Wastewater Treatment Alexander Adams, Luke Bosse, Elizabeth Kissner, Stephanie Linares, William Major, Gabriel Rivera, Rachel Voss

Introduction First treatment focused on removal and collection Privies and cesspools Followed by “dry sewage system” Pails During industrial revolution sewer pipes were built privately Many abandoned halfway and dumped into nearby water sources Medical advances proved polluted water caused diseases Cholera outbreak

Introduction Beginning of 20th century plants made with filters, settling tanks, and/or chlorination 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act Provide federal funding for treatment plants 1972 the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments Provide standards on quality of effluent water Modern trends Energy efficiency and reusability

Objective Create an efficient way to treat municipal wastewater that incorporates traditional methods of treatment with new methods that includes algae. Cultivate algae and bacteria in order to treat municipal water. Harvest biomass. Take treated water and process it through a tertiary treatment to achieve potable water.

Flowchart This is the overall Flowchart. Each individual part will show their components of the flow chart zoomed in

Raw Materials Municipal wastewater is a collection of water from households, businesses and small industries by means of a sewer system Water Supply Considerations Water Demand Useful Life vs. Design Life Census Data often used Water Source Evaluation Water Quality Physical, Chemical and Microbiological, and Radiological Plant sizing and layout

Inflow/Headworks Inflow vs. Infiltration Variability of Flow Rates Unit operations placed at the upstream end of the plant Pumping Station (Lift Station) Flow Measurement Devices Preliminary Treatment

Pretreatment Removes large insolubles Required because large insolubles can clog later filtration

Bar Screens Very cheap and easy to manage Requires regular cleaning of the screens by belts or manual labor Source: http://www.infobarscreens.commanual-bar-screen.htm

Comminutors Grinds up large insolubles Later filtered out in primary treatment Insolubles can recoagulate and clog system later More expensive but requires less maintenance Source: http://www.franklinmiller.com/comminutors-article.html

Primary Treatment Equalizing Basins Settling Tanks Sludge Treatment In-Line Off-Line Settling Tanks Sludge Treatment Clarifier in wastewater treatment plant. Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/plumbing/sewer3.htm

What is Microalgae? Microscopic, single-cell organisms that exist in fresh water and marine environment Thousands of species Are able to create large amounts of biofuel Use Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus and expel Oxygen sunchlorella

Algal-Bacterial Cultures Synergistic Cooperation Benefits: Reducing need for aeration Alleviating the release of green house gasses Forming flocs that increase settleability

Isolation, Selection and Inoculum Ratios Specific to the environment Studies 5:1 and 1:1 algae to sludge ratios are most efficient

Algal and bacterial inoculum OMEGA Biomass 𝐶𝑂 2 𝑂 2 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 Harvest Algal and bacterial inoculum

OMEGA Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae Proposed by NASA Large, flexible, plastic tubes (PBRs) Remove BOD, Pathogens, Phosphorus, and Nitrogen Lundquist

Photobioreactor TED talks

TED talks

OMEGA Pros Cons Extremely sustainable Cost efficient, can compete with fossil fuels Cons Biomass will rarely settle well, thus possible interference with disinfection Hasn’t been tried on a large scale Collection of water

TED talks

NASA Ames Forward Osmosis: Like reverse osmosis, uses a semi-permeable membrane to separate water from dissolved solutes. The driving force is an osmotic pressure gradient. High “draw” solution(sea water) has a higher concentration than the feed solution (wastewater), thus separating feed water from solutes.

Low Rate Facultative Ponds Secondary Treatment Low Rate Facultative Ponds Image from (Ali)

Secondary Treatment Cont. High Rate Algal Ponds Image from (Park, 633-939)

Tertiary Treatment Determined to be expensive Highly increased product purity Processes can vary in extensiveness

Simple vs. Extensive Injector Pressure Regulating Valve Image source: http://water.me.vccs.edu/courses/env110/clipart/chlorinator3.gif Injector http://water.me.vccs.edu/courses/env110/clipart/chlorinator3.gif

Conclusion Process development from allocation to re-use Insoluble/Non-treatable removal (Preliminary) Isolate and Purify Product (Primary and Secondary) Polishing of Product (Tertiary) Product pumped out to reservoir/storage/wetlands

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