CHAMELI DEVI PUBLIC SCHOOL

INDORE
BIO PROJECT
SESSION
2016 - 2017
TOPIC - MICROBES IN SEWAGE TREATMENT

MADE BY

SUBMITTED TO

INDEX
1. Introduction
2. What is sewage
3. Origins of sewage
4. General information
5. Microbial processes
6. Microbes in sewage treatment
7. Sewage treatment
8. Process steps

- Pretreatment
- primary treatment.
- secondary treatment.
- tertiary treatment.
- Fourth treatment stage
9. odor control
10. Energy requirements

11. Sludge treatment and disposal

12. Treated sewage reuse

Introduction
Sewage treatment is a process in which the pollutants are removed. The ultimate goal of sewage treatment
is to produce an effluent that will not impact the environment . In the absence of sewage treatment, the
results can be devastating as sewage can disrupt the environment.
The general processes of sewage treatment are primary, secondary and tertiary treatment. Primary
treatment involves physical separation of sewage into solids and liquid by using a settling basin. The liquid
sewage is then transferred to secondary treatment which focuses on removing the dissolved biological
compound by the use of micro-organisms. The micro-organisms usually use aerobic metabolism to degrade
the biological matter in the liquid sludge.
Then tertiary treatment is required to disinfect the sewage so that it can be released into the environment.
The solid sewage separated from primary treatment is transferred to a tank for sludge digestion which
involves anaerobic degradation using micro-organisms.
What is sewage ?
waste matter from domestic or industrial establishments that is carried away in sewers or drains for dumping
or conversion into a form that is not toxic.
or
waste material (such as human urine and feces) that is carried away from homes and other
buildings in a system of pipes
Origins of sewage
Sewage is generated by residential, institutional, commercial and industrial establishments.
It includes household waste liquid from toilets, baths, showers, kitchens, and sinksdraining 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 may include stormwater runoff or urban runoff. Sewerage systems capable of handling storm water
are known as combined sewer systems.
Industrial waste water include Toxic chemical, Organic wastes, Heavy metals.

General informations
physical environment

The environment of the sewage treatment plant has to be controlled precisely because bacteria are sensitive
to the oxygen level, pH level, temperature, and level of nutrient. In order for efficient degradation of
biological matter to occur, these factors are controlled manually.
Sewage composition
Sewage is composed of organic matter such as carbohydrates, fats, oil, grease and proteins mainly from
domestic waste. It also contains dissolved inorganic matter such as nitrogen species and phosphorous
species mainly from agricultural use . It is essential to remove the nutrients before they are released to the
environment because it interferes natural habitats by altering the chemical composition such as pH or
oxygen level both directly and indirectly.
Oxygen level
Oxygen level is an important factor to secondary and tertiary treatment processes. Secondary treatment,
oxygen is required as a terminal electron acceptor in organic matter degradation. For example, nitrification
by Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter species requires dissolved oxygen to occur . Oxygen in secondary
treatment is provided manually by pumping oxygen into the sewage continuously which occurs in an
aeration tank . In tertiary treatment, the removal of excess organic matter is enhanced by settling the
sewage in a lagoon. This process is also aerobic, but it depends on the diffusion of oxygen because most
organic matter has been degraded by secondary treatment.
The oxygen in the air allows the microbes to respire aerobically.What are the products of the aerobic
respiration of carbohydrates like glucose?
pH
Acidity plays a crucial role in the breakdown of organic matter because pH affects the solubility of
compounds which indirectly affect the accessibility by bacteria. Also, bacteria responsible for organic matter
degradation are sensitive to the pH of the environment. Extremely high or low pH levels are able to kill
bacteria, deposition of organic matter occurs due to lack of degradation. Hence, the pH of sewage treatment
is controlled to be around 7. A nitrifier in secondary treatment, Nitrosomnas requires a pH between 6~9 in
order to be viable .
Temperature
The effect of temperature is influential for secondary treatment, but it is not important in primary treatment.
Bacterial growth is sensitive to temperature because high temperature can increase the fluidity of the
phospholipid bilayer which leads to cell lysis. However, bacteria are known to have higher enzymatic activity
at higher temperature because of increased thermal energy. For example, when thermophilic sludge
treatment is compared to mesophilic treatment, the sludge biodegradability is higher with thermophilic
degradation . Hence the temperature has to be controlled precisely to maximize the efficiency of
degradation but also allow the cell to remain viable
Nutrients availability
There are a lot of nutrients available in the sewage because of human waste and agricultural runoff. Bacteria
can harvest the electron from organic matter and transfer it to a terminal electron acceptor which results in
the break down of organic matter and energy conservation.

