8/26/2015

Where does it all go!

Where does the
water from the
washer go?

Wastewater
Its Journey to Treatment and
Return to the Environment

By gravity flow, the waste is on its way

to your local wastewater treatment plant!

Levels of Treatment

Why treat wastewater?

Primary

Causes a demand for dissolved oxygen

(lower DO levels of streams)

removal by physical separation of grit and large

objects (material to landfill for disposal)

Adds nutrients (nitrate and phosphate)

to cause excessive growth

Secondary

To tertiary process

From primary process

Increases suspended solids or sediments

in streams (turbidity increase)

Secondary process

When you flush the

toilet where does
the contents go?

Mostly dead
microbes

aerobic microbiological process (sludge)

organic matter + O2 CO2 + NH3 + H2O
aquatic nutrient
NH3 NO3- lowers suspended solids content (into sludge)

Levels of Treatment continued

Tertiary (advanced)

anaerobic microbiological process with a

different microbe where O2 is toxic (more
sludge)
NO3- N2 (escapes to atmosphere)
PO4-3 if not removed in sludge in secondary
process
PO4-3 + Al+3 AlPO4 (s) (into sludge)

air
diffuser

Aeration
and rapid
mixing

Settling
collects sludge
on bottom

- aeration to strip N2 and re-oxygenate (add DO)

From secondary process

8/26/2015

Tertiary process

Effluent back to stream after

Effluent

add methanol as food source

When the treatment is done

a final carbon filtration and
chlorination/dechlorination

Sludge very nutrient rich

Slow mixing
to keep suspended
and O2 out

Settling
collects sludge
on bottom

Wastewater Treatment

applied directly to land as fertilizer

incinerated (good fuel after drying)
composted

Why dont we treat wastewater

with a WTP?
In the early 1970s, many researchers
attempted to treat wastewater with physicalchemical processes (i.e., WTP)
Today we combine physical and biological
What are physical processes?
What are biological processes?
Implementation of a system that contains
microorganisms, sometimes attached media (i.e.,
trickling filter) to biodegrade OM

What should we know about

wastewater?
1.

Contribution of wastewater per person is

approximately 120 gal/day
2. < 0.1% solids
3. 240 mg/L suspended solids

Design criterion is _____?

4. 200 mg/L BOD

Design criterion is _____?

Will treat wastewater with preliminary,

primary, & secondary treatment & with
disinfection

Adverse Effects from WWTP

Effluent
Effluent is high in nitrogen and
phosphorous
These are deleterious because of
______?
Strategies to remove N and P
Advanced wastewater treatment
Chemical coagulation to remove P
Nitrification/Denitrification to remove N
Convert N to N2

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Preliminary Treatment
Flow measurement
Screening to remove large solids
Grit removal to protect parts and to
prevent deposition
Pumps

Secondary Treatment
Biodegrade soluble organic matter by
aeration basins (i.e., activated sludge)
or trickling filters

Considerations in Plant Design

Effluent quality

BOD < 30 mg/L

SS < 30 mg/L
Oil and grease < 10 mg/L
pH between 6-9

Who regulates these standards?

Primary Treatment
Remove settleable (sp?) organic matter
and scum via clarifiers
How does a clarifier remove scum?

Disinfection
Reduce pathogens to an acceptable level
for in-plant water reuse and irrigation

Design Loading
Design must account for variations in
flow (hourly, daily, and seasonal)
Summer monthly avg. 20-30% > annual avg.
Sat. and Su., for industries have lower
flows

Must also account for storm-water

runoff for combined systems (increase
Q By 25%)

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Wastewater Flow
Flows are typically expressed as :
Peak hour, maximum day, max. avg. month,
annual average
Important for designing hydraulically
limited equipment (pumps, pipes, etc.)
WHY?

Example Wastewater Flow

If an aeration basin is designed for a
max. monthly avg. flow of 5 MGD and a
peak flow of 10 MGD. What does this
mean?
Unit can handle 5 MG in one day and 10
MG at the peak hour, not 10 MG/day

Design Parameters
Ultimately the design engineer must use
good judgment (especially when design
specs are not listed)
Best source of information is often in
design manuals
Who writes the design manuals?

Preliminary Treatment
Required to measure flow, remove solids
> 1, pump the wastewater, and to
remove sand and other heavy
particulates
WHY?
Chlorine can be added for odor control
FeCl3 can be added to help settling

Preliminary Treatment
Devices in Waste Water
Treatment
Flow Measurement
Screens and Shredders
Grit Chambers
Pumps (HSD)

Parshall Flume
First unit process measures flow and
is equipped with a data acquisition
system
Advantage of flume
Low head loss why is this good?
Smooth hydraulic flow benefit?

How do you maintain a constant flow?

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Screen and Shredders

Required to remove objects greater than -1
(e.g., paper, twigs, rags, plastics) WHY?;
(BAR RACKS)
Mechanically cleaned to remove objects from
screens (debris landfilled)
Dewatered prior to hauling

For WW flows w/ greater quantities of

papers and plastics, can use screens w/
smaller openings (i.e., 1/8-1/4)
Design to keep flow < 3 ft/s

Grit Chambers
Need to remove grit to protect pumps,
valves, and deposition (30m3-90m3/106m3 of
WW)
Grit includes sand, seeds, coffee grounds, glass,
etc. Where is there a large source of glass and
coffee grounds?

Shredders
Shredders or grinders cut material
into smaller pieces (Communitors)
Requires regular maintenance so must
design a bypass channel
In the bypass channel would install a hand
cleaned medium screen

Equalization Basins
Since WW does not flow at a constant
rate (i.e., varies from hour to hour), you
can design an equalization basin to
maintain constant flow

Most commonly employed in WWTP

Velocity controlled Sed. Basin

Aerated air causes a spiral roll driving the grit
into a hopper

Review WWTP Operations

Preliminary Treatment

Biological Aeration
Secondary Treatment Design of
WWTP

Primary Treatment
Secondary Treatment

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Biological Aeration

Activated Sludge Terminology

Biological Processes in Activated Sludge

Mixed Liquor suspension of

microorganisms in an aeration basin
Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids (MLSS)

Activated Sludge Treatment

Aerated biological process
Targeted to metabolize BOD
Why do we call is activated sludge?

Food-to-Microorganism Ratio
(F/M)
A way to express BOD loading in
proportion to the microbial mass in the
system
What are some of the variables that we
should know to calculate F/M?

Biological growths in activated sludge

treatment

Activated Sludge Design Variables

Aeration period, BOD loading, food-tomicroorganism ratio, sludge age

Sludge Age
Also referred to as the mean cell
residence time
Liquid retention times (aeration periods)
vary from 3-30 hr.
Since sludge is recycled, its residence
time is in terms of days.

BOD Loading Problem

If the BOD is 200 mg/L and the
aeration period is 24 hrs, what is the
BOD load in 1bs/1000 ft3/day?