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Physical, chemical, and biological methods are used to remove contaminants from
wastewater. In order to achieve different levels of contaminant removal, individual waste water
treatment procedures are combined with variety of systems. More rigorous treatment of waste-
water includes the removal of specific contaminants as well as the removal and control of nutrients.
infiltration, and rapid infiltration methods. In addition to wastewater treatment and low
maintenance costs, these systems may yield additional benefits by providing water for
upon physical, chemical, and biological reactions on and within the soil. Slow-rate
overland flow systems require vegetation, both to take up nutrients and other contaminants
and to slow the passage of the effluent across the land surface to ensure maximum contact
times between the effluents and the plants/soils. Slow-rate subsurface infiltration systems
and rapid infiltration systems are "zero discharge" systems that rarely discharge effluents
directly to streams or other surface waters. Each system has different constraints regarding
soil permeability. Although slow-rate overland flow systems are the costliest of the natural
practices. In addition to treating wastewater, they provide an economic return from the
reuse of water and nutrients to produce marketable crops or other agriculture products
and/or water and fodder for livestock. The water may also be used to support reforestation
the soil by filtration, adsorption, ion exchange, precipitation, microbial action, and plant
uptake. Vegetation is a critical component of the process and serves to extract nutrients,
Overland flow systems are a land application treatment method in which treated
effluents are eventually discharged to surface water. The main benefits of these systems
are their low maintenance and low technical manpower requirements. Wastewater is
applied intermittently across the tops of terraces constructed on soils of very low
permeability and allowed to sheet-flow across the vegetated surface to the runoff collection
sedimentation, filtration, and biochemical activity as the wastewater flows across the
vegetated surface of the terraced slope. Loading rates and application cycles are designed
to maintain active microorganism growth in the soil. The rate and length of application are
controlled to minimize the occurrence of severe anaerobic conditions, and a rest period
Sequencing Batch Reactors (SBR) are special forms of activated sludge treatment
in which all of the treatment process takes place in the reactor tank and clarifiers are not
required. This process treats the waste water in batch mode and each batch is sequenced
stage
(http://www.mae.gov.nl.ca/waterres/training/aww/08_susheel_sequencing_batch_
reactors_in_wastewater_treatment.pdf)
SBR reactors treat waste water such as sewage or output from anaerobic digesters
waste water to reduce biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand
(COD) to make suitable for discharge into sewers or for use on land. While there are several
configurations of SBRs the basic process is similar. The installation consists of at least two
identically equipped tanks with a common inlet, which can be switched between them. The
tanks have a “flow through” system, with raw wastewater (influent) coming in at one end
and treated water (effluent) flowing out the other. While one tank is in settle/decant mode
the other is aerating and filling. At the inlet is a section of the tank known as the bio-
selector. This consists of a series of walls or baffles which direct the flow either from side
to side of the tank or under and over consecutive baffles. This helps to mix the incoming
influent and the returned activated sludge, beginning the biological digestion process
The adsorption process uses forces of molecular attraction to bind soluble and
gaseous chemicals to a surface. The process retains and accumulates toxic chemicals
present in wastes, yet does not chemically alter them. Carbon used for adsorption is usually
treated (activated) to make it very porous. Activated carbon has a large surface area that
can adsorb relatively large quantities of material per unit weight of carbon. It is “spent”
when it has adsorbed so much contaminant that its adsorptive capacity is severely depleted.
Activated carbon filters are widely used to produce drinking water at household
and community level (to remove certain organics, chlorine or radon from drinking water)
and to treat industrial or municipal wastewaters. It is not efficient for disinfection and
biological degradation of waste products with membrane filtration. They have proven quite
from wastewater. Advantages of the MBR include good control of biological activity, high
quality effluent free of bacteria and pathogens, smaller plant size, and higher organic
loading rates. MBRs also can be achieve effective removal of nitrate, herbicides, pesticides,
The principle of this process is that instead of separation, the sludge and water
settles. The MBR method uses the membrane which is more efficient and less dependent
associated with settling, which is usually the most troublesome part of wastewater
treatment. The potential for operating the MBR at very high sludge ages without having
Consequently, higher strength wastewater can be treated and lower biomass yields are
5. Electrolysis
complex process involving many chemical and physical phenomenon that use consumable
electrodes to supply ions into the wastewater. In the process, the coagulant is generated in
ions continuously in the system. The released ions neutralize the charges of the particles
and thereby initiate coagulation. These ions may remove the undesirable contaminants
(metal hydroxide and metal phosphate flocs generated within the effluent) either by
chemical reaction and precipitation or by causing the colloidal materials to coalesce and
The main processes occurring during electrolysis are electrolytic reactions at the
colloidal pollutants on coagulants, and removal by sedimentation and floatation. The main
Al Al 3 3e (at anode)
3H 2 O 3e 3
2 H 2 3OH (at cathode)
The destabilized particles then aggregate to form flocs. In the meantime, tiny
hydrogen bubbles produced at the cathode induce the floatation of most flocs, helping to
effectively separate particles from wastewater. In addition, the cathode may be chemically
Constructed wetlands (CWs) are engineered systems that have been designed and
constructed to utilize the natural processes involving wetland vegetation, soils, and the
treatment technology which can be applied to all types of wastewater including sewage,
industrial and agricultural wastewaters, landfill leachate and stormwater runoff. All types
of constructed wetlands are very effective in removing organics and suspended solids,
various types of CWs. Removal of phosphorus is usually low unless special media with
high sorption capacity are used. Constructed wetlands require very low or zero energy input
and, therefore, the operation and maintenance costs are much lower compared to