REPORT ON

Activated Sludge Process

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

PROF: K.S.BABU KANWARJOT SINGH

1040253

THAPAR UNIVERSITY
PATIALA-147004
PUNJAB
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I feel highly delighted with the way my article has complied and
completed. It is a matter of pride for me that I worked for a very loving and caring
institute who is totally devoted to develop the technical and human resource
skills.

Any accomplishment requires the effort of many people and this work is
no different. The recent industrial trip to Rajpura Water Treatment Plant and
Patiala Distillery helped me in understanding and hereby presenting my report. I
am indebted to my teacher MR K.S.BABU for guidance and organizing such a
successful educational trip.

KANWARJOT SINGH
ROLL NO:1040253
CIVIL
 Contents

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Purpose
• 3 History
• 4 General Principles
o 4.1 Definitions
o 4.2 Arrangement
• 5 Types of plants
o 5.1 Package Plants
o 5.2 Oxidation Ditch
o 5.3 Deep ShaftTM
• 6 Aeration methods
o 6.1 Diffused Aeration
o 6.2 Surface aerators (Cones)
• 7 References

• 8 External links
 Introduction

Activated sludge is a process in sewage treatment in which air or

oxygen is forced into sewage liquor to develop a biological floc which
reduces the organic content of the sewage. In all activated sludge
plants, once the sewage has received sufficient treatment, excess
mixed liquor is discharged into settling tanks and the supernatant is
run off to undergo further treatment before discharge. Part of the
settled material, the sludge, is returned to the head of the aeration
system to re-seed the new sewage entering the tank. This fraction of
the floc is called R.A.S - Return Activated Sludge. The remaining
sludge, also called W.A.S - Waste Activated Sludge, is further treated
prior to disposal. (W.A.S is also sometimes called S.A.S - Surplus
Activated Sludge)

Activated sludge is also the name given to the active biological

material produced by activated sludge plants and which affects all the
purification processes. This material, which in healthy sludge is a
brown floc, is largely composed off saprophytic bacteria but also has
an important protozoan flora mainly composed of amoebae,
Spirotrichs, Peritrichs including Vorticellids and a range of other filter
feeding species. Other important constituents include motile and
sedentary Rotifers. In poorly managed activated sludge, a range of
mucilaginous filamentous bacteria can develop including
Sphaerotilus natans which produces a sludge that is difficult to settle
and can result in the sludge blanket decanting over the weirs in the
settlement tank to severely contaminate the final effluent quality. This
material is often described as sewage fungus but true fungal
communities are relatively uncommon.

Purpose

In a sewage treatment plant, Activated Sludge process can be used

for one or several of the following purpose:

1. Oxidizing carbonaceous matter: biological matter

2. Oxidizing nitrogenous matter: mainly ammonium and nitrogen

in biological materials.
3. removing phosphate

4. driving off entrained gases carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitrogen

etc.
5. generating a biological floc that is easy to settle.
6. generating a liquor low in dissolved or suspended material

History

The activated sludge process was discovered by accident in Britain in

1913. Experiments on treating sewage in a draw-and-fill reactor (the
precursor to today's sequencing batch reactor) produced a highly
treated effluent. Believing that the sludge had been activated (in a
similar manner to activated carbon) the process was named activated
sludge. Not until much later was it realised that what had actually had
occurred was a means to concentrate biological organisms,
decoupling the liquid retention time (ideally, low, for a compact
treatment system) from the solids retention time (ideally, fairly high,
for an effluent low in BOD5 and ammonia.)

General Principles

Definitions

• Raw water = water entering the system

• Mixed liquor = the mix of raw water and activated sludge.
• Return activated sludge (R.A.S) = activated sludge extracted
from the system and mixed with raw water to form the mixed
liquor.
• Waste activated sludge (W.A.S.)/Surplus activated sludge
(S.A.S.)= activated sludge in excess that is extracted from the
system to be directed to sludge treatment.
• Sludge age = the average time biological sludge stay in the
system. In simpler words, it can be defined as the average age
of a bactery in the system.

Arrangement

The general arrangement of an activated sludge process for

removing carbonaceous pollution includes the following items:

1. Aeration tank where air (or oxygen) is injected in the mixed

liquor.
 2. Settling tank (usually referred to as "final clarifier" or "secondary
settling tank") to allow the biological flocs to settle, thus
separating the biological sludge from the clear treated water.

