BIOLOGICAL

WASTE
TREATMENT
 Profligate waste treatment dates as far back as 2000BC
in the Maya civilization which was then characterized by
fixed monthly rituals in which people gather together
HISTORY AND and burn their rubbish in large dumps.
BACKGROUND
Waste treatment technology is the application/method
of converting waste material into environmentally
harmless effluents thereby reducing environmental
pollution.

The types of waste are;

a) Solid waste
b) Liquid waste
c) Gaseous waste
DIFFERENT These different types of waste
CLASSIFICATIONS
OF WASTE
has been classified under the
TREATMENT following treatments;

BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT
PHYSICAL TREATMENT
THERMAL TREATMENT
BIOLOGICAL This is a waste treatment technology that utilizes
TREATMENT micro-organisms to treat municipal solid waste,
commercial and industrial waste as well as sewage
sludge.

Types of biological treatment technologies are;

- Anaerobic digestion: harnesses anaerobic microbes
to break down biodegradable component of waste
to produce biogas(fuel) and soil improver.

- Composting (Aerobic): naturally occurring aerobic

microbes breakdown waste into carbon dioxide and
compost.
BIOLOGICAL Bio drying : aerobic microbes initiate rapid heating
TREATMENT that dries waste.

Advantages
- Generation of new products i.e fuel and fertilizer
- Small fraction of inert residual waste

Disadvantage
- Difficulty in creating right conditions for growth of the
micro organisms.
- Technological advancement in the different treatment
categories is essential in dealing with their disadvantages
- Waste treatment on general terms, is definitely crucial to
have an eco friendly environment
 The biological waste treatments to be extensively reviewed
are;

ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF WASTES

SEWAGE TREATMENT
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF
WASTES
 Anaerobic digestion is a collection of processes by
which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in
the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or
domestic purposes to manage waste and/or to produce fuels.
Much of the fermentation used industrially to produce food
and drink products, as well as home fermentation, uses
anaerobic digestion.
 Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally in some soils and in lake
and oceanic basin sediments, where it is usually referred to
as "anaerobic activity".
The digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the
input materials. Insoluble organic polymers, such as
carbohydrates, are broken down to soluble derivatives that
become available for other bacteria. Acidogenic
bacteria then convert the sugars and amino acids into carbon
dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and organic acids. These
bacteria convert these resulting organic acids into acetic
acid. along with additional ammonia, hydrogen, and carbon
dioxide. Finally, methanogens convert these products to
methane and carbon dioxide. The methanogenic archaea
populations play an indispensable role in anaerobic
wastewater treatments.
 Anaerobic digestion can be performed as a batch process or a
continuous process.

