CVE 503:

UNIT OPERATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

LECTURE III: BIOLOGICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTMS

 Main Learning Outcomes (MLO)

Design and explain various technologies employed in the biological wastewater

treatment process
 Specific Learning Outcomes (SLO)
1. Explain biological wastewater treatment methods
2. Outline the objectives of biological wastewater treatment systems
3. Classify biological wastewater treatment methods
Suspended and attached treatment process
4. Explain different types of methods used in the biological wastewater treatment
5. Outline the significance of Activated Sludge System
6. Explain the processes involve in Activated Sludge System
7. Draw and discuss the layout of Activated Sludge
8. Explain number of factors that affect activated sludge treatment system.
 Biological Treatment of Waste Water

Biological wastewater treatment is an important and integral step of wastewater

treatment system and it treats wastewater coming from either residential buildings
or industries etc.
It is often called as Secondary Treatment process which is used to remove any
contaminants that left over after primary treatment.
 Biological Treatment of Waste Water

Chemical treatment of waste water makes use of chemicals to react with pollutants
present in the wastewater and where as

Biological treatment uses microorganisms to degrade wastewater contaminants.

 Biological Wastewater Treatment Systems

A biological wastewater treatment system is a technology that primarily uses

bacteria, some protozoa, and possibly other specialty microbes to clean water.

It is a type of wastewater treatment in which micro-organisms such as bacterial

are used to remove pollutants from wastewater through bio-chemical reaction
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Systems
When these microorganisms break down organic pollutants for food, they stick together,
which creates a flocculation effect allowing the organic matter to settle out of the
solution

This treatment rely on bacteria, nematodes, algae, fungi, protozoa, rotifers to break
down unstable organic wastes using normal cellular processes to stable inorganic forms.
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Systems
The microorganisms decompose organic contaminants are often measured in
biological oxygen demand, or BOD,

BOD is refers to the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic organisms to

break down organic matter into smaller molecules..
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Systems

High levels of BOD indicate an elevated concentration of biodegradable

material present in the wastewater and can be caused by the introduction of
pollutants such as industrial discharges, domestic fecal wastes, or fertilizer runoff.
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Process

Biological wastewater treatment method can be classify into:

1. Suspended treatment process and
2. Attached treatment process
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Process

Suspended growth process

It is a biological wastewater treatment in which microorganisms are maintained in

suspension while converting organic matter to gasses and cell tissue (Activated
Sludge)
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Process

Attached growth

Is a biological wastewater treatment in which microorganisms responsible for the

conversion of organic matter to gasses and cell tissue are attached to some inert
materials such as rocks, sand or plastics (Trickling filter)
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Types

Typically, biological wastewater treatment can be:

1. Aerobic
2. Anaerobic
3. Anoxic
 Biological Wastewater Treatment Types
Typically, biological wastewater treatment can be:

1. Aerobic, when microorganisms require oxygen to break down organic matter to

carbon dioxide and microbial biomass

2. Anaerobic, when microorganisms do not require oxygen to break down organic

matter, often forming methane, carbon dioxide, and excess biomass

3. Anoxic, when microorganisms use other molecules than oxygen for growth, such
as for the removal of sulfate, nitrate, nitrite, selenate, and selenite
 Aerobic Biological Treatment Process

Aerobic wastewater treatment is a biological process that takes place in the

presence of oxygen. It is the rapid and the most efficient biological waste
treatment which remove up to 98 % of organic contaminants.

This process causes effective breakdown of organic pollutants and yields a cleaner
water effluent than anaerobic treatment.
 Aerobic Biological Treatment Process

Aerobic Biological Treatment Process is a process in which the pollutants in the

waste water (Organic matter) are stabilized by microorganisms in the presence of
molecular oxygen to produce CO2, NH3, and H2O
 Aerobic Biological Treatment Process

Aerobic biological treatment processes include many processes such as activated

sludge process, trickling filter, aerated lagoons and oxidation ponds etc.

Activated sludge process is the most widely used process for domestic and
industrial wastewater. Aerobic biological treatment will remain efficient and
stable in all conditions.
 Aerobic Biological Treatment Process

It is a high-rate biological processes characterized by relatively small reactor volumes and
high concentrations of microorganisms compared with low rate processes

Consequently, the growth rate of new organisms is much greater in high-rate systems
because of the well controlled environment

Common high-rate processes include the activated sludge processes, trickling filters or
biofilters, oxidation ditches and rotating biological contactors (RBC)
 Aerobic Biological Treatment Process

Common high-rate processes include the

1. activated sludge processes,

2. trickling filters or biofilters,

3. oxidation ditches and

4. rotating biological contactors (RBC)

 Aerobic Biological Treatment Process

A combination of two of these processes in series (e.g. biofilter followed by

activated sludge) is sometimes used to treat municipal wastewater containing a
high concentration of organic material from industrial sources
 Anerobic Biological Treatment Process

Anerobic Biological Treatment Process

It is a process in which the pollutants in the waste water (Organic matter) are
stabilized by microorganisms in the absence of molecular oxygen
 Activated Sludge System
It is an aerobic suspended growth biological wastewater treatment method in
which dissolved organic and inorganic matter can be removed
Some of the suspended and colloidal matter can also be removed indirectly by
sticking to the slime bacteria
 Anaerobic Biological Treatment Process

