TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

1338 ARLEGUI ST., QUAIPO, MANILA

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CE413 BUILDING DESIGN 2

CE42FA2

RESEARCH NO. 2
SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT

SUBMITTED BY:
AQUINO, HARVEY IAN P.
CLASS NO. 4
SUBMITTED TO:
ENGR. BIGUERRAS

DATE SUBMITTED:
NOVEMBER 22, 2016

METHODS OF MAINTENANCE OF SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT

Benefits of a well-run STP
The primary benefits of a well-run STP are

Assured availability of water for various secondary uses

Enormous savings in fresh water costs

Lesser Environmental Degradation Improved public Health

Inspection visit procedures

The property owner carries out general inspection:
Inspecting the appearance and odour of water in the treatment plant basins.
Inspecting the effluent monitoring container sample
Checking the amount of chemical
Adding the following information to the log: number of loads treated, problem situations,
procedures carried out and other observations.
Excess sludge is removed, chemical added, and the precipitation tank emptied as needed.
The time needed for the inspection is 530 minutes.
Effluent monitoring container
The treatment plant is equipped with an effluent monitoring container, which retains a
monitoring sample from each treated load. Treated water is pumped out of the treatment
plant at the end of the clarification period through a pipe that has a valve. Treated water is
collected from this pipe into the monitoring container.It is recommended that the sample in
the container be inspected once a week (at least once a month).
The sample in the monitoring container should be clear (chemicals may change the colour to a light
gray), transparent, and should not contain any solids or visible particles.Look at the sample against the light.
CLOUDINESS of the monitoring container sample is usually a result of:
non-activation of the treatment process
running out of chemical
faulty dosage pump
poisoning
SLUDGE PARTICLES in the monitoring container sample are usually a result of:
reaching of sludge capacity
low alkalinity of water (surface sludge), add approximately 0.5 dl
lime to process tank exceeding of load capacity (water quantity)

Cleaning
The devices are to be cleaned as needed. A layer of sludge may form in the pipes over the years,
impeding flow. Sludge is emptied in connection with the annual service.
Sludge settlement test
Sludge settlement testing is carried out as needed (in connection with activation, problem
situations). The treatment plant has a minimum sludge capacity of 40 % of the third chamber
volume. The sludge settlement test is used to measure the amount of sludge and inspect the sludge
settlement properties. A sample of 1 l is taken from the third chamber during the aeration period.
The sample is allowed to settle in the sample container for half an hour. Settlement is monitored
and the settlement of sludge after 30 minutes is recorded (if needed, after 1 hour, 2 hours; the
process settlement time is 2 hours).
Sludge removal
If a sludge treatment unit is used, the amount of excess sludge created by the biological process is
very small due to extended aeration, internal sludge collection and circulation. Sludge accumulates in
the process tank (excess sludge from the biological process) and in the precipitation tank (preprecipitation
Managing the Microbes
The desired median age of microbes to be maintained in the system is 25-30 days, because
they can digest the sewage at the maximum rate at the age of 25-30 days, as shown below.

However, the sewage remains for less than 20 hours in aeration tank and settling tank.
Microbes are much like humans in their metabolic activities, although they are life forms that
are orders of magnitude lower than an average human being. They feed on the pollutants (=
food) present in the wastewater: They require Oxygen (from the air pumped into the aeration
tank) for their respiration. They need vitamins and minerals in the form of nutrients such as
Nitrogen and Phosphorus (already present in abundance in domestic sewage), and a whole
lot of other elements at nano levels for their health and well being, to grow and to multiply.

Any imbalance in even one of the above ingredients in the recipe (Population density, Food,
Oxygen, or Nutrients) will render the process extremely vulnerable to failure. Indeed,
Microbes are much more sensitive to the slightest of environmental disturbances than
humans.
The basic biochemical reaction occurring in an Aeration tank may be summarized by the
following simplistic equation:
Microbes + Pollutants (food) + O2 More microbes + CO2 + H2O + energy release +
byproducts
A typical growth reaction with a number of other products, the most important of which is
Carbon Dioxide:

Accumulated Carbon Dioxide gets converted to Carbonic acid and corrodes metallic
parts in the STP.

