As we all know, the amount of waste water available to the biological life is increasing and growing every single day. Scientists and Engineers have come up with different ways that would get rid of waste water. How does this have to do with Engineering? It is in fact the Engineers that actually design and develop the plants used to treat waste water and put it online to make it usable. While the operators are the individuals who operate/work the plants developed. This blog will indicate the processes involved in treating waste water.

 

 

 

• Primary treatment:

During the primary treatment, the waste water is diverted into tanks where the waste water solids or materials denser than water will settle out. These tanks might be rectangular or triangular. Also, substances which are less dense than water are removed, such as; grease, oils and other floatable substances. The solid sediments which settle are called primary sludge. These primary sludge is removed along with the floating grease and scum and they are transported to anaerobic digesters for further treatment.

• Secondary treatment:

In the secondary stage, the water from the primary stage is mixed with a population of bacteria and a certain amount of  oxygen supply because they digest the suspended and soluble organic substances, removing them from the water treated. Without oxygen these bacteria perish. Pipes are driven under the tank for the production of oxygen, bubbles indicate oxygen is pumped in. The water treated is then transported to the tertiary treatment.

• Tertiary treatment:

This is an additional treatment to remove the dissolve and suspended substances from the secondary treatment. This could be done using a variety of physical, biological and chemical treatments o the targeted pollutants. Other advanced treatments may be used in this process to remove unusual things like color, metals, organic chemicals and nutrients like nitrogen.

• Disinfection:

This process is very important as it kills pathogenic diseases like typhoid, cholera, dysentery e.t.c.  an effective way of doing this is by using a chlorine based disinfectant such as Sodiumhipochloride. This is a cheap disinfectant and it usually takes about thirty minutes to an hour for contact. Another is the Ultra violet light, this disinfects better than the previous but it uses a lot of electricity.

In waste pollution, the process is just about making pollutants float of sink and the removing them thoroughly. Therefore we can safely say that treatment of waste water undergo three steps, the primary step, the secondary step, the tertiary step and the disinfection.