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The Processes Used in Modern Sewage Treatment Plants

Sewage treatment plants use various processes to remove and treat solids from sewage before returning the water to the environment. These processes typically include primary and secondary screening to remove large debris, sedimentation to remove suspended particles by settling, flotation to remove fine particles, and aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment where bacteria break down organic compounds. Additional polishing techniques may also be used, and the resulting solid waste or biosolids require proper disposal, such as land application or combustion.

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89 views2 pages

The Processes Used in Modern Sewage Treatment Plants

Sewage treatment plants use various processes to remove and treat solids from sewage before returning the water to the environment. These processes typically include primary and secondary screening to remove large debris, sedimentation to remove suspended particles by settling, flotation to remove fine particles, and aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment where bacteria break down organic compounds. Additional polishing techniques may also be used, and the resulting solid waste or biosolids require proper disposal, such as land application or combustion.

Uploaded by

Pravat Satpathy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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sewage treatment plants

The processes used in modern sewage treatment plants

The processes used for treating sewage vary, but typically involve various stages to
remove and treat as many solids as possible before returning the water to the
environment. Here are the most common techniques:

Primary Screening. Screens remove the largest items in sewage. They generally
consist of large bars situated at 1 to 6 inches apart to catch such items as boards,
rags, large plastic items etc. The screens are regularly cleaned and the collected
trash is sent to a landfill.

Secondary Screening. Optionally used, these screens are often fine meshes or
moving mesh belts with a much tighter spacing than the primary screens. The finer
material they gather is also generally sent to a landfill.

Sedimentation. Sedimentation is the removal of suspended particles by allowing


the water to either flow slowly through a large tank or rest for a time in settling
basins or ponds. Sometimes a chemical such as alum is added to the water to
improve the efficiency of the settling process.

Flotation. Flotation involves injecting air into the water in the form of tiny
bubbles. Suspended particles that are too fine to settle will attach to the bubbles
and rise to the surface of the water, where they can be skimmed off.

Aerobic Biological Treatment. This process uses bacteria that, in oxygen-


containing air, break down some of the biological compounds in sewage,
producing carbon dioxide and water. Sometimes the waste is aerated (has air
injected into it) to assist in this process.

Anaerobic Biological Treatment. Sometimes used instead of or in conjunction with


aerobic biological treatment, this process uses bacteria that, in the absence of
oxygen, break down the biological compounds in sewage. The results of this
process are methane, carbon dioxide, and other simple organic compounds.
Anaerobic treatment is sometimes used when you want methane, e.g., for use as
fuel, but generally the methane must be collected even if there isn't an end use for
it.

After these common treatments, additional filtering, chemical, and biological


techniques can be used to give a final "polishing" to the water before it is
discharged to the environment. In some cases, activated carbon or charcoal is used.
Most of the solid waste is collected as sludge during processing, and this sludge
must be disposed of. "Biosolids," as they are called, were once routinely landfilled
or even dumped into the ocean. When modern environmental regulation are
applied, this is no longer an option, so other methods of disposal have been
developed. For example, biosolids can be used for fertilizer and soil reclamation,
and may even be dried out and burned as a solid fuel (typically along with some
other higher-energy solid fuel, such as coal).

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