It is used as part of the process to treat biodegradable waste

and sewage sludge. As part of an integrated waste
management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the
emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere. Anaerobic
digesters can also be fed with purpose-grown energy crops,
such as maize
 Hydrolysis
In most cases, biomass is made up of large organic polymers. For
the bacteria in anaerobic digesters to access the energy potential
of the material, these chains must first be broken down into their
smaller constituent parts. These constituent parts, or monomers,
such as sugars, are readily available to other bacteria. The process
of breaking these chains and dissolving the smaller molecules into
solution is called hydrolysis. Therefore, hydrolysis of these high-
molecular-weight polymeric components is the necessary first step
in anaerobic digestion. Through hydrolysis the complex organic
molecules are broken down into simple sugars, amino acids,
and fatty acids. Acetate and hydrogen produced in the first stages
can be used directly by methanogens. Other molecules, such as
volatile fatty acids (VFAs) with a chain length greater than that of
acetate must first be catabolised into compounds that can be
directly used by methanogens.
 Acidogenesis
The biological process of acidogenesis results in further breakdown
of the remaining components by acidogenic (fermentative)
bacteria. Here, VFAs are created, along with ammonia, carbon
dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, as well as other byproducts.The
process of acidogenesis is similar to the way milk sours.
 Acetogenesis
The third stage of anaerobic digestion is acetogenesis. Here, simple
molecules created through the acidogenesis phase are further
digested by acetogens to produce largely acetic acid, as well as
carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
 Methanogenesis
The terminal stage of anaerobic digestion is the biological process
of methanogenesis. Here, methanogens use the intermediate
products of the preceding stages and convert them into methane,
carbon dioxide, and water. These components make up the majority
of the biogas emitted from the system. Methanogenesis is sensitive
to both high and low pHs and occurs between pH 6.5 and pH 8.The
remaining, indigestible material the microbes cannot use and any
dead bacterial remains constitute the digestate.
 Compositing
With the proper mixture of water, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, micro-
organisms are allowed to break down organic matter to produce compost. The
composting process is dependent on micro-organisms to break down organic
matter into compost. There are many types of microorganisms found in active
compost of which the most common are:
 Bacteria
The most numerous of all the microorganisms found in compost.
Depending on the phase of
composting, mesophilic or thermophilic bacteria may
predominate.
Actinobacteria
Necessary for breaking down paper products such as
newspaper, bark, etc.
Fungi
Molds and yeast help break down materials that bacteria cannot,
especially lignin in woody material.
 Protozoa
Help consume bacteria, fungi and micro organic particulates.
Rotifers
Rotifers help control populations of bacteria and small protozoans.
In addition, earthworms not only ingest partly composted material,
but also continually re-create aeration and drainage tunnels as they
move through the compost.
A lack of a healthy micro-organism community is the main reason why
composting processes are slow in landfills with environmental factors
such as lack of oxygen, nutrients or water being the cause of the
depleted biological community.
SEWAGE TREATMENT
 Sewage treatment is the process of
removing contaminants from wastewater, primarily from
household sewage. It includes physical, chemical, and biological
processes to remove these contaminants and produce
environmentally safe treated wastewater (or treated effluent). A
by-product of sewage treatment is usually a semi-solid waste or
slurry, called sewage sludge, that has to undergo
further treatment before being suitable for disposal or land
application.
Sewage treatment may also be referred to as wastewater
treatment, although the latter is a broader term which can also be
applied to purely industrial wastewater. For most technologically
advanced cities, the sewer system will also carry a proportional of
industrial effluent to the sewage treatment plant which has usually
received pre treatment at the factories themselves to reduce the
pollutant load.
 Sewage collection and treatment is typically subject to local, state and federal
regulations and standards.
Treating wastewater has the aim to produce an effluent that will do as little
harm as possible when discharged to the surrounding environment, thereby
preventing pollution compared to releasing untreated wastewater into the
environment.
Sewage treatment generally involves three stages, called primary, secondary
and tertiary treatment.
 Primary treatment consists of temporarily holding the sewage in
a quiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the bottom
while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface. The
settled and floating materials are removed and the remaining
liquid may be discharged or subjected to secondary treatment.
Some sewage treatment plants that are connected to a
combined sewer system have a bypass arrangement after the
primary treatment unit. This means that during very heavy
rainfall events, the secondary and tertiary treatment systems can
be bypassed to protect them from hydraulic overloading, and
the mixture of sewage and storm water only receives primary
treatment.
 Secondary treatment removes dissolved and suspended biological
matter. Secondary treatment is typically performed by indigenous,
water-borne micro-organisms in a managed habitat. Secondary
treatment may require a separation process to remove the micro-
organisms from the treated water prior to discharge or tertiary
treatment.
 Tertiary treatment is sometimes defined as anything more than primary
and secondary treatment in order to allow rejection into a highly
sensitive or fragile ecosystem (estuaries, low-flow rivers, coral reefs,...).
Treated water is sometimes disinfected chemically or physically (for
example, by lagoons and microfiltration) prior to discharge into
a stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be used for
the irrigation of a golf course, green way or park. If it is sufficiently
clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge or agricultural
purposes.