The carbonic acid also depresses the pH of the wastewater, thus affecting treatment
performance

CONDUCT WASTEWATER STP EFFLUENT TEST-PARAMETER

Why Manage and Monitor Effluent Treatment Plants?

By law factories must monitor the quality of their wastewater and stay within national limits for
pollution. The Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 provide national standards for the
quality of industrial wastewater being discharged into certain places including open water
bodies, public sewers and irrigated land. They also provide specific discharge quality
standards for key parameters from certain industries, including the textile dyeing industry
(Table 1).

* BOD limit of 150 mg/l implies only with physico chemical processing

Although the effluent discharged from textile dyeing units varies, it generally shows pollution
indicators of far higher values than the desired level. Pollution indicator data collected from
two industries in Bangladesh demonstrates this (Table 2).

These values can vary with different processes as well as types and conditions of equipment
used in the textile industries, but almost always show greater values than the standards set
by the Department of Environment (DoE).

4
* No specific standard exists for COD for textile industries but the general standard for discharge to
inland surface water is 200 mg/l.** There is no standard for sulphate but the standard for sulphide is 1
mg/l.

To reduce the pollution intensity a proper ETP should be installed on the premises of the
industry to treat the effluent before it is discharged. The parameters set by the Bangladesh
Government must be monitored in the effluent from the factory to ensure that the factory is
complying with national standards.
It is also necessary and useful to monitor these parameters in the wastewater entering the
ETP and at several stages in the ETP process. This enables the ETP manager to optimize
the ETP process by adjusting chemical inputs, retention time and other factors. This can
reduce costs by preventing excess chemicals from being used and will result in a more
efficient plant that produces effluent that complies with national standards. Good ETP
management therefore requires a certain level of understanding of the overall function of the
ETP, how individual units work, how to monitor their functioning, and how to diagnose and
address problems

METHOD OF SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT TESTING

Biological Water Treatment
When the water is used for drinking or cleaning, it should be cleaned so that there are no
contaminants in it which can affect the human health. For this purpose, biological water
treatment is used in which microorganisms especially bacteria play an important role. They
decompose the wastewater biochemically or they break down the organic material and
improve the quality of water so that it can be used domestically. Biological water treatment is
divided into three categories that are aerobic, anaerobic and composting.
Aerobic process:
In this process, bacteria degrade or eat the organic matter and convert it into carbon dioxide
which can be used by plants for their growth. Oxygen is used during aerobic process.
Anaerobic Process
In this process, fermentation process is used to ferment the sludge or waste at a
specific temperature. Oxygen is not used in this process.
Composting
It is the type of aerobic process in which in the presence of oxygen, sludge is mixed
with sawdust or other carbon sources. In this way, wastewater is treated.
Physical Water Treatment
In this method physical methods are used in cleaning the wastewater and making its
quality better. In this method, no chemicals are biological processes are involved. There is a
prominent method for physical water treatment called sedimentation. Sedimentation is a
process of suspending out the insoluble heavy particles from the wastewater. This method is
best for purifying the water. When the insoluble materials settle down at the bottom of the
water, pure water is removed.
Another method which can be used for physical water treatment is called as aeration.
In this process air is circulated through the water to provide oxygen to it. It is also an effective
method of cleaning the wastewater. Another method filtration is used to filter out the
contaminants. Special kinds of filters are used to pass sewage or wastewater due to which
the insoluble particles or contaminants are separated. The most commonly used filter is the
sand filter. Some wastewaters contain grease or oil on their surface; they can also be
removed from the surface easily.
Chemical Water Treatment
As the name shows, to clean the water or sewage, chemicals are used. Most commonly
used chemical is chlorine and the method in which chlorine is used called as chlorination.

Chlorine is the oxidizing chemical used to kill the bacteria which decomposes water by
adding contaminants to it. Another oxidizing disinfectant called as ozone is used to purify the
wastewater. These chemicals are very useful as they disallow the bacteria to reproduce in
the water thus making the water pure. When the treatment of industrial wastewater is
concerned then a special method is used called neutralization. A base or acid is added to
the water to level its pH. Lime is the base which is most commonly used in the acidic
wastewaters.