Stages of primary wastewater treatment
- Screening and pumping. Screening is done by passing the sludge through sieves of different sizes so that only solids...
- Grit removal. Grit removal is removing sand, grit, and other coarse material from water. Grit removal machines...
- Primary settling. This process is typically the third step in an effluent purification...
- Step 1: Screening and Pumping. ...
- Step 2: Grit Removal. ...
- Step 3: Primary Settling. ...
- Step 4: Aeration / Activated Sludge. ...
- Step 5: Secondary Settling. ...
- Step 6: Filtration. ...
- Step 7: Disinfection. ...
- Step 8: Oxygen Uptake.
What are the 3 stages of wastewater treatment?
What are the Three Stages of Wastewater Treatment?
- Aerobic. Aerobic wastewater treatment takes place in the presence of oxygen. ...
- Anaerobic. In the anaerobic process of treating wastewater, microbes act to separate contaminants from it without oxygen.
- Activated Sludge. ...
- Tricking Filter. ...
- Oxidation Pond. ...
- Cleanmaxx – the best secondary wastewater treatment solution. ...
What are the steps in waste water treatment?
- Stage One — Bar Screening.
- Stage Two — Screening.
- Stage Three — Primary Clarifier.
- Stage Four — Aeration.
- Stage Five — Secondary Clarifier.
- Stage Six — Chlorination (Disinfection)
- Stage Seven — Water Analysis & Testing.
- Stage Eight — Effluent Disposal.
What are the main steps in sewage treatment?
What is the first step in sewage treatment?
- Step 1: Screening and Pumping. The incoming wastewater passes through screening equipment where objects such as rags, wood fragments, plastics, and grease are removed.
- Step 2: Grit Removal.
- Step 3: Primary Settling.
- Step 4: Aeration / Activated Sludge.
- Step 5: Secondary Settling.
- Step 8: Oxygen Uptake.
- Sludge Treatment.
What is the best method for wastewater treatment?
What Treatment Processes Are Used?
- Preliminary/Primary. Preliminary treatment normally includes screening the water to remove large objects and debris. ...
- Secondary. This is where your treatment options begin to diverge. ...
- Disinfection. This is sometimes referred to as the tertiary treatment phase. ...
- Sludge Treatment. ...

What are the 5 steps of wastewater treatment?
The Wastewater Treatment ProcessStage One — Bar Screening. ... Stage Two — Screening. ... Stage Three — Primary Clarifier. ... Stage Four — Aeration. ... Stage Five — Secondary Clarifier. ... Stage Six — Chlorination (Disinfection) ... Stage Seven — Water Analysis & Testing. ... Stage Eight — Effluent Disposal.
What are the steps of the wastewater treatment process?
There are three main stages of the wastewater treatment process, aptly known as primary, secondary and tertiary water treatment. In some applications, more advanced treatment is required, known as quaternary water treatment.
What are the first two steps in wastewater treatment?
There are two basic stages in the treat- ment of wastes, primary and secondary, which are outlined here. In the primary stage, solids are allowed to settle and removed from wastewater. The secondary stage uses biological processes to further purify wastewater. Sometimes, these stages are combined into one operation.
What are the 4 stages of wastewater treatment?
Four common ways to treat wastewater include physical water treatment, biological water treatment, chemical treatment, and sludge treatment. Let us learn about these processes in detail.
What are the 3 stages of wastewater treatment PDF?
Wastewater is treated in 3 phases: primary (solid removal), secondary (bacterial decomposition), and tertiary (extra filtration).
What is the first step of treating wastewater at a municipal sewage treatment plant?
What is the first step of treating wastewater at a municipal sewage treatment plant? Pathogens are killed with ultraviolet light or chemicals. Water is removed from sludge. Water undergoes aeration to reduce offensive odors.
What is the 1st step in primary treatment plant?
