Contents

 Bar rack and bar screens

 Grit chamber
 Equalization tank
 Sedimentation tank
 Types of settling
• Discrete settling
• Flocculent settling
• Zone settling
 Design aspect
• Grit chamber
• Clarifier/thickener
 Tube and plate settlers
 Dissolver air/dissolved gas flotation
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 Bar rack and bar screens
Bar rack is rough screening device either
vertical or inclined, with parallel bars spaced
3 inches apart, placed in a sewer or other
waterway to catch debris. The screenings
may be raked from it.

A bar screen is a filter system designed to remove objects such as rags, wipes and plastics,
from wastewater and protect pumps from clogging. It is the first level of filtration used by
wastewater treatment plants
Bar screens generally operate in a conveyor-like system. Solids are picked up by a bar or wire
filter that allows the water through. The filter is either intermittently or continuously moved
through and out of the water channel to a motorized cleaning and trash area.

Older bar screens required manual cleaning

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 Grit chamber
• Grit chambers are long narrow tanks that are designed to slow down the flow so that solids
such as sand, coffee grounds, and eggshells will settle out of the water.
• Grit causes excessive wear and tear on pumps and other plant equipment.
• Grit includes sand, gravel, cinder, or other heavy solid
materials that are “heavier” (higher specific gravity) than the organic
biodegradable solids in the wastewater. Grit also includes eggshells,
bone chips, seeds, coffee grounds, and large organic particles, such
as food waste.

• Types of grit chamber:

– Horizontal flow
o Rectangular configuration
o Square configuration
– flow
Horizontal Aerated gritA chamber
type: velocity close to 0.3 m/s is maintained
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wastewater-treatment/aerated-grit-chamber
  Grit chamber Aerated type
• It is a special form of grit chambers having a spiral-flow aeration tank installed with air-
diffusion tubes placed on one side of the tank. As the sewage enters into the grit chamber
the shape of the chamber and the air makes the sewage flow in a helical pattern.
• Due to the helical flow pattern, the heavier
grit particles settle down while the lighter
organic particles are carried with a roll of
the spiral motion and eventually out of the
tank.
• Liq. Retention times are around 3 min at
maximum rate of flow
• Typical values of air into the chamber are in
the range of 0.15 – 0.45 m3/min of air /
meter of tank length (m3/min. m)
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 Equalization tank

• Flow equalization tanks are designed to buffer flows to a wastewater treatment plant with
variations in influent flow due to diurnal variation and wet weather events.
• Mixing is required in these basins to maintain solids in suspension, preventing deposition
and equalizing load to the treatment plant.
• Its also prevents the raw wastewater from becoming septic
• Helps in improving the performance of down- stream operations and reduces the
operating & capital cost of down- stream process.
• Biological treatment is enhanced because of elimination of shock load due to flow rate &
pollution load.
• Thickener/ settler and filter performance gets enhanced and their required surface area gets
reduced.

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 Equalization tank Types of Aerators

• Gravity Aerators (Cascades): In gravity aerators, water is allowed to fall by gravity such
that a large area of water is exposed to atmosphere, sometimes aided by turbulence.
• Fountain Aerators : These are also known as spray aerators with special nozzles to
produce a fine spray. Each nozzle is 2.5 to 4 cm diameter discharging about 18 to 36 l/h.
Nozzle spacing should be such that each m3 of water has aerator area of 0.03 to 0.09
m2 for one hour.
• Injection or Diffused Aerators : It consists of a tank with perforated pipes, tubes or
diffuser plates, fixed at the bottom to release fine air bubbles from compressor unit.
The tank depth is kept as 3 to 4 m and tank width is within 1.5 times its depth. If depth
is more, the diffusers must be placed at 3 to 4 m depth below water surface. Time of
aeration is 10 to 30 min and 0.2 to 0.4 litres of air is required for 1 litre of water.
• Mechanical Aerators : Mixing paddles as in flocculation are used. Paddles may be
either submerged or at the surface.

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 Sedimentation tank
A sedimentation tank allows suspended particles to settle out of water or wastewater as it
flows slowly through the tank, thereby providing some degree of purification through settling
• Removing coarse dispersed phase.
• Removing coagulated and flocculated impurities.
• Removing precipitated impurities after chemical treatment

 A sedimentation unit used to

Types of sedimentation tank produce clear water as main
Based on method of operation Based on shape product is called a clarifier
 A sedimentation unit used to
• Fill and draw type [Link] – tank
• Circular
• Continuous flow type tank • Rectangular tank produce thickened solid with
 Horizontal flow some water as main product is
• Hopper bottom tank
 Vertical flow called a thickener. The overflow
liquid ideally contains no solid

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 Sedimentation tank contd..

(d) Hopper bottom

Various types of sedimentation tanks

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 Factors those influence sedimentation
The following factors influence the sedimentation process: density and size of suspended
particles, water temperature, turbulence, stability of flow, bottom scour and flocculation:

- density; the greater the density of the particles, the faster the particles settle
- size; the larger the particles are, the faster they settle
- temperature; the lower the temperature of the water is, the higher the viscosity, so the
slower the particles settle
- turbulence; the more turbulent the flow is, the slower the particles settle
- stability; instability can result in a short-circuit flow, influencing the settling of particles
- bottom scour; during bottom scour, settled particles are re-suspended and washed out with
the effluent
- flocculation; results in larger particles, increasing the settling velocity.

