Qualitative evaluation of small scale municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) in South India

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Suneethi ◽  
G. Keerthiga ◽  
R. Soundhar ◽  
M. Kanmani ◽  
T. Boobalan ◽  
...  

Decentralized wastewater treatment system (DEWATS) are widely used for the treatment of wastewater originating from residences, institutes and municipalities, specifically in South India. Most of these STPs are denounced owing to failures on several fronts including design, operation and maintenance, installation and monitoring. A comprehensive review and evaluation of STPs was timely, in order to derive sound conclusions and recommendations for future wastewater management strategies. The objective of the present study was to conduct an independent evaluation of already existing decentralized STPs in South India. The technologies assessed were Aerated lagoon (AL), Extended aeration (EA), Anaerobic filter/Vortex put forward by Centre for Scientific Research (CSR VORTEX), Constructed Wetland (DEWATS others), Membrane bioreactor (MBR) and Moving bed Biofilm reactor (MBBR). Among the various technologies evaluated, MBR exhibited the highest total COD, BOD and solids removal efficiency. Pathogen count was lowest in MBR, followed by MBBR and AL. Nutrient removal in terms of ammoniacal nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen was highest in DEWATS. Effective hours of continuous operation enabled improved plant performance. In case of natural treatment technology such as DEWATS, energy requirement is quite low, whereas conventional treatment technologies such as EA necessitate considerably high demand of energy, requiring few personnel to operate the system. Innovative high cell density systems such as MBBR and MBR entail significant power consumption and elaborate maintenance, requiring large number of skilled professionals. The major reasons for failure of STPs were related to mechanical, electrical and labour problems. Regular monitoring and maintenance is required with due diligence in all the treatment technologies for proper functioning.

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Fox ◽  
Michael Cahill ◽  
Edmond O'Reilly ◽  
Eoghan Clifford

Clean water resources are imperative for sustainable development. Thus, protection and management of waters receiving wastewater discharges have received significant attention from policy and regulatory bodies. The quality of wastewater effluent must meet regional (e.g. Water Framework Directive), national and local discharge standards. In addition, there is now significant pressure on engineers and operators to reduce energy consumption, sludge production and operation/maintenance issues, particularly at small-scale and decentralized wastewater facilities. Therefore, significant interest has risen in new technologies and operational insights which can (i) minimize operating costs; (ii) simplify and reduce the use of mechanical equipment; (iii) result in low sludge production; and (iv) ease operation/maintenance. This study investigated the performance of a small-scale municipal wastewater facility over 5 months from commissioning. The facility uses a new biofilm-based technology – the pumped flow biofilm reactor. Two experimental periods Phase 1 (28 to 36 days) and Phase 2 (Days 100 to 146) were examined. During Phase 2, removal rates averaged 98% for 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), 93% for total suspended solids, and 94% ammoniacal-nitrogen (NH4-N). Energy requirements averaged 0.22 kWh.m treated−3 and 1.74 kWh.kg-BOD5 removed−1. Extensive, camera-based studies revealed minimal excess sludge in the reactor tanks and sludge removal was not required during the study period. The use of vertically stacked plastic media to support the biofilm may have limited biofilm sloughing. Sludge yield during steady state operation was estimated at around 0.03 g-SS.g-COD removed−1. The study indicates that given careful design and operation, small-scale wastewater treatment systems can be as efficient as much larger, fully manned plants.


1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 121-133
Author(s):  
C Forsberg ◽  
B Hawerman ◽  
B Hultman

Experience from advanced municipal wastewater treatment plants and recovery of polluted waters are described for the last ten years in Sweden. Except in municipalities with large recipients, the urban population is served by treatment plants with combined biological and chemical treatment. Most of these plants are post-precipitation plants. Several modified operational modes have been developed in order to improve the removal efficiencies of pollutants and to reduce the costs. Results are presented on the recovery of specially investigated lakes with a lowered supply of total phosphorus and organic matter.


1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 87-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Murcott ◽  
Donald R. F. Harleman

In the past decade, the development of polymers and new chemical technologies has opened the way to using low doses of chemicals in wastewater treatment. “Chemical upgrading” (CU) is defined in this paper as an application of these chemical technologies to upgrade overloaded treatment systems (typically consisting of conventional primary plus biological treatment) in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Although some of the chemical treatment technologies are proven ones in North America, Scandinavia, and Germany, a host of factors, for example, the variations in composition and degree of pollution, the type of technologies in use, the type and mix of industrial and domestic sewage, and the amount of surface water, had meant that the viability of using CU in CEE countries was unknown. This report describes the first jar tests of CU conducted during the summer of 1993. The experiments show CU's ability to improve wastewater treatment plant performance and to potentially assist in the significant problem of overloaded treatment plants. Increased removal of BOD, TSS, and P in the primary stage of treatment is obtained at overflow rates above 1.5 m/h, using reasonably priced, local sources of metal salts in concentrations of 25 to 50 mg/l without polymers.