Biological Anaerobic Treatment: This treatment process is effectively utilized to

treat high strength waste water and it employs organisms that function in the
absence of oxygen and it will typically treat high-strength waste water to a level
that will permit discharge to a municipal sewer system.
Here, the amount of sludge produced is very small when we compared to aerobic
treatment.
Anaerobic treatment is a slow process and it occurs in many different stages.
 Activated Sludge Process
Activated Sludge Process: The activated sludge process is the most widely used
biological waste treatment in secondary stage of wastewater treatment.
An activated sludge process refers to a multi-chamber reactor unit that makes use
of highly concentrated microorganisms to degrade organics and remove nutrients
from wastewater to produce a high-quality effluent.
In this method, the sewage containing organic matter with the microorganisms is
aerated (by a mechanical aerator) in an aeration tank. This process speeds up
waste decomposition.
 Activated Sludge Process
Activated sludge process simply involves bringing together wastewater and a
mixture of microorganisms under aerobic conditions.
The process is a combination of:
 the natural breakdown of organic matter by biological metabolism and
 the separation of the solids and liquids by bioflocculation and the natural force
of gravity.
 Significance of Activated Sludge Process

Activated sludge, therefore, serves two purposes:

1. Reducing organic matter in wastewater by using a complex biological
community in the presence of oxygen and converting the organic matter to new
cell mass, carbon dioxide and energy; and,
2. Producing solids capable of bio-flocculating and settling out in the clarifier to
produce an effluent low in Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total
Suspended Solids (TSS).
 Significance of Activated Sludge Process
In wastewater treatment plant, the activated sludge process can be used for one or
several of the following purposes:
1. oxidizing carbonaceous matter: biological matter.
2. oxidizing nitrogenous matter: mainly ammonium and nitrogen in biological
materials.
3. removing phosphate.
4. 4. driving off entrained gases carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitrogen, etc.
5. generating a biological floc that is easy to settle.
6. generating wastewater that is low in dissolved or suspended material.
 Activated Sludge Process
Aeration in an activated sludge process is based on pumping air into a tank, which
promotes the microbial growth in the wastewater. The effluent from the aeration
tank containing the flocculent microbial mass, known as sludge, is separated in a
settling tank, sometimes called a secondary settler or a clarifier.

The activated sludge process is a very compact, low-cost and an efficient

biological treatment system for waste water treatment.
Conventional flow diagram for Activated Sludge Process is shown below:
 Activated Sludge Process
In order to better understand the activated sludge process, which normally runs
in a continuous flow mode, it is beneficial to first look at the process in a batch
operation.
This is done by taking a container of biologically degradable wastewater and
aerating it with an air stone to provide sufficient oxygen and mixing energy.
Measuring the number of microorganisms at constant time intervals, and
plotting these numbers versus time, we get what is known as the growth curve.
The growth curve has five distinct phases
 Activated Sludge Process
These are:
1. Adaptation (Lag) Phase – This portion of the curve represents the time required
for the organisms to acclimate themselves to the organic material present in the
wastewater. The numbers of bacteria are not increasing, however, a shift in the
population of the different species of bacteria in the wastewater is occurring so
that the bacteria that can best utilize these organic materials become predominate.
2. Log Growth Phase – Once the bacteria have “adapted”, only the number of
organisms present limit the rate of growth. Because bacterial cells reproduce by
binary fission (i.e., cell division – one cell divides and becomes two, these two
divide and become four, then eight, sixteen … ), this is known as logarithmic
growth. Food is not a limiting factor for growth in this phase, that is, for each cell
formed enough food is present to allow it to grow and divide.
 Activated Sludge Process
3. Declining Growth Phase – In this phase food becomes a limiting factor to the
growth of the bacterial cell mass because not every bacterium that is formed has the
food required to grow.
4. Maximum Stationary Phase – Here the available food is just sufficient to keep the
cell mass at a constant level with a rate of growth equal to zero.
5. Endogenous (Cell Death) Phase – When the supply of food becomes insufficient
to maintain the bacterial mass at a constant level, the microorganisms are forced to
metabolize their own protoplasm. (Draw the curve)
 Activated Sludge Process
Activated sludge plant involves:
1. wastewater aeration in the presence of a microbial suspension,
2. solid-liquid separation following aeration,
3. discharge of clarified effluent,
4. wasting of excess biomass, and
5. return of remaining biomass to the aeration tank.
 Activated Sludge Process

The general arrangement of an activated sludge process for removing carbonaceous

pollution includes the following items:

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

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.
Activated Sludge Process
 Activated Sludge Process

The most used biological wastewater treatment method in the world.

A process using air and a biological floc composed of bacteria and protozoa.
Settling tank to allow the biological flocs to settle, thus separating the
biological sludge from the clear treated water.
Factors Affecting an Activated Sludge Treatment System.
There are a number of factors that affect the performance of an activated sludge
treatment system. These include:
1.temperature
2.return rates
3.amount of oxygen available
4.amount of organic matter available
5.pH
6.waste flow rates
7.aeration time
8.wastewater toxicity
 Reading Assignment
1. Distinguished between Biological Aerobic Treatment (BAT) and Biological
Anaerobic Treatment (BANT)
2. Explain the growth phases of micro-organisms using growth curve
3. Explain the processes involve in Activated Sludge System
4. Explain number of factors that affect the performance of an activated sludge
treatment system.