Waste Water Treatment Process

1.Physical Water Treatment Operations

In the physical unit operations physical forces are utilized in some water treatment units for
the removal of solid contaminants. The physical unit water treatment operations are:
1. water treatment Screening
2. water treatment Mixing
3. Water Treatment Flocculation
4. Water Treatment Sedimentation
5. water treatment Flotation
6. water Treatment Filtration

2 Chemical Water treatment Processes

In chemical unit Water Treatment process the removal or conversion of some solids, is
brought about by the addition of chemicals or by other reactions. Common examples of
chemical unit water treatment process are:

Gas transfer by aeration,

Adsorption, and

Disinfection

3 Biological water treatment Processes

In biological water treatment processes the removal or conversion of organic solids is
brought about by the biological activities. They remove colloidal or dissolved bio-degradable

organic substances in wastewater. Organic substances are converted into gases that can
escape to the atmosphere and as biological cell tissues that can be removed by settling.

STAGES OF SEWAGE TREATMENT

Types and nature of solids present in wastewater and unit operations/processes used for their
removal
Type of solids
Floating

Suspended Solids

Dissolved solids

Nature of solids
Unit Operations/Process used for removal
Coarse
Organic
andCoarse screen
inorganic
Fine organic and inorganicMicroscreens
solids and algae
Settleble inorganic
Grit chamber
Settleble organic
Primary sedimentation tank
Non settleble organic
Biological process followed by secondary
sedimentation tank
Organic
Biological process
Inorganic
Reverse OsmosisRoot zone treatment with
certain type of trees and aquatic plants

The wastewater treatment is achieved in three stages; primary, secondary and tertiary
treatments.. Some of the unit operations and processes are included in each stage of
treatment. The process flow diagram of a typical wastewater treatment plant is furnished in
Table
1 Primary Sewage Treatment
The first stage of sewage treatment is known as primary treatment which also includes certain
preliminary operations such as flow equalization, communication (or grinding), grease
removal, flow measurement, etc. The unit operations in primary treatment are screening to
remove larger floating objects, grit removal for removing inert sand and inorganic particles,
and settling for removing settleable suspended organic solids. The main purpose of the
primary treatment is to produce a generally homogeneous liquid capable of being treated
biologically and a sludge that can be separately treated or processed.

2 Secondary sewage Treatment

The next stage of sewage water treatment is secondary treatment, which is designed to
remove soluble organics from the wastewater. Secondary treatment consists of a biological
process and secondary settling. Secondary treatment is designed to substantially degrade the
biological content of the sewage such as derived from human waste, food waste, soaps and
detergent.
3 Types of Biological Treatment based on Process
There are two types of biological water treatment process; aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic
process means that dissolved oxygen (DO) is present for the microbes for respiration.
Anaerobic process means that the process proceeds in the absence of DO.
The effluent from primary water treatment units is further treated generally using aerobic
biological processes. For these processes to be effective, the microorganisms require both
dissolved oxygen and a substrate on which to live. Oxygen can be supplied either through
natural process or artificial mechanical means. In both cases, the bacteria and protozoa
consume biodegradable soluble organic contaminants and bind much of the less soluble
fractions into floc particles. The oxidization of organic substances can be achieved by
anaerobic process also by anaerobic organisms, which dont need DO. They take their oxygen
requirement from complex organic substances, such as sulphate (SO4), phosphate (PO4), etc.
The end-products of aerobic and anaerobic processes are different. Under aerobic conditions,
if completely oxidized, organic matter is transformed into non-hazardous products such as
CO2 and H2O and cell tissues. But an anaerobic process, apart from CO 2 and H20 and cell
tissues, can also produce methane (CH,), which is explosive, and ammonia (NH 3) and
hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which are toxic. Some materials are better degraded under anaerobic
conditions than under aerobic conditions. In some cases, the combination of anaerobic and
aerobic systems in a series provides better and more economical treatment than either system
could alone provide.
Classification of biological sewage treatment based on growth system

Biological sewage treatment systems are classified into systems: (a) attached growth system,
and (b) suspended growth systems. Aerobic and anaerobic biological systems are available in
both attached and suspended growth configurations. Examples are as follows:

Aerobic attached growth systems: trickling filter and RBC;

Aerobic suspended growth systems: activated sludge process, aerated lagoon, waste
stabilization ponds etc.

Anaerobic attached growth systems: anaerobic filters and upflow anaerobic sludge
blanket units.

Anaerobic suspended growth systems: septic tanks and anaerobic ponds.

The final step in the secondary treatment stage is to settle out the biomass as
biological floc or filter material generated during biological treatment and produce
sewage water containing very low levels of organic material and suspended matter.

This settled biomass or secondary sludge is then piped to sludge-management

systems, while the effluent from SST is disposed.
Sludge treatment and disposal
The sludge accumulated in a wastewater treatment process must be treated and disposed of in
a safe and effective manner. The purpose of sludge digestion is to reduce the amount of
organic matter and the number of disease-causing microorganisms present in the solids. The
most common treatment options include anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion, and
composting. The choice of a wastewater sludge treatment method depends on the amount of
solids generated and other site- specific conditions. However, in general, composting is most
often applied to smaller-scale applications followed by aerobic digestion and then lastly
anaerobic digestion for the larger-scale municipal applications.

4 DISINFECTION
The purpose of disinfection in the treatment of wastewater is to substantially reduce the
number of living organisms in the water to be discharged back into the environment. The
effectiveness of disinfection depends on the quality of the water being treated (e.g., TSS, pH,
etc.), the type of disinfection being used, the disinfectant dosage (concentration and time),
and other environmental variables. Turbid water will be treated less successfully since solid
matter can shield organisms, especially from ultraviolet light or if contact time is low.
Generally, short contact times, low doses and high flows are against effective disinfection.
Common methods of disinfection include use of ozone, chlorine, or UV light. Chloramine,
which is used for drinking water, is not used in waste water treatment because of its
persistence. Disinfection follows secondary clarification in most treatment plants or after
tertiary treatment when the wastewater reclamation and reuse is contemplated. Disinfection is
normally accomplished with chlorine. Due to the potential environmental impact of chlorine,
most plants now dechlorinate wastewater effluents before discharge.

5 TERTIARY SEWAGE TREATMENT

Third stage waste water treatment is referred to as tertiary sewage treatment or advanced
waste water treatment. More commonly used advanced systems are adsorption to activated
carbon, filtration through sand and other media, ion exchange, various membrane processes,
nitrification-denitrification, coagulation-flocculation, and micro-screening.
- See more at: http://www.thewatertreatments.com/wastewater-sewage-treatment/unitoperations-processes/#sthash.OjJGhUMX.dpuf