Lecture 4C

Biological Wastewater Treatment

 Agenda: Biological Wastewater Treatment
• biological treatment: overview and why
• suspended growth vs attached growth
• growth kinetics & design of biological processes
– biomass yield
– saturation growth kinetics
– Monod’s model
– design equations for qc and S
• biological treatment processes
– N-treatment: nitrification + denitrification
– phosphorus removal

4C-2
 Why Biological Treatment ?
objectives of biological treatment:
• to transform (i.e., oxidize) dissolved and
particulate biodegradable constituents into
acceptable end products
• to capture and incorporate suspended and
nonsettleable colloidal solids into a biological
floc or biofilm
• to transform or remove nutrients (e.g., N, P)
• (in some cases) to remove specific trace organic
constituents

4C-3
4C-4
 Biological Wastewater Treatment
uses microorganisms, mainly bacteria, for
• removal of dissolved and particulate carbonaceous
BOD
• stabilization of organic matter

where vi are stoichiometric coefficients (i.e.,

coefficients in balanced chemical equations)
• ammonia and phosphate – nutrients
• O2 – required for oxidation of organic matter
• “new cells” – biomass produced

4C-5
 Biological Wastewater Treatment
• biomass has a specific gravity slightly greater
than that of water, biomass can be removed
from treated liquid by gravity settling

• (on 2 slides before, note the location of sludge

production following biological treatment units)

• biomass is organic and will contribute to BOD in

the effluent if not removed after the treatment

4C-6
 Biological Wastewater Treatment
Two major biological processes in wastewater
treatment:

• suspended growth processes

• attached growth (or biofilm) processes

4C-7
 Suspended Growth Processes
microorganisms are maintained in liquid
suspended through mixing
• often operated aerobically
• sometimes anaerobic reactors are used:
– high organic concentration wastewaters
– organic sludges
• most common process: activated sludge
process

4C-8
 Activated Sludge Process
activated mass of microorganisms capable of
stabilizing waste under aerobic conditions
• in aeration tank, contact time is provided for
mixing and aerating influent wastewater with
microbial suspension
• microbial suspension often referred as mixed
liquor suspended solids (MLSS) or mixed liquid
volatile suspended solids (MLVSS)
• mixed liquor then flows to a clarifier where the
microbial suspension is settled and thickened
• settled biomass is partly recycled to the aeration
tank, and partly removed

4C-9
Activated Sludge Process

4C-10
 Attached Growth Processes
microorganisms are attached to an inert packing
material
• (also known as a biofilm)
• packing materias: rock, gravel, slag, sand,
redwood, plastic and synthetic materials
• can be aerobic or anaerobic processes
• packing can be submerged completely in liquid
or not submerged, with air / gas space above the
biofilm liquid layer
• most common process: trickling filter

4C-11
 Trickling Filter
in trickling filter, wastewater is distributed over the top
area of a vessel containing nonsubmerged packing
material
• typically use plastic packing material for biofilm
attachment; 90 – 95 % by volume of void space
• air circulates in the void space (by natural draft or
blowers)  supply O2 to biofilm
• influent wastewater distributed over packing as a
non-uniform liquid film
• excess biomass sloughs from packing periodically;
clarification is required for liquid/solids separation to
achieve an acceptable suspended solids
concentration
• solids are collected at the bottom of the clarifier and
removed for waste-sludge processing
4C-12
Trickling Filter

4C-13
Growth Kinetics &
Design of Biological Processes

4C-14
Dynamics between Biomass and Substrate Availability

4C-15
Dynamics of Microbial Population (Closed System)

4C-16
 Growth Kinetics
• model growth of microbial population with a first
order kinetics:
𝑑𝑋
= 𝜇𝑋
𝑑𝑡

where X = number of microorganisms

m = instantaneous growth rate
• integrating the above expression with an initial
population of Xo (i.e., at t = 0), one gets:
𝑋 = 𝑋𝑜 𝑒 𝜇𝑡

4C-17
 Growth Kinetics
• growth rate of microorganism often exhibit a
saturating behaviour at abundant supply of food
and other essential nutrients
• this saturation of m can be expressed as:
𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑆
𝜇=
𝐾𝑠 + 𝑆

where S = substrate or nutrient concentration

Ks= saturation constant [conc unit]
mmax= maximum specific growth rate (i.e., at
nutrient saturation)

4C-18
 Saturated Growth Rate
mmax

𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑆
𝜇=
𝐾𝑠 + 𝑆

4C-19
 Biomass Yield (Y)
biomass yield, Y, is the ratio of amount biomass produced
to the amount substrate consumed:
