Wastewater is water that has been used for domestic, commercial, or industrial purposes and contains dissolved or suspended waste materials. In commercial and industrial spheres, it comes from water used for manufacturing, food processing, and other applications. Properly treating wastewater before discharging it back into the environment is crucial for protecting water quality, aquatic ecosystems, and public health.
Specialty Treatment Solutions (STS) provides pre-engineered, compact wastewater treatment systems ideal for effectively processing high-strength wastewater streams. With remote monitoring and control capabilities, STS solutions ensure regulatory compliance while maximizing efficiency.
Key Components of the Wastewater Treatment Process
The main objectives in treating commercial and industrial wastewater are to remove solids, degrade organics using biological processes, and disinfect the final effluent. This is accomplished through a multi-step process involving:
- Primary treatment removes floating and sinkable solids through screening and sedimentation.
- Secondary treatment uses microbial communities to break down organics.
- Tertiary treatment, such as filtration and disinfection to polish the final effluent.
Proper sludge handling through processes like digestion and dewatering is also a critical component.
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Starting in the Sewer System
The first step involves collecting wastewater in building sewer systems. Sewers funnel the wastewater to the treatment plant. Some systems combine stormwater runoff with wastewater flows. Preliminary screening removes coarse solids that could damage plant equipment. Pumps lift flows collected underground to the treatment processes on the surface level.
Primary Treatment
In primary treatment, wastewater flows into large tanks that enable solids to settle out by gravity. About 50-65% of suspended solids may be removed as primary sludge in this process. Floating materials like oils and grease are also skimmed off the surface. Settling tanks are sized to enable optimal flow conditions for separation efficiency. The resulting liquid effluent has reduced organics, allowing for more effective biological treatment.
Secondary Treatment
Secondary treatment substantially removes organics and residual suspended solids through biological processes facilitated by oxygen-loving bacteria. The two most common methods used are:
- Activated sludge process: Wastewater is mixed with sludge containing concentrated microbes and aerated to spur degradation activity. Treated effluent then goes into secondary clarifiers where microbial flocs settle out.
- Trickling filters: Wastewater is distributed over a bed of stones on which biofilm grows. Air circulating through filter media supplies oxygen. Filtered effluent is further clarified in settling tanks.
Following secondary treatment, effluent biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) are typically reduced by over 90%, significantly improving water quality for safer environmental discharge.
Wastewater Resource Recovery
In addition to treating wastewater for safe discharge, many facilities now pursue resource recovery — extracting value from waste streams. This includes:
- Biogas Production: Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge produces methane utilized on-site for heating or generating electricity.
- Nutrient Recapture: Struvite, an effective slow-release fertilizer, can be recovered by removing phosphorus and ammonia from centrate streams generated during sludge dewatering.
- Clean Water Reuse: Treated effluent can be profitably reused for applications like agricultural irrigation or industrial cooling if contamination levels are sufficiently reduced.
Wastewater resource recovery facilities help improve sustainability and can transform the treatment process from a cost center into a revenue source.
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What Biological Processes Are Used in Wastewater Treatment?
Under optimal conditions, naturally occurring bacteria and fungi can effectively degrade pollutants to innocuous byproducts. Wastewater treatment harnesses these biological activities to remove organics.
What Is Activated Sludge and What Does It Do?
The activated sludge process breeds concentrated cultures of microorganisms well-adapted to feast on organics in wastewater flows. This biological sludge is continuously recycled back into aeration basins to kickstart the degradation of incoming organics. The activated sludge essentially functions as a self-regulating “smart biofilter,” degrading pollutants efficiently while constantly optimizing its microbial ecosystem.
How Does the Trickling Filter Method Work?
In trickling filters, settled wastewater is sprayed over a bed of rocks or other high surface area media, allowing an attached biofilm “carpet” of bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa to develop. As the wastewater trickles through the porous filter media, organics are degraded through aerobic metabolism within the dynamic biofilm ecosystem.
How Biological Processes Aid in the Reduction of Organic Material
The metabolic processes of microbial cells in wastewater convert organics like fats, proteins, and sugars into new cell tissue along with byproducts like CO2 and water. Cell synthesis and endogenous respiration drive significant reductions in effluent BOD. Biological methods excel at extracting organics from high-strength influent wastewater through efficient bioconversion processes.