This is illustrated in the following diagram:

Treatment of nitrogenous matter or phosphate involve additional

steps where the mixed liquor is left in anoxic condition (no residual
dissolved oxygen).

Types of plants

There are a variety of types of activated sludge plants. These

include :

Package Plants

There are a wide range of other types of plants, often serving small
communities or industrial plants that may use hybrid treatment
processes often involving the use of aerobic sludge to treat the
incoming sewage. In such plants the primary settlement stage of
treatment may be omitted. In these plants, a biotic floc is created
which provides the required substrate.

Package plants are commonly variants of extended aeration, to

promote the 'fit & forget' approach required for small communities
without dedicated operational staff. There are various standards to
assist with their design

Oxidation Ditch

Oxidation Ditch at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California

In some areas where more land is available sewage is treated in

large round or oval ditches with one or more horizontal aerators
typically called brush or disc aerators which drive the mixed liquor
around the ditch and provide aeration. These are oxidation ditches,
often referred to by manufacturer's trade names such as Pasveer,
Orbal, or Carrousel. They have the advantage that they are relatively
easy to maintain and are resilient to shock loads that often occur in
smaller communities (i.e at breakfast time and in the evening).

Oxidation ditches are installed commonly as 'fit & forget' technology,

with typical design parameters of a hydraulic retention time of 24 - 48
hours, and a sludge age of 12 - 20 days. This compares with nitrifying
activated sludge plants having a retention time of 8 hours, and a
sludge age of 8 - 12 days.

Deep Shaft

Where land is in short supply sewage may be treated by injection of

oxygen into a pressured return sludge stream which is injected into
the base of a deep columnar tank buried in the ground. Such shafts
may be up to 100 metres deep and are filled with sewage liquor. As
the sewage rises the oxygen forced into solution by the pressure at
the base of the shaft breaks out as molecular oxygen providing a
highly efficient source of oxygen for the activated sludge biota. The
rising oxygen and injected return sludge provide the physical
mechanism for mixing of the sewage and sludge. Mixed sludge and
sewage is decanted at the surface and separated into supernatant
and sludge components. The efficiency of deep shaft treatment can
be high.
Surface aerators are commonly quoted as having an aeration
efficiency of 0.5 - 1.5 kg O2/kWh, diffused aeration as 1.5 - 2.5 kg
O2/KWh. Deep Shaft claims 5 - 8 kg O2/kWh.

However, the costs of construction are high. Deep Shaft has seen
greatest uptake in Japan, because of the land area issues. Deep
Shaft was developed by ICI, as a spin-off from their Pruteen process.
In the UK it is found at three sites: Tilbury, Anglian water, treating a
wastewater with a high industrial contribution; Southport, United
Utilities, because of land space issues; and Billingham, ICI, again
treating industrial effluent, and built (after the Tilbury shafts) by ICI to
help the agent sell more.

DeepShaft is a patented, licenced, process. The licencee has

changed several times, but is currently (2007) Kvaerner

Aeration methods

Diffused Aeration
Fine bubble membrane diffusers in an aeration tank

Sewage liquor is run into deep tanks with diffuser blocks attached to
the floor. These are like the diffuser blocks used in tropical fish tanks
but on a much larger scale. Air is pumped through the blocks and the
curtain of bubbles formed both oxygenates the liquor and also
provide the necessary stirring action. Where capacity is limited or the
sewage is unusually strong or difficult to treat, oxygen may be used
instead of air.

Surface aerators (Cones)

Vertically mounted tubes of up to 1 metre diameter extend from just

above the base of a deep concrete tank to just below the surface of
the sewage liquor. A typical shaft might be 10Metres high. At the
surface end the tube is formed into a cone with helical vanes
attached to the inner surface. When the tube is rotated, the vanes
spin liquor up and out of the cones drawing new sewage liquor from
the base of the tank. In many works each cone is located in a
separate cell that can be isolated from the remaining cells if required
for maintenance. Some works may have two cones to a cell and
some large works may have 4 cones per cell.
 References

1. http://www.britishwater.co.uk/COP_Flows___Loads_2_-_final_-

_6_page_version-22Jun05.pdf
2. http://products.ihs.com/cis/Doc.aspx?AuthCode=&DocNum=25

2510
3. British Standard

4. Tilbury construction

5. Aker Kvaerner wastewater

External links

• Steady-state activated sludge model

• Various PhD theses on modelling activated sludge systems
• Detailed algorithms for ASM1 and Takacs settling tank model
• Metabolic activated sludge model