554 g
Mass of GF filter + residue at 550C = 1.5476 g

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Solution
1. Total solids (TS)
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑒, 𝑔 − 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ, 𝑔
𝑇𝑆 =
𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒, 𝐿
53.5794−53.5433 𝑔 1000 𝑚𝑔
𝑇𝑆 = × = 722 mg/L
0.050 𝐿 𝑔

2. Total volatile solids (TVS)

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑒, 𝑔 − 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑎𝑡 550𝐶, 𝑔

𝑇𝑉𝑆 =
𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒, 𝐿
53.5794−53.5625 𝑔 1000 𝑚𝑔
𝑇𝑆 = × = 338 mg/L
0.050 𝐿 𝑔

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Solution
3. Total suspended solids (TSS)
𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑔 − 𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑔
𝑇𝑆𝑆 =
𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒, 𝐿
1.5554−1.5433 𝑔 1000 𝑚𝑔
𝑇𝑆𝑆 = × = 242 mg/L
0.050 𝐿 𝑔

4. Volatile suspended solids (VSS)

𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑔 − 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑔
𝑉𝑆𝑆 =
𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒, 𝐿
1.5554−1.5476 𝑔 1000 𝑚𝑔
𝑉𝑆𝑆 = × = 156 mg/L
0.050 𝐿 𝑔

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Solution
5. Total dissolved solids (TDS)

TDS = TS – TSS = 722 – 242 = 480 mg/L

6. Volatile dissolved solids (VDS)

VDS = TVS – VSS = 338 – 156 = 182 mg/L

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Summary
Key materials

❖ Solids classification TSS, TDS, VSS

❖ SVI
❖ Turbidity
❖ Colour
❖ Absorbance
❖ Conductivity

Slide 23
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