Labayo, Jianna Shir M.

Assignment #4-C.E.O.
CE11FB5

WATER TREATMENT PLANT

Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it more acceptable
for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow
maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, including being safely returned to the
environment. Water treatment removes contaminants and undesirable components, or reduces their
concentration so that the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. This treatment is crucial to human
health and allows humans to benefit from both drinking and irrigation use.
Treatment for drinking water production involves the removal of contaminants from raw water
to produce water that is pure enough for human consumption without any short term or long term risk
of any adverse health effect. In general terms, the greatest microbial risks are associated with
ingestion of water that is contaminated with human or animal (including bird) faeces. Faeces can be a
source of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminths. [Guidelines for Drinking-water
quality]. Substances that are removed during the process of drinking water treatment, Disinfection is
of unquestionable importance in the supply of safe drinking-water. The destruction of microbial
pathogens is essential and very commonly involves the use of reactive chemical agents
such suspended solids, bacteria, algae, viruses, fungi, and minerals such as iron and manganese.
These substances continue to cause great harm to several lower developed countries who do not
have access to water purification.
The processes involved in removing the contaminants include physical processes such
as settling and filtration, chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation and biological
processes such as slow sand filtration.
Measures taken to ensure water quality not only relate to the treatment of the water, but to its
conveyance and distribution after treatment. It is therefore common practice to keep residual
disinfectants in the treated water to kill bacteriological contamination during distribution.
Water supplied to domestic properties, for tap water or other uses, may be further treated
before use, often using an in-line treatment process. Such treatments can include water softening or
ion exchange. Many proprietary systems also claim to remove residual disinfectants and heavy
metal ions.
PROCESSES:
A combination selected from the following processes is used for municipal drinking water treatment
worldwide:

 Pre-chlorination for algae control and arresting biological growth

 Aeration along with pre-chlorination for removal of dissolved iron when present with small
amounts relatively of manganese

 Coagulation for flocculation or slow-sand filtration

 Coagulant aids, also known as polyelectrolytes – to improve coagulation and for more robust
floc formation
 Sedimentation for solids separation that is the removal of suspended solids trapped in the floc

 Filtration to remove particles from water either by passage through a sand bed that can be
washed and reused or by passage through a purpose designed filter that may be washable.

 Disinfection for killing bacteria, viruses and other pathogens.

Technologies for potable water and other uses are well developed, and generalized designs are
available from which treatment processes can be selected for pilot testing on the specific source
water. In addition, a number of private companies provide patented technological solutions for the
treatment of specific contaminants. Automation of water treatment is common in the developed world.
Source water quality through the seasons, scale, and environmental impact can dictate capital costs
and operating costs. End use of the treated water dictates the necessary quality monitoring
technologies, and locally available skills typically dictate the level of automation adopted.

SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT

Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household
sewage water.

It includes physical, biological and sometimes chemical processes to remove pollutants. Its
aim is to produce an environmentally safe sewage water, called effluent, and a solid waste, called
sludge or biosolids, suitable for disposal or reuse. Reuse is often for agricultural purposes, but more
recently, sludge is being used as a fuel source.

Water from the mains, used by manufacturing, farming, houses (toilets, baths, showers,
kitchens, sinks), hospitals, commercial and industrial sites, is reduced in quality as a result of the
introduction of contaminating constituents. Organic wastes, suspended solids, bacteria, nitrates, and
phosphates are pollutants that must be removed.

To make wastewater acceptable for reuse or for returning to the environment, the
concentration of contaminants must be reduced to a safe level, usually a standard set by the
Environment Agency.

Sewage can be treated close to where it is created (in septic tanks and their associated
drainfields or sewage treatment plants), or collected and transported via a network of pipes and pump
stations to a municipal treatment plant. The former system is gaining popularity for many new ECO
towns, as 60% of the cost of mains sewerage is in the pipework to transport it to a central location
and it is not sustainable. It is called 'Decentralisation' of sewage treatment systems.

The job of designing and constructing sewage works falls to environmental engineers. They
use a variety of engineered and natural systems to meet the required treatment level, using physical,
chemical, biological, and sludge treatment methods. The result is cleaned sewage water and sludge,
both of which should be suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment. Sludge, however,
is often inadvertently contaminated with many toxic organic and inorganic compounds and diseases
and the debate is raging over the safety issues. Some pathogens, for example, 'Prion' diseases (CJD
or 'Mad Cow Disease is a Prion disease) cannot be destroyed by the treatment process.

