Introduction to Wastewater Treatment Plant Technology

It is important that wastewater must be properly treated before release to the environment. Pollution caused by untreated water can have a damaging ecological impact that can harm native fish and aquatic plants. In extreme cases especially release of pollutant at catchment areas whereby supply of water is collected for human and household consumption, this could cause toxic accumulation and health impact in the long run. Thus, it is imperative that every industrial sectors and major cities have proper wastewater treatment plant to reduce the COD and BOD level, remove organic matter and toxic compounds before releasing the water to general drainage.

Design and construction of wastewater treatment plant basically has two stage of separation whereby the initial stage is mainly to focus on removing solid waste particles by means of mechanical separation. Usually it has an equalization tank whereby all the wastewater is first diverted here in order to separate out mainly oil and grease which does not mix with water. The principle behind this separation technique is based on chemical properties whereby both oil and water does not mix and both have different density whereby oil is lighter and floats to the top and thus can be skimmed out by mechanical separator. This step on removing oil and grease is very important because if this were not properly carried out, the next step on chemical treatment would not work.

Secondary treatment usually involves use of microorganisms to further breakdown the organic matter to smaller non-toxic compounds. All this takes place in an aeration tank whereby oxygen is introduced vigorously into the water and at the same time providing nutrient such as urea and phosphate to supplement growth of the bacteria. During this stage, there is a significant reduction in the COD level, and a well maintained plant could actually achieve the COD for the final treated water well below the 50ppm level. The byproduct generated from this stage which are sludge are then diverted to a drying bed or by other means of further draining out the water such as the use of filter press.

Despite the progress and advancement in current wastewater treatment plant technology, there are still so many ways we can explore to further improve the process and making the treatment more cost effective and efficient. In fact the main reason why treatment has always been relegated as secondary matter has always been focused on the cost factor issue and as such, with the reduction of cost, this will encourage a more economical and systematic approach toward treating the water. All these efforts will definitely help to make a lot of difference towards helping Mother Nature to sustain life and to us, overall having better living environment.

WasteWater System
It is a knowledge database website that contains all the information about wastewater treatment system and process. It also covers on some basic plant design and also troubleshooting approach in order to help engineers deal with managing the whole operation.