Microbial processes
There are several microbial processes, and the microbial processes can be catergorized into aerobic and
anaerobic.
Aerobic
After primary treatment, liquid and solid phases are physically separated. The liquid phase is treated with
aeration to allow aerobic degradation of the nutrients. The two important microbial processes at this stage
are nitrification and phosphorous removal. Nitrification occurs in two discrete steps. First of all, ammonium is
oxidized to nitrite by Nitrosomonas.spp, and nitrite is further oxidized to nitrate by Nitrobacter.spp .
Phosphorous removal can occur biologically by the process of enhanced biological phosphorous removal.
The process is demonstrated by the cell taking up phosphorous within their cell, and the biomass is filtered .
Anaerobic
In the liquid component of sewage, denitrifying bacteria reduce nitrate into dinitrogen gas which liberates
nitrate from the sewage . The solid component of the sewage separated in primary treatment is fermented
by bacteria anaerobically.
Key microorganisms
Microorganiasms can also be categorized by its metabolism.
Microorganisms with aerobic microbial process

Members of the Nitrosomonas genus is a gram negative bacterium responsible for the first stage of
nitrification in sewage. They oxidize ammonium into nitrite. This bacterium prefers a pH around 6-9 and
nitrify optimally at 20-30C .
Members of the Nitrobacter genus is a gram negative bacterium responsible for the second stage of
nitrification in the sewage. It oxidizes nitrite to nitrate using oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor. The
bacteria has an optimum pH of 6~8, and an optimum temperature of 0~40C .
Microorganism with anaerobic microbial process
Members of Pseudomonas genus is a gram negative denitrifying bacteria that use the chemical energy in
organic matter to reduce nitrate into dinitrogen gas . Also, members of the bacteroidetes phylum are the
gram negative bacteria responsible for the anaerobic fermentation of the solid sludge .

Microbes in sewage treatment

All living things, including ourselves and microbes, need food to grow, maintain and
repair their cells, and to provide a source of energy for life. However, we cannot
digest all of the food we eat and what remains undigested, ends up in the sewage
system. About 10 billion litres of sewage are produced every day in England and
Wales and this has to be treated to remove harmful substances and pathogenic
microbes before the waste can be safely released into the environment. The main
component of sewage is organic matter (undigested food) but there are other
substances such as oil, heavy metals, nitrogen and phosphorous compounds (from
artificial fertilisers and detergents) which also have to be removed. Here you will
consider the important role of microbes in the sewage treatment process.
Sewage is actually a mixture of all types of waste water, including rain water and
domestic water from toilets, baths and sinks. When sewage arrives at a treatment
works.

it is first filtered to remove large objects (e.g. condoms, tampons and cigarette
ends) which have got into the system. These usually go to a landfill site or
incinerator. The remaining material is then allowed to settleso that much of the
solid material drops to the bottom of a tank. This solid material is then removed
and usually buried in landfill, burnt or, after further treatment, used as fertiliser
on agricultural land.

Aerobic respiration is the most efficient way of breaking down organic matter
although some compounds in the effluent are not broken down completely. The
tanks often contain porous solid materials, on which biofilms can develop, increasing
the numbers of microbes and so the efficiency of the breakdown process. During
this process, a fairly solid material known as activated sludge is formed.

This contains a mix of microbes and undigested material. Since it contains all of
the essential microbes to break down incoming waste, some of it is added to
batches of new sewage (Figure 5). After this aerobic digestion, and a variety of
other purification procedures, the liquid portion of the sewage is usually safe to
discharge into rivers or the sea. The remaining activated sludge material is
subjected to various other types of biological processes to reduce further the
amount of organic matter it contains. Anaerobic bacteria are often used in this
subsequent stage, since, although they grow more slowly, they can break down more
complex materials that are difficult to degrade using microbes that respire
aerobically.
The gases produced in this anaerobic process are carbon dioxide and methane, a
mixture called biogas, which can be collected and subsequently burned for energy
production.

Sewage processing reduces the concentration of potentially harmful bacteria

such as E. coli and Salmonella in the original sewage as many of them die during the
processing because the conditions are not appropriate for them. It is also
important to reduce the amount of organic compounds in the effluents released into
rivers from sewage works.
If this is not done, then microbes naturally present in the river use the organic
compounds as a source of energy and reproduce in huge numbers. Since they respire
aerobically, they use up much of the oxygen dissolved in the water, leaving little for
other organisms such as invertebrates or fish, many of which will die. Sewage must
therefore be treated to reduce the amount of organic matter, and thus reduce the
Biological Oxygen Demand or BOD, defined as the amount of oxygen required by
the aerobic microbes to decompose the organic compounds in a sample of water.
The process of sewage treatment can be thought of as a complex form of
composting.

The compost heap which you may have in your garden is like a miniature sewage
treatment works. The centre usually becomes anaerobic as existing oxygen is used
up. Closer to the top of the heap aerobic processes take place. Apart from the raw
material, the other big difference between a sewage treatment works and a
compost heap is that inside a compost heap, temperatures become high well above
60 C which is detrimental to most species of microbes, but in which some can
flourish.
Sewage treatment

Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater, primarily from
household sewage. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove these contaminants and
produce environmentally safe treated waste water (or treated effluent). A by-product of sewage treatment is
usually a semi-solid waste or slurry, called sewage sludge, that has to undergo further
treatment before being suitable for disposal or land application.
Sewage treatment may also be referred to as wastewater treatment

For most cities, the sewer system will also carry a proportion ofindustrial effluent to the sewage treatment
plant which has usually received pre-treatment at the factories themselves to reduce the pollutant load. If
the sewer system is a combined sewer then it will also carry urban runoff (storm water)
Process steps
Sewage collection and treatment is typically subject to local, state and federal regulations and standards.