 Performance is monitored by retention time and surface loading

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  Types of settling
• Type 1 – Discrete settling
All settling particles fall with their individual settling velocities same throughout their entire

fall, i.e. each particle falls through equal depth in equal time (Grit chamber)
• Type 2 – Flocculent settling
Settling velocity of the particles increases due to the coalescence with other particles
• Particle
Type 3removal efficiency
– Hindered settlingdepends
or zone on overflow and bed depth (primary clarifier)
settling
• Settling at a reduced speed (relative to the settling velocity of a single particle) due to
interactions with neighboring particles.
• Type 4 – Compression settling
• This refers to settling in which the concentration of particles is so high that particles
are in physical contact with each other resulting in the formation of a structure with
lower layers supporting the weight of upper layers.

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  Types of settling
The settling phenomenon that occur when a concentrated suspension, initially of uniform
concentration throughout, is placed in a gradual cylinder is As follows

 In systems with high

concentration of suspended
solids, both hindered or zone
settling and compression
settling occur in addition to
discrete ( free) settling and
flocculent settling

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  Design aspect Grit chamber
If Vs is the settling velocity of any particle,
then
For Vs≥Vo these particles will be totally
Settling removed,
zone For Vs<Vo, these particles will be partially
removed,
For 100 % removal of the particles with
Inlet Outlet settling velocity Vs≥Vo, we have,
zone Sludge zone zone Detention time=L/V=H/Vo, Or L/H=V/Vo
L–Length of the settling zone,
H–Depth of the settling zone, •To prevent scouring of already deposited
V–Horizontal velocity of wastewater, particles the magnitude of ‘Vs’ should not
Vs–Settling velocity of the particle exceed critical horizontal velocity Vc, and the
Vc and Vo are for smallest particle above equation becomes
intended to be settled in the grit chamber L / H = Vc/ Vo
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 Design aspect contd.. Grit chamber
Sufficient detention time is required to scour organics and the critical velocity can be
calculated by Camp-Shields(1942) Equation
• The grit chambers are designed to remove the
smallest particle of size 0.2 mm with specific
Gravity around 2.65.
• For these particles, using above expression the
critical velocity comes out to be
Vc=0.228m/sec.

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 Design aspect contd.. Grit chamber

A grit particle of diameter 0.2 mm and density, 1500 kg/m³ is to be captured in a horizontal
Grit chamber of length 18 m and width 1.0 m. The wastewater approach velocity carrying the
Grit Particle is 0.3 m/s and the flow rate is 0.15 m³/s . We would like to know weather the
particle will be settled in the grit chamber or not .The density of the wastewater is 1000
kg/m³and its viscosity is 0.001 kg/m-s.

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 Design aspect contd.. Grit chamber

Solution

Assuming Stokes law applicable Terminal settling velocity is

For the present case

Thus, = 2.18

Hence, Stokes law is valid

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 Design aspect contd.. Grit chamber

• The depth of flow of the liquid,

• Now the cross-sectional area of flow,

• The particle fall through the depth H in the

retention time tₒ

• Since the chamber is 18 m long and

tl = Liquid retention time
horizontal velocity is 0.3 m/s

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 Design aspect contd.. Zone settling Sedimentation tank
Suspension is dense and the particles are so closely spaced that the velocity field of the fluid is
displaced by the adjacent particles during settling overlap
Upward movement of fluid reduces settling velocities of particles (hindered settling)
Example - Secondary clarifier

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 Design aspect contd.. Determination clarifier/thickener area

Subsidence velocity in the zone of hindered settling

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  Design aspect contd.. Determination clarifier/thickener area
The area required for thickening can be obtained by the graphical procedure developed by
Talmadge and Fitch
According to this procedure , the area for thickening is given by :
At = surface area required for thickening
Hₒ= initial height of interface in settling column
Q i = inflow rate of suspension entering
tu = time required to attain the desired concentration in underflow

The value of tᵤ can be determined by the first constructing a horizontal line at Hᵤ which
can be calculated from a simple material balance

Or
  Design aspect contd.. Determination clarifier/thickener area

A settling test conducted in 40 cm high cylindrical jar gave the curve as shown below
The initial concentration of solids was 3000 mg/l
Determine the thickener area if an underflow
concentration of 20,000 mg/l is desired .
The sludge is to be settled in a continuous flow unit
operated at a rate of 0.03 m³/s .

Solution

Thus , tu = 15.5 min

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 Design aspect contd.. Determination clarifier/thickener area

From the hindered settling portion of the curve , compute the subsidence velocity v h

(40-20) / 100
Vh = = 0.000666 m/s
5 (60)

For controlling equipment, area

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Tube and plate settlers
• Tube settlers and parallel plates increase the settling capacity of circular clarifiers
and/or rectangular sedimentation basins by reducing the vertical distance a floc particle
must settle before agglomerating to form larger particles
• Tube settlers use multiple tubular channels sloped at an angle of 60° and adjacent to
each other, which combine to form an increased effective settling area
• Settling time is reduced and more removal is attained

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Dissolved air/ dissolved gas flotation
• Dissolved air flotation (DAF) removal of suspended matter such as oil or solids is achieved
by dissolving air in the water or wastewater under pressure and then releasing the air at
atmospheric pressure in a flotation tank basin.
• The released air forms tiny bubbles which adhere
to the suspended matter causing the suspended
matter to float to the surface of the water where
it may then be removed by a skimming device
• Widely used in treating the industrial effluents
from oil refineries, petrochemical and chemical
plants, natural gas processing plant, paper mills,
general water treatment and similar industrial
facilities.
• In Dissolved gas flotation(DGF), nitrogen gas is used instead of air to create the bubbles.
It eliminates the chance of explosion and is used in oil industry
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Thanks….

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