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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter provides a review of related literature and studies saturated from the different
sources like books, encyclopedia, and printed materials that are related to the present study.

History of Wastewater Treatment


Treatment of wastewater is a relatively modern practice. While sewers to remove foul-smelling
water were common in ancient Rome, it was not until the 19th century that large cities began to
understand that they had to reduce the amount of pollutants in the used water they were discharging to
the environment. Despite large supplies of fresh water and the natural ability of water to cleanse itself
over time, populations had become so concentrated by 1850 that outbreaks of life-threatening diseases
were traced to bacteria in the polluted water.
Since that time, the practice of wastewater collection and treatment has been developed and
perfected, using some of the most technically sound biological, physical, chemical, and mechanical
techniques available. As a result, public health and water quality are protected better today than ever
before.
The modern sewer system is an engineering marvel. Homes, businesses, industries, and
institutions throughout the modern world are connected to a network of below-ground pipes which
transport wastewater to treatment plants before it is released to the environment. Wastewater is the flow

of used water from a community. As the name implies, it is mostly water; a very small portion is waste
material.
At a typical wastewater plant, several million gallons of wastewater flow through each day -- 50
to 100 gallons for every person using the system. The amount of wastewater handled by the treatment
plant varies with the time of day and with the season of the year. In some areas, particularly
communities without separate sewer systems for wastewater and runoff from rainfall, flow during
particularly

heavy

rains

or

snowmelts

can

be

much

higher

than

normal. (www.adbio.com/wastewater/ww_history.htm)

Origins of sewage
Sewage is generated by residential, institutional, commercial and industrial establishments. It
includes household waste liquid from toilets, baths, showers, kitchens, and sinks draining into sewers. In
many areas, sewage also includes liquid waste from industry and commerce. The separation and
draining of household waste into greywater and blackwater is becoming more common in the developed
world, with treated greywater being permitted to be used for watering plants or recycled for flushing
toilets.

Sewage mixing with rainwater


Sewage may include stormwater runoff or urban runoff. Sewerage systems capable of handling
storm water are known as combined sewer systems. This design was common when urban sewerage
systems were first developed, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Combined sewers require much
larger and more expensive treatment facilities than sanitary sewers. Heavy volumes of storm runoff may

overwhelm the sewage treatment system, causing a spill or overflow. Sanitary sewers are typically much
smaller than combined sewers, and they are not designed to transport stormwater. Backups of raw
sewage can occur if excessive infiltration/inflow (dilution by stormwater and/or groundwater) is allowed
into a sanitary sewer system. Communities that have urbanized in the mid-20th century or later generally
have built separate systems for sewage (sanitary sewers) and stormwater, because precipitation causes
widely varying flows, reducing sewage treatment plant efficiency. As rainfall travels over roofs and the
ground, it may pick up various contaminants including soil particles and other sediment, heavy
metals, organic compounds, animal waste, and oil and grease. Some jurisdictions require stormwater to
receive some level of treatment before being discharged directly into waterways. Examples of treatment
processes used for stormwater include retention basins, wetlands, buried vaults with various kinds
of media filters, and vortex separators (to remove coarse solids).

Industrial Effluent
In highly regulated developed countries, industrial effluent usually receives at least pretreatment
if not full treatment at the factories themselves to reduce the pollutant load, before discharge to the
sewer. This process is called industrial wastewater treatment. The same does not apply to many
developing countries where industrial effluent is more likely to enter the sewer if it exists, or even the
receiving water body, without pretreatment. Industrial wastewater may contain pollutants which cannot
be removed by conventional sewage treatment. Also, variable flow of industrial waste associated with
production cycles may upset the population dynamics of biological treatment units, such as the activated
sludge process.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment)

Related Studies
Mekala (2006) In Hyderabad, along the Musi River about 10,000 ha of land is irrigated with
wastewater to cultivate Para grass, a kind of fodder grass.
Neethling and Gu,(2006) Chemical addition points include prior to primary settling, during
secondary treatment, or as part of a tertiary treatment process.
Neethling and Gu,(2006) the process is more complex than predicted by laboratory pure
chemical experiments, and that formation of and sorption to carbonates or hydroxides are important
factors. In fact, full-scale systems may perform better than the 0.05 mg/L limit predicted.
Strom, (2006) Use of alum after secondary treatment can be predicted to produce much less
sludge, but the increase could still be problematic.
Narayanan (2009) there is some concern about the effects of solids management processes and
returns side streams on the ability to remove P to low levels. Processes that destroy organic material
(such as digestion) have the potential to release the particulate organic-P present as soluble organic or
inorganic P.

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