With our extensive experience, STS can custom design complete biological treatment systems capable of handling high organic loads while meeting specific reclamation objectives.
What Techniques Are Used in Wastewater Treatment?
In addition to biological methods, various physical and chemical techniques help enhance treatment to meet discharge or reuse requirements:
Advanced Oxidation Process
Adding oxidizing agents like hydrogen peroxide under specialized UV light produces highly reactive hydroxyl radicals. The hydroxyl radicals rapidly break down trace organic compounds through oxidation reactions. This advanced oxidation process (AOP) facilitates the chemical mineralization of trace organics and pharmaceutical residues, which escape normal biological degradation processes. It provides a means to polish secondary effluent by destroying specific stubborn contaminants.
Activated Carbon
Liquid streams are passed through beds of granulated activated carbon, which adsorb residual organics onto an extremely high internal surface area within the porous media. This provides a polishing treatment to remove soluble organics missed by biological processes as water trickles through. Periodic regeneration fully restores adsorptive capacity once the carbon media becomes saturated. The activated carbon filtration step produces an exceptionally pure, contaminant-free effluent stream prior to disinfection and discharge.
Phase Separation
Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) integrate membrane filtration modules, such as microfiltration or ultrafiltration modules, directly into biological process tanks. This enables the physical separation of treated water from biological material and undigested particulate matter. The membranes provide a complete barrier to the passage of bacteria and particulate material, producing an exceptionally clean filtrate. MBRs generate treated effluent suitable for restrictive reuse applications.
UV Disinfection
Ultraviolet disinfection systems deliver UV radiation to wastewater flows, disrupting DNA structures in pathogens to render them unable to reproduce. This final polishing treatment ensures disinfected effluent that is free from almost all disease-causing microorganisms before discharge. UV disinfection offers highly effective inactivation of bacteria and viruses without using potentially toxic chemicals associated with alternatives like chlorination or ozonation.
STS actively incorporates pilot-scale testing and R&D efforts to continually improve treatment efficiency. Our team of engineers and industry experts can evaluate which advanced combination of technologies will best satisfy project needs and environmental regulations.
Trust STS for Expert Wastewater Treatment Solutions
With over 10 years of specialized experience serving wineries, breweries, food production facilities, and manufacturing and industrial facilities, Specialty Treatment Solutions excels at designing treatment systems for particularly high-strength wastewater applications. Our pre-engineered, modular systems feature a small footprint and extremely effective treatment capabilities ideal for remote facilities or operations with space constraints needing an advanced wastewater solution.
Specialty Treatment Solutions offers full-service assistance encompassing:
- Initial project evaluation and process optimization
- Custom system design and permitting
- Complete installation and full automation
- Testing, commissioning, and operator training
- Ongoing support through remote system access
- Monitoring, sampling, and compliance reporting with operations service contracts
Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, STS engineers each system based on detailed wastewater profiling and site-specific considerations to match real performance needs. As a recognized technological innovator driving more sustainable, economical wastewater management strategies, Specialty Treatment Solutions stands ready to tackle unique water reclamation challenges and unlock the possibilities for commercial reuse.
Related: Learn about wastewater treatment plant costs
FAQs
What is the main goal of wastewater treatment?
The principal objective of the wastewater treatment process is to reduce pollutant levels through solids removal and biological processing, making effluent waters safe for environmental discharge or beneficial reuse.
What effects do discharging untreated wastewater have?
Discharging untreated wastewater introduces excess organics, solids, and pathogens to water sources, leading to critical oxygen depletion and water quality deterioration in surrounding aquatic ecosystems.
Why is ongoing process control important in treatment systems?
The continuous monitoring and data-driven adjustment of parameters like aeration, recycle rates, and addition of supplemental nutrients help optimize fluctuating microbial treatment performance.
What kind of wastewater does STS specialize in treating?
Leveraging extensive real-world expertise, STS excels at effectively treating high-strength wastewater from wineries, breweries, food production, and industrial applications requiring significant organic/solids removal. We treat process waste, sanitary waste, and combined wastewater.