Process Understanding for Effluent Treatment

As per guidelines of Environmental Engineering Science, there has to be a stage wise treatment of any
effluent that needs a treatment. In all ideal circumstances, none of the stage should be avoided so that
required quality of treated effluent can be generated after the treatment.

In Effluent (Sewage) there are Organic pollutants & suspended solids those need to be removed as per the
process design carried out keeping in view following parameters:

 BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) : Concentration in ppm

 COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) : Concentration in ppm
 Suspended Solids : Concentration in ppm
 pH : Unit-less (0 to 14 on scale)

Research and data indicated that in any kind of facility, the concentration of above parameters ranges
between a fixed limit and hence for design purpose, figures on higher side are kept in mind by engineers.
However, since the concentration is quite less in Sewage as an effluent compared to other process waste,
more or less it has no impact either on equipment sizing or on holding tanks.

In order to facilitate the design engineer, world-wide, normally following limits are considered so that
correctly design sewage treatment plant can be developed. This gives excellent treated effluent
characteristics enabling the facility to reclaim the effluent for various applications.

Parameter Waste Water (Treated Water

Sr. No. Characteristics Characteristics)
01 pH 7.5 to 8.5 6.5 to 8
02 B.O.D. (mg / Lit) <350 (mg / Lit) < 10 ppm
03 C.O.D. (mg / Lit) <600 (mg / Lit) < 30 ppm
04 Suspended Solids 150-200 (mg / Lit) < 25 ppm
05 Oil & Grease (mg / Lit) <20 (mg / Lit) < 5 ppm

As explained above, there are few stages of treatment from which the raw effluent has to pass in order to
generate the desired levels of treated effluent quality. In following process description, these stages are
shortly explained. Here it may be noted carefully, that avoiding of any of these stages will not give
satisfactory results and in-turn there will be maintenance & operations related issues with the plant.
Ultimately the plant may fail if necessary steps are not taken to rectify the design defects.

Treatment Processes:

 Preliminary Treatment
 Primary (Pre) Treatment
 Main Treatment (Bioreactor)
 Secondary Treatment (Tube Settler or Secondary Clarifier)
 Tertiary Treatment – 3 Stage Filtration

Preliminary Treatment:

This includes removal of waste water constituents such as rags, sticks, floatables, grit and grease that may
cause maintenance or operational problems with the treatment operations, processes and ancillary systems.
In normal sewage application with less flow, this can become part of screen chamber itself.

Primary Treatment:

This involves removal of a portion of the suspended solids and organic matter from the waste water.

O&G Chamber also is a part of this basket from where the effluent flows in to the Collection & Equalization
Tank below the ground level. Here aeration is provided to avoid septic conditions in the tank and to
homogenize the effluent. Also the aeration helps remove odor from the collection tank.

Understanding STP – Technical Bulletin by FDI

Bio Reactor (Treatment):

There are various methods of treatment available and they are developed with a view to suit the respective
site conditions. Fundamentally, there are following processes adopted for such treatment:

 An-aerobic Digestion
 Aerobic Digestion

An-aerobic reactors are largely used for high COD loads hence this treatment is mainly applicable for
process waste treatment.

Aerobic treatment process is the one that is widely used for sewage treatment and this is divided into
following processes:

 Suspended growth process

o Extended Aeration

 Attached growth process

o SAFF – Submerged Aerobic Fixed Film

o FAB – Fluidized Aerobic Bio Reactor

All the above treatment schemes are based on aeration i.e. oxygen is provided with the help of aeration
mechanism and this oxygen is used for breeding the microorganisms those keep on consuming the organic
matter.

Performance of all systems is same with no difference in outlet parameters. Based on site conditions
respective technology is selected. Here, the advantage of attached growth process is to reduce the quantum
of civil work. This gives leverage not only to save costs on civil work but also reduces the overall footprint of
the plant. In any bio-reactor (Main treatment), adequate quantity for microorganisms grow in presence of
oxygen. Organic pollutants decompose in Bioreactor where Biochemical Decomposition of such organic
matter takes place. Sludge is produced in the process.

Secondary Treatment:

Sludge from effluent water from the Bioreactor is removed in Tube Settler. From TS the treated effluent is
collected in a storage tank with designed HRT and in order to disinfect the same Chlorine dosing is applied.

TS will remove the Sludge from the bottom and will be transferred to the sludge de-watering device.

Tertiary Treatment:

After the effluent is treated it is passed through MGF (Multi Grade Filtration) as well as ACF (Activated
Carbon Filtration). As a part of our research and development, In this module of treatment we have added a
specially made 10-15 Micron Filter as a last stage filtration. This provides final polishing treatment to the
treated effluent giving mileage on trapping suspended solids to a great extent.

Plant Sizing:

In India, per capita water consumption is considered as 150 L/Person / Day. Out of which approximately
90% of effluent comes to STP.

This is a thumb rule and can be applied to size the plant for residential applications. However there are
various figures, benchmarks for various applications those derive the capacity of plant to be established.

Understanding STP – Technical Bulletin by FDI