1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 37-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boran Zhang ◽  
Kazuo Yamamoto ◽  
Shinichiro Ohgaki ◽  
Naoyuki Kamiko

Activated sludges taken from full-scale membrane separation processes, building wastewater reuse system (400m3/d), and two nightsoil treatment plants (50m3/d) as well as laboratory scale membrane separation bioreactor (0.062m3/d) were analyzed to characterize membrane separation activated sludge processes (MSAS). They were also compared with conventional activated sludges(CAS) taken from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Specific nitrification activity in MSAS processes averaged at 2.28gNH4-N/kgMLSS.h were higher than that in CAS processes averaged at 0.96gNH4-N/kgMLSS.h. The denitrification activity in both processes were in the range of 0.62-3.2gNO3-N/kgMLSS.h without organic addition and in the range of 4.25-6.4gNO3-N/kgMLSS.h with organic addition. The organic removal activity in nightsoil treatment process averaged at 123gCOD/kgMLSS.h which was significantly higher than others. Floc size distributions were measured by particle sedimentation technique and image analysis technique. Flocs in MSAS processes changed their sizes with MLSS concentration changes and were concentrated at small sizes at low MLSS concentration, mostly less than 60 μm. On the contrary, floc sizes in CAS processes have not much changed with MLSS concentration changes and they were distributed in large range. In addition, the effects of floc size on specific nitrification rate, denitrification rate with and without organic carbon addition were investigated. Specific nitrification rate was decreased as floc size increased. However, little effect of floc size on denitrification activity was observed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 535-537 ◽  
pp. 2201-2208
Author(s):  
Yong Wang ◽  
Jie Nian Jie ◽  
Zhi Yong Li ◽  
Li Guo Wang ◽  
Jiang Wu ◽  
...  

Oily sewage is one of the wastes produced in the oil industry production process and its quantity has been increasing year by year, which influences the environment and human health severely. Electric flocculation method is one of the wide application electrochemical treatment technologies for the oily wastewater treatment at home and abroad, which has higher efficiency than other technologies at the aspect of the organic pollutants degradation. A simulative experiment device dealing with heavy oil sewage by the electric flocculation method has been designed in this paper. The mechanism of the electric flocculation method in removing organic matter of the heavy oil sewage by analyzing the change of the composition and content of the organic matter in water samples before and after the process of the electric flocculation has been studied. Research results show: the carbon/tin dioxide electrode is better than the carbon/ ruthenium dioxide electrode in removing organic matter; most alkanes matters in the oily wastewater have been removed in the dispersing oil form by the electric flocculation; as the current density increases, the types and quantity of the response organic matter can be improved while types of the new synthetic organics increase. At the same time, this paper provides a theory support in specific optimization of the electricity flocculation flotation in oily wastewater treatment technology and process.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 926-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adalberto Noyola ◽  
Alejandro Padilla-Rivera ◽  
Juan Manuel Morgan-Sagastume ◽  
Leonor Patricia Güereca ◽  
Flor Hernández-Padilla

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed F. Hamoda ◽  
Ibrahim A. Al-Ghusain ◽  
Ahmed H. Hassan

Proper operation of municipal wastewater treatment plants is important in producing an effluent which meets quality requirements of regulatory agencies and in minimizing detrimental effects on the environment. This paper examined plant dynamics and modeling techniques with emphasis placed on the digital computing technology of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). A backpropagation model was developed to model the municipal wastewater treatment plant at Ardiya, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Results obtained prove that Neural Networks present a versatile tool in modeling full-scale operational wastewater treatment plants and provide an alternative methodology for predicting the performance of treatment plants. The overall suspended solids (TSS) and organic pollutants (BOD) removal efficiencies achieved at Ardiya plant over a period of 16 months were 94.6 and 97.3 percent, respectively. Plant performance was adequately predicted using the backpropagation ANN model. The correlation coefficients between the predicted and actual effluent data using the best model was 0.72 for TSS compared to 0.74 for BOD. The best ANN structure does not necessarily mean the most number of hidden layers.


The rapid growth of the industries and population leads to increasing generation of industrial and municipal wastewater. This wastewater threatens directly or indirectly the human health and industrial processes. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a rapid, simple, eco-friendly, effective, and efficient method for eliminating pollutants from industrial and municipal wastewater. The wastewater treatment aims to remove pollutants including particles, organic/inorganic substances, and pathogenic microorganisms, and finally returned to the cycle. This chapter presents a brief introduction to the issue associated with municipal and industrial wastewater. Also, this chapter presents detailed information about the conventional wastewater treatment methods. Specifically, it discusses the steps involved in the wastewater treatment viz. primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment.


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