Treating waste water has the aim to produce an effluent that will do as little harm as possible when discharged to
the surrounding environment, thereby preventing
pollution compared to releasing untreated waste water into the environment.

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 waste water 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.
Sewage treatment generally involves three stages, called
- primary treatment.
- secondary treatment.
- tertiary treatment.

Pretreatment
Pretreatment removes all materials that can be easily collected from the raw sewage before they damage or clog
the pumps and sewage lines of primary treatment clarifiers. Objects commonly removed during pretreatment
include trash, tree limbs, leaves, branches, and other large objects.
The influent in sewage water passes through a bar screen to remove all large objects like cans, rags, sticks,
plastic packets etc. carried in the sewage stream. This is most commonly done with an automated mechanically
raked bar screen in modern plants serving large populations, while in smaller or less modern plants, a manually
cleaned screen may be used. The raking action of a mechanical bar screen is typically paced according to the
accumulation on the bar screens and/or flow rate. The solids are collected and later disposed in a landfill, or
incinerated. Bar screens or mesh screens of varying sizes may be used to optimize solids removal. If gross solids
are not removed, they become entrained in pipes and moving parts of the treatment plant, and can cause
substantial damage and inefficiency in the process.

Pretreatment may include Grit removal, Flow equalization, Fat and grease removal.

Primary

treatment
It consists of temporarily holding the sewage in a quiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the
bottom while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface. The settled and floating materials are removed
and the remaining liquid may be discharged or subjected to secondary treatment. Some sewage treatment
plants that are connected to a combined sewer system have a bypass arrangement after the primary
treatment unit. This means that during very heavy rainfall events, the secondary and tertiary treatment
systems can be bypassed to protect them from
hydraulic overloading, and the mixture of sewage and storm water only receives primary treatment.
Secondary treatment
It removes dissolved and suspended biological matter. Secondary treatment is typically performed
by indigenous, water-borne micro-organisms in a managed habitat. Secondary treatment may require a
separation process to remove the micro-organisms from the treated water prior to discharge or tertiary
treatment.

It include Fixed-film or attached growth, Suspended-growth, Secondary sedimentation

List of process types
Activated sludge
Aerated lagoon
Aerobic granulation
Constructed wetland

Membrane bioreactor
Rotating biological contactor
Sequencing batch reactor
Trickling filter
Tertiary treatment
It is sometimes defined as anything more than primary and secondary treatment in order to allow rejection
into a highly sensitive or fragile ecosystem (estuaries, low-flow rivers, coral reefs,...). Treated water is
sometimes disinfected chemically or physically (for example, by lagoons and microfiltration) prior to
discharge into astream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be used for the irrigation of a golf course,
green way or park. If it is sufficiently clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge or agricultural
purposes.
It is also called "effluent polishing."
The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final treatment stage to further improve the effluent quality
before it is discharged to the receiving environment

Filtration
Lagoons or ponds
Biological nutrient removal
Nitrogen removal
Phosphorus removal

Disinfection

Fourth treatment stage

Micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, ingredients of household chemicals, chemicals used in small
businesses or industries, environmental persistent pharmaceutical pollutant (EPPP) or pesticides may not be
eliminated in the conventional treatment process (primary, secondary and tertiary treatment) and therefore
lead to water pollution.
Odor control
Odors emitted by sewage treatment are typically an indication of an anaerobic or "septic" condition. Early
stages of processing will tend to produce foul-smelling gases, withhydrogen sulfide being most common in
generating complaints. Large process plants in urban areas will often treat the odors with carbon reactors, a
contact media with bio-slimes, small doses of chlorine, or circulating fluids to biologically capture and
metabolize the noxious gases. Other methods of odor control exist, including addition of iron salts, hydrogen
peroxide, calcium nitrate, etc. to manage hydrogen sulfide levels.
Energy requirements
For conventional sewage treatment plants, around 30 percent of the annual operating costs is usually
required for energy. The energy requirements vary with type of treatment process as well as waste water
load.
Sludge treatment and disposal

The sludges accumulated in a wastewater treatment process must be treated and disposed of in a safe and effective
manner. The purpose of digestion is to reduce the amount of organic matter and the number of disease-

causing microorganisms present in the solids. The most common treatment options include anaerobic
digestion, aerobic digestion, and composting. Incineration is also used, albeit to a much lesser degree.
Sludge treatment depends on the amount of solids generated and other site-specific conditions. Composting is
most often applied to small-scale plants with aerobic digestion for mid-sized operations, and anaerobic digestion
for the larger-scale operations.

Treated sewage reuse

With suitable technology, it is possible to reuse sewage effluent for drinking water, although this is usually
only done in places with limited water supplies,