Wastewater Primary Treatment is the first step in the water treatment process meant for removing suspended solids (TSS), oil and grease, colour, and odour. The key components in this step are screens, grit chamber, flow equalization tank, and clarifier.
What is primary treatment of wastewater?
Primary treatment removes material that will either float or readily settle out by gravity. It includes the physical processes of screening, comminution, grit removal, and sedimentation.
What is the second step in water treatment?
Water Treatment ProcessThe first step is coagulation, which involves adding chemicals to the water. ... The second step is called flocculation, in which larger particles called flocc form after coagulation.Sedimentation occurs next when the heavy flocc settles to the bottom and is cleared away.More items...
What are the four main stages of waste water treatment GCSE?
Sewage TreatmentScreening & Grit Removal. The first stage of treatment removes large materials such as plastic bags and twigs and grit by screening.Sedimentation. Sedimentation comes next which occurs in a settlement tank. ... Aerobic Digestion. ... Anaerobic Digestion.
What is wastewater?
Wastewater is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff and human activities. It is also called sewage. It is typically categorize...
How is wastewater generated?
Domestic wastewater results from water use in residences, businesses, and restaurants.Industrial wastewater comes from discharges by manufacturing...
What are the common pollutants present in wastewater?
Wastewater contains a wide range of contaminants. The quantities and concentrations of these substances depend upon their source. Pollutants are ty...
How is wastewater processed at a sewage treatment facility?
Sewage treatment facilities use physical, chemical, and biological processes for water purification. The processes used in these facilities are als...
Why is wastewater resource recovery important?
Wastewater is a complex blend of metals, nutrients, and specialized chemicals. Recovery of these valuable materials can help to offset a community’...
What happens after a wastewater treatment plant meets all permit specifications?
After meeting all permit specifications, clean water is reintroduced into the environment. Although testing is continuous throughout the wastewater treatment process to ensure optimal water flow, clarification and aeration, final testing is done to make sure the effluent leaving the plant meets permit specifications.
What is the process of removing large items from the influent?
Removal of large items from the influent to prevent damage to the facility’s pumps, valves and other equipment .#N#The process of treating and reclaiming water from wastewater (any water that has been used in homes, such as flushing toilets, washing dishes, or bathing, and some water from industrial use and storm sewers) starts with the expectation that after it is treated it will be clean enough to reenter the environment.#N#The quality of the water is dictated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Clean Water Act, and wastewater facilities operate to specified permits by National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). According to the EPA, The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters. Under the CWA, EPA sets wastewater standards for industry. The EPA has also developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters. EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls discharges.#N#As an example of expected standards, the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) of average wastewater effluent is 200 mg/L and the effluent after treatment is expected to be >30 mg/L. It is crucial a wastewater facility meets these expectations or risk stiff penalty.#N#The physical process of wastewater treatment begins with screening out large items that have found their way into the sewer system, and if not removed, can damage pumps and impede water flow. A bar screen is usually used to remove large items from the influent and ultimately taken to a landfill.
Why is wastewater pumped into a secondary clarifier?
Treated wastewater is pumped into a secondary clarifier to allow any remaining organic sediment to settle out of treated water flow. As the influent exits the aeration process, it flows into a secondary clarifier where, like the primary clarifier, any very small solids (or fines) sink to the bottom of the tank.
What is activated sludge?
These small solids are called activated sludge and consist mostly of active bacteria. Part of this activated sludge is returned to the aeration tank to increase the bacterial concentration, help in propagation, and accelerate the breakdown of organic material. The excess is discarded.
What happens if water flows too slow?
If the water flow is too slow, it impacts the process up stream. The solids that fall to the bottom of the clarifier are know as sludge and pumped out regularly to ensure it doesn’t impact the process of separation. The sludge is then discarded after any water is removed and commonly used as fertilizer.
Why is chlorine added to water?
Chlorine is added to kill any remaining bacteria in the contact chamber. With the enhanced concentration of bacteria as part of the aeration stage, there is a need to test the outgoing effluent for bacteria presence or absence and to disinfect the water.
What is a bar screen in wastewater treatment?
A bar screen is usually used to remove large items from ...
What are the processes used in wastewater treatment?
Sewage treatment facilities use physical, chemical, and biological processes for water purification. The processes used in these facilities are also categorized as preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary. Preliminary and primary stages remove rags and suspended solids. Secondary processes mainly remove suspended and dissolved organics.
What is wastewater treatment?
Wastewater treatment, also called sewage treatment, the removal of impurities from wastewater, or sewage, before it reaches aquifers or natural bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans.
What is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff and human activities?
Wastewater is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff and human activities. It is also called sewage. It is typically categorized by the manner in which it is generated—specifically, as domestic sewage, industrial sewage, or storm sewage (stormwater).
What was the drainage system of ancient Rome?
It included many surface conduits that were connected to a large vaulted channel called the Cloaca Maxima (“Great Sewer”), which carried drainage water to the Tiber River. Built of stone and on a grand scale, the Cloaca Maxima is one of the oldest existing monuments of Roman engineering.
Why is pretreatment important in wastewater treatment?
For example, pretreatment of industrial wastewater, with the aim of preventing toxic chemicals from interfering with the biological processes used at sewage treatment plants, often became a necessity.
Where does industrial wastewater come from?
Industrial wastewater comes from discharges by manufacturing and chemical industries. Rainwater in urban and agricultural areas picks up debris, grit, nutrients, and various chemicals, thus contaminating surface runoff water. Read more below: Sources of water pollution.
When were toilets installed?
Toilets (water closets) were installed in houses in the early 19th century, but they were usually connected to cesspools, not to sewers. In densely populated areas, local conditions soon became intolerable because the cesspools were seldom emptied and frequently overflowed. The threat to public health became apparent.
What is the first task of a wastewater treatment plant?
Odor control of Wastewater. The first task of the treatment plant is to remove as much as foul smelling substances from the waste water and to control the spread of odor in the treatment facility and the corresponding region surrounding the plant.
What is wastewater treatment?
According to Wikipedia, “Wastewater treatment is a process to convert wastewater – which is water no longer needed or suitable for its most recent use – into an effluent that can be either returned to the water cycle with minimal environmental issues or reused.
What is aerobic treatment?
Aerobic treatment is usually done after anaerobic treatment of wastewater and involves the removal of colloidal and dissolved biodegradable organic matter. These are also known as high-rate biological processes because of high concentrations of microorganisms and relatively small reactor volumes.
Why is primary wastewater treatment important?
The goal primary wastewater treatment is to extract organic and inorganic solids through sedimentation and the floating materials (scum) through skimming.
How long does it take for anaerobic digestion to take place?
The organic matter in the sludge is digested by anaerobic and facultative bacteria. Digestion is carried out in 7-14m deep containers in a time span of 10-60 days.
What is the most commonly used physical method for waste water treatment?
The most commonly used physical method for waste water treatment is sedimentation. Sedimentation involves suspending of the heaver contaminates and particles to the bottom of the water and then extracting the pure water from the layers above, thereby reproducing fresh water in the process.
What is the process of disinfecting water?
The process of disinfection requires the use of chemicals such as chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, and other disinfectants.
How much BOD is removed from wastewater?
A well-designed and operated primary plant may remove as much as 35–40% of the BOD and as much as 60–65% of the settleable solids for municipal wastewaters.
What is pretreatment in wastewater?
Pretreatment is employed to render the raw wastewater compatible and/or amenable for subsequent treatment processes. Consideration is given to those constituents that pass through, interfere with, or accumulate in the sludge or are otherwise incompatible with following treatment processes.
What is EAOP in wastewater treatment?
Wastewater treatment processes in recent trends have attained good removal efficiencies but still fail to remove anthropogenic recalcitrant pollutants released by some industries in the wastewater. A new technology of advanced oxidation processes based on electrochemical technology has been introduced and it is called electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs). This method generates oxidizing agents such as the hydroxyl radical (• OH) in the solution, resulting in the destruction of organics up to their mineralization. EAOP uses direct or indirect electrochemical technology like anodic oxidation (AO) and photoelectrocatalysis (PEC) methods (heterogeneous processes) and electro-Fenton (EF), photoelectro-Fenton (PEF), and sonoelectrolysis (SE) (homogeneous processes). This study presents an overview of the oxidation processes of EAOP, its applications, recent trends, and future prospects.
What is wastewater mixed with?
In this process, wastewater is mixed with biomass, which has the form of biological aggregates named flocs. The active biomass assimilates the organic matter, thus reducing the oxygen demand. The process produces an excess growth of biomass, known as waste-activated sludge (WAS) or secondary sludge.
What is the pH of wastewater?
Most wastewater treatment processes operate best in pH ranges between 6.8 and 7.4; indeed, pH > 10 is likely to kill large numbers of bacteria. Suspended solids (SS) is a measure of the total particulate matter content of wastewater. The nature of the SS is likely to vary considerably depending on the nature of the waste.
What is aerobic process?
These biochemical processes are typically aerobic and are the same as previously described as occurring in a river where organics are oxidized to carbon dioxide and water. A well-operated and designed secondary treatment plant can be expected to remove 85–95% of both BOD and suspended solids.
What is membrane distillation?
A novel wastewater-treatment process known as the membrane distillation bioreactor (MDBR) incorporating membrane distillation in an SMBR operated at an elevated temperature was developed and experimentally demonstrated by Phattaranawik et al. (2008, 2009). The ability of membrane distillation (MD) to transfer only volatiles means that very high quality treated water is obtainable, with TOC levels below 1 ppm and negligible quantity of salts. A unique feature is that the MDBR allows for organic retention times to be much greater than the HRT. The TOC in the permeate was consistently lower than 0.7 mg l −1 for all experiments. Stable fluxes in the range 2–5 l m −2 h −1 have been sustained over extended periods. The MDBR was described to have the potential to achieve in a single step, the reclamation obtained by the combined MBR+RO process. It was also suggested that for viable operation, it would be necessary to use low-grade (waste) heat and water cooling.
Stage 1: mechanical water treatment
In the first stage, the still completely untreated wastewater is mechanically treated; this removes about 20 - 30% of the contained solids. To achieve this, the wastewater is guided into a screening plant, where a screen or sieve drum filters out coarse impurities such as leaves, paper or textiles.
Stage 2: biological cleaning
In most wastewater treatment plants, the water pre-purified in the mechanical treatment stage now reaches what are known as aeration tanks, which are often designed as circulation tanks. This is where the biological cleaning takes place.
Stage 3: chemical wastewater treatment
In this stage of wastewater treatment, chemical processes are used for wastewater treatment. To this end, chemical compounds are used to achieve legally prescribed water standard values.
Primary Wastewater Treatment
In the aspect of water resources pollution, primary treatment is a basic necessity for water resource conservation. The concept and function of primary sewage treatment plant (also called POT (Primary Oxygen Treatment)) will be introduced here briefly:
Secondary Wastewater Treatment
The secondary wastewater treatment is a process that separates the organic solids from the wastewater to form effluent, which is treated and safe to release, and solids that can be used as a fertilizer. It is achieved through the following ways:
Tertiary Wastewater Treatment
The tertiary phase includes chemical treatments to stabilize the water for discharge into waterways or reuse within the industry.
Conclusion
It is essential to select the right technology for a particular application based on the characteristics of the wastewater and the desired results.