The features of wastewater treatment systems are determined by:

1. The nature of the municipal and industrial wastes that are conveyed to them by the sewers.

2. The amount of treatment required to keep the quality of the receiving streams and rivers.

Discharges from treatment plants are usually diluted in rivers, lakes, or estuaries. They also
may, after sterilisation, be used for certain types of irrigation (such as golf courses), transported to
lagoons where they are evaporated, or discharged through underground outfalls into the sea.
However, sewage water outflows from treatment works must meet effluent standards set by the
Environment Agency to avoid polluting the waters that receive them.

Sewage treatment plant processes fall into two basic types:

Anaerobic Sewage Treatment

Sewage is partly decomposed by anerobic bacteria in a tank without the introduction of air,
containing oxygen. This leads to a reduction of Organic Matter into Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide,
Carbon Dioxide etc. It is widely used to treat wastewater sludge and organic waste because it
provides volume and mass reduction of the input material to a large extent.. The methane produced
by large-scale municipal anerobic sludge treatment is currently being examined for use in homes and
industry, for heating purposes. Septic tanks are an example of an anerobic process, but the amount
of methane produced by a septic tank (it is only the SLUDGE at the bottom that produces methane)
serving less than 100 people is miniscule. In addition to this, septic tank effluent still contains about
70% of the original pollutants and the process smells very badly, due to the Hydrogen Sulphide, if not
vented correctly. The effluent produced by this process is highly polluting and cannot be discharged to
any watercourse. It must be discharged into the Aerobic layer of the soil (within the top metre of the
ground) for the aerobic soil bacteria to continue the sewage treatment via the aerobic process below.
Aerobic Sewage Treatment
In this process, aerobic bacteria digest the pollutants. To establish an aerobic bacterial colony
you must provide air for the bacteria to breathe. In a sewage treatment plant, air is continuously
supplied to the Biozone either by direct Surface Aeration using Impellers propelled by pumps which
whisk the surface of the liquid with air, or by Submerged Diffused Aeration using blowers for air
supply through bubble diffusers at the bottom of the tank. (The most modern aerobic sewage systems
use natural air currents and do not require electricity, though these are only used for small
scale sewage systems at the moment. Once again, the general public leads the way!) Aerobic
conditions lead to an aerobic bacterial colony being established. These achieve almost complete
oxidation and digestion of organic matter and organic pollutants to Carbon Dioxide, Water and
Nitrogen, thus eliminating the odour and pollution problem above. The effluent produced by this
process is non-polluting and can be discharged to a watercourse

Conventional sewage water treatment involves either two or three stages, called primary,
secondary and tertiary treatment. Before these treatments, preliminary removal of rags, cloths,
sanitary items, etc. is also carried out at municipal sewage works.

Primary Treatment
This is usually Anerobic. First, the solids are separated from the sewage. They settle out at the
base of a primary settlement tank. The sludge is continuously being reduced in volume by the
anerobic process, resulting in a vastly reduced total mass when compared to the original volume
entering the system.
The primary settlement tank has the sludge removed when it is about 30% of the tank volume.

Secondary Treatment
This is Aerobic. The liquid from the Primary treatment contains dissolved and particulate
biological matter. This is progressively converted into clean water by using indigenous, water-borne
aerobic micro-organisms and bacteria which digest the pollutants. In most cases, this effluent is clean
enough for discharge directly to rivers.
Tertiary Treatment
In some cases, the effluent resulting from secondary treatment is not clean enough for
discharge. This may be because the stream it is being discharged into is very sensitive, has rare
plants and animals or is already polluted by someone's septic tank. The Environment Agency may
then require a very high standard of treatment with a view to the new discharge being CLEANER than
the water in the stream and to, in effect, 'Clean it up a bit'. It is usually either Phosphorous or
Ammoniacal Nitrogen or both that the E.A. want reduced. Tertiary treatment involves this process. If
Phosphorous is the culprit, then a continuous dosing system to remove it is the tertiary treatment. If
Ammoniacal Nitrogen is the problem, then the sewage treatment plant process must involve a
nitrifying and then de-nitrification stageto convert the ammoniacal nitrogen to Nitrogen gas that
harmlessly enters the atmosphere.