
Primary Treatment As sewage enters a plant for treatment, it flows through a screen, which removes large floating objects such as rags and sticks that might clog pipes or damage equipment. After sewage has been screened, it passes into a grit chamber, where cinders, sand, and small stones settle to the bottom.
What are the primary stages of sewage treatment?
There are four major processes under the tertiary treatment:
- Solids removal
- Biological nitrogen removal
- Biological phosphorus removal
- Disinfection.
What does a primary sewage treatment involve?
Primary treatment in sewage treatment involves physical removal of particles (large and small) from the sewage through filtration and sedimentation. Initially floating debris is removed by sequential filtration. Then the grit (soil and small pebbles) are removed by sedimentation.
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 removed during primary wastewater treatment?
The initial and primary water treatment process removes large matter from wastewater while the secondary treatment will remove smaller particles already dissolved or suspended. Sedimentation and filtration are the processes involved in the primary treatment method while biological breakdown occurs through aerobic or anaerobic units in secondary processes.

What does primary treatment remove?
The purpose of primary treatment is to settle material by gravity, removing floatable objects,and reducing the pollution to ease secondary treatment. Primary Treatment aims to reduce the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) in the wastewater.
What does secondary sewage treatment remove?
Secondary treatment removes the soluble organic matter that escapes primary treatment. It also removes more of the suspended solids. Removal is usually accomplished by biological processes in which microbes consume the organic impurities as food, converting them into carbon dioxide, water, and energy…
What is not removed by primary treatment?
Primary treatment removes about 60 percent of total suspended solids and about 35 percent of BOD; dissolved impurities are not removed. It is usually used as a first step before secondary treatment.
What is the main goal of primary wastewater treatment?
The objective of primary treatment is the removal of settleable organic and inorganic solids by sedimentation, and the removal of materials that will float (scum) by skimming.
What is primary and secondary treatment?
The main difference is the way each respective treatment is processed. Primary treatment works on sedimentation, where solids separate from the water through several different tanks. In contrast, secondary treatment uses aeration, biofiltration and the interaction of waste throughout its process.
What is the difference between primary and secondary sewage treatment?
Primary sewage treatment is a physical process that removes large impurities while secondary sewage treatment is a biological process that removes organic matter of sewage through the action of microbes.
What materials Cannot be removed from wastewater?
When wastewater arrives at the treatment plant, it contains many solids that cannot be removed by the wastewater treatment process. This can include rags, paper, wood, food particles, egg shells, plastic, and even toys and money.
What does primary treatment mean?
Listen to pronunciation. (PRY-mayr-ee TREET-ment) The first treatment given for a disease. It is often part of a standard set of treatments, such as surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation.
Which treatment removes suspended solids?
Explanation: Suspended particles can be removed by sequential filtration, which is included in the primary treatment.
What types of materials are generally removed by primary wastewater treatment?
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. Screens are made of long, closely spaced, narrow metal bars.
Which of the following impurities are removed by primary sedimentation tank?
(i) In Primary treatment First, floating debris of waste is removed by sequence filters. (ii) The Soil and small pebbles are removed by sedimentation in settling tanks. (iii)The sediment is called primary sludge and supernatant is effluent.
What is the purpose of secondary treatment of wastewater?
Secondary wastewater treatment processes use microorganisms to biologically remove contaminants from wastewater. Secondary biological processes can be aerobic or anaerobic, each process utilizing a different type of bacterial community.
What does secondary treatment target?
Secondary treatment is a step in wastewater treatment that involves the use of biological processes in order to capture all the dissolved organic materials that were not caught during the initial treatment. Microbes take these organic substances as food, transforming them to water, energy and carbon dioxide.
How does secondary treatment of sewage reduce BOD?
During secondary treatment of primary effluents, vigorous growth of useful aerobic microbes into flocs occur when it is agitated mechanically and air is pumped into it in a large aeration tank. These microbes while growing consume major part of the organic matter in the effluent. This significantly reduces BOD.
What happens in secondary treatment plant?
In secondary treatment, biological treatment is done on the wastewater to remove the organic matter present. This treatment is performed by indigenous and aquatic micro-organisms like bacteria and protozoa which consume biodegradable soluble contaminants like sugar, fat, detergent, and food waste.
Screening – Primary treatment for waste water
The first process in Primary Treatment for Wastewater is screening. I will show you the screening process and different types of screens used in primary wastewater treatment.
Flow Equalisation – Primary treatment for waste water
Under uniform flow rates, clarifiers and mechanised secondary treatment are more efficient.
Sedimentation – Primary treatment for wastewater
The wastewater, then moves to sedimentation ponds, settling tanks, or clarifiers after the removal of settled grit. The sedimentation process removes the settleable solids by gravitational settling under quiescent conditions.
Flocculation
Flocculation is a water treatment process to remove small suspended solids which don’t settle in the sedimentation tank. In this process solids form larger clusters, or flocs on the addition of a flocculent like aluminium sulphate.
Scum Removal
Lighter materials rise to the surface as sludge settles to the bottom of the sedimentation tanks. The constituents of ‘scum’ are grease, oils, plastics, and soap. Scum is skimmed off the surface of the wastewater by slow-moving rakes. Scum is thickened before being poured into the digesters with the sludge.
Primary Treatment of Wastewater Definition
Primary wastewater treatment is a process to remove settleable and floating solids before the wastewater is discharged to surface water. The immediate treatment removes about 30 to 50 percent of the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and 30 to 60 percent of suspended solids.
Objectives of Primary Treatment
In a sequence of operations, wastewater is treated primarily through physical, chemical, and biological processes. These are applied to domestic sewage to reduce its pollution hazards as much as practicable, and all this is done before discharging it into receiving waters.
What is a Primary Sedimentation Tank?
A primary sedimentation tank is a holding tank for contaminated water to settle the solids before entering the secondary treatment stage. It is the first stage of the three-stage process for controlling pollution.
Primary Sedimentation Tank Design Specification
Sedimentation tanks are large, circular vessels. Here sludge is allowed to settle out of wastewater under the influence of gravity.
Types of Primary Sedimentation Tank
There are several types of primary sedimentation tanks. Here we are going to discuss only three types.
Steps in Primary Wastewater Treatment
There are several methods and steps included in Primary wastewater treatment. Primary wastewater is treated through multiple phases to safely return water to the natural environment.
Conclusion
As you know by now that wastewater management is very crucial, we hope you enjoyed our article about the primary treatment of wastewater. We are excited to provide this information on our blog so that you can learn more about water treatment systems.
What is primary treatment of wastewater?
Primary treatment of wastewater involves sedimentation of solid waste within the water. This is done after filtering out larger contaminants within the water. Wastewater is passed through several tanks and filters that separate water from contaminants.
What is the most effective method of secondary treatment of wastewater?
This method of secondary treatment of wastewater employs sand filters, contact filters, or trickling filters to ensure that additional sediment is removed from wastewater. Of the three filters, trickling filters are typically the most effective for small-batch wastewater treatment.
What is the third step in wastewater management?
This third and last step in the basic wastewater management system is mostly comprised of removing phosphates and nitrates from the water supply. Substances like activates carbon and sand are among the most commonly used materials that assist in this process.
How long does it take for a wastewater solution to be aerated?
The resulting mixture is then aerated for up to 30 hours at a time to ensure results.
What is the primary treatment process of sewage?
Primary Treatment Process of Sewage. In the primary treatment process, various suspended; floating and oily substances are removed from the sewage. The units of primary treatment are:
What is the purpose of a detritus tank?
The function of detritus tank is to remove finer particles than those removed by a grit chamber.
What is the angle of a sewage screen?
Screens are usually placed in an inclined position with an angle 30° to 60° with the direction of flow. Comminutors: Comminutors is the patented devices which break the larger sewage solids into small solids particles when the sewage is screened through them.
What is a primary clarifier?
It is also known as a primary clarifier or primary setting tank. The purpose of this unit is to remove the settleable solids present in the sewage. It is a rectangular tank constructed with brick masonry.

Screening – Primary Treatment For Waste Water
Flow Equalisation – Primary Treatment For Waste Water
- Under uniform flow rates, clarifiers and mechanised secondary treatment are more efficient.
- Equalization basins store diurnal or wet-weather flow peaks temporarily and make the water flow rate uniform.
- Basins serve as a temporary holding area for the incoming wastewater during temporary plant shut down and maintenance.
- Under uniform flow rates, clarifiers and mechanised secondary treatment are more efficient.
- Equalization basins store diurnal or wet-weather flow peaks temporarily and make the water flow rate uniform.
- Basins serve as a temporary holding area for the incoming wastewater during temporary plant shut down and maintenance.
- It acts as a means of diluting and distributing hazardous or high-strength waste into batches.
Sedimentation – Primary Treatment For Wastewater
- The wastewater, then moves to sedimentation ponds, settling tanks, or clarifiers after the removal of settled grit. The sedimentation process removes the settleable solids by gravitational settling under quiescent conditions. On proper adjustment of water flow in the sedimentation tank, the suspended particles begin to fall to the bottom and form a...
Flocculation
- Flocculation is a water treatment process to remove small suspended solids which don’t settle in the sedimentation tank. In this process solids form larger clusters, or flocs on the addition of a flocculent like aluminium sulphate. The coagulant molecules have a positive charge. Hence, they can neutralize the negatively charged solid particles that are suspended in the water. Neutralizat…
Scum Removal
- Lighter materials rise to the surface as sludge settles to the bottom of the sedimentation tanks. The constituents of ‘scum’ are grease, oils, plastics, and soap. Scum is skimmed off the surface of the wastewater by slow-moving rakes. Scum is thickened before being poured into the digesters with the sludge. Primary treatment removes about 60% of the total suspended solids and nearly …