Stage One — Bar Screening
Stage Two — Screening
- Removal of grit by flowing the influent over/through a grit chamber. Fine grit that finds its way into the influent needs to be removed to prevent the damage of pumps and equipment downstream (or impact water flow). Too small to be screened out, this grit needs to be removed from the grit chamber. There are several types of grit chambers (horizontal, aerated or vortex) which control t…
Stage Three — Primary Clarifier
- Initial separation of solid organic matter from wastewater. Solids known as organics/sludge sink to the bottom of the tank and are pumped to a sludge digestor or sludge processing area, dried and hauled away. Proper settling rates are a key indicator for how well the clarifier is operating. Adjusting flow rate into the clarifier can help the operator adjust the settling rates and efficiency…
Stage Four — Aeration
- Air is pumped into the aeration tank/basin to encourage conversion of NH3 to NO3 and provide oxygen for bacteria to continue to propagate and grow. Once converted to NO3, the bacteria remove/strip oxygen molecules from the nitrate molecules and the nitrogen (N) is given off as N2↑ (nitrogen gas). At the heart of the wastewater treatment process is the encouragement and …
Stage Five — Secondary Clarifier
- Treated wastewater is pumped into a secondary clarifier to allow any remaining organic sediment to settle out of treated water flow. As the influent exits the aeration process, it flows into a secondary clarifier where, like the primary clarifier, any very small solids (or fines) sink to the bottom of the tank. These small solids are called activated sludge and consist mostly of active …
Stage Six — Chlorination
- Chlorine is added to kill any remaining bacteria in the contact chamber. With the enhanced concentration of bacteria as part of the aeration stage, there is a need to test the outgoing effluent for bacteria presence or absence and to disinfect the water. This ensures that higher than specified concentrations of bacteria are not released into the environment. Chlorinationis the m…
Stage Seven — Water Analysis & Testing
- Testing for proper pH level, ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, and residual chlorine levels to conform to the plant’s NPDES permit are critical to the plant’s performance. Although testingis continuous throughout the wastewater treatment process to ensure optimal water flow, clarification and aeration, final testing is done to make sure the effluent leaving the p…
Stage Eight — Effluent Disposal
- After meeting all permit specifications, clean water is reintroduced into the environment. Although testingis continuous throughout the wastewater treatment process to ensure optimal water flow, clarification and aeration, final testing is done to make sure the effluent leaving the plant meets permit specifications. Plants that don`t meet permit discharge levels are subject to fines and po…
Collection of Wastewater from The Community
Odor Control of Wastewater
- The first task of the treatment plant is to remove as much as foul smelling substances from the waste water and to control the spread of odorin the treatment facility and the corresponding region surrounding the plant. This is so that the area around the treatment facility along with the treatment facility and the personnel working in the facility can be free of the bad odor. The contr…
Screening of Wastewater
- Large solid materials which are usually disposed by the masses into the waste water can block equipment and machines which are to treat the water. Hence, they are removed by machines and sorted out separately (A large sieve could be an alternative to this). These solid waste materials are then sent to be stored in landfills. However, if they are made of recycled products, only then …
Treatment Processes of Wastewater
- The water is now ready for treatment. Treatment is usuallycarried out in multiple stages like Primary, Secondary and Tertiary stages ofwastewater treatment.
Treatment of Solids
- The solids which were extracted during the treatment of the water are then directed to digesters. The purpose of the digesters is to heat the solids in an anaerobic environment, this leads to the production of methane gas. Other important nutrient rich bio-solids are also produced which can be recycled and used. Methane gas produce can be used to run the digesters or it can be used f…
Final Treatment
- The final treatment requires the use of highly skilled labor which can run and handle equipment and chemicals necessary for this step. The final wastewater treatment removes more than 99 percent impuritiesmaking the water as close as possible to regular drinking water. However, this process is highly expensive and not all treatment facilities are able to carry out this process. Thi…
Disinfection
- After treatment is concluded, there might still be some disease causing microorganism present in the water thus making it necessary to remove them by disinfecting the water. The process of disinfection requires the use of chemicals such as chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, and other disinfectants. The most common agent used in disinfection is chlorine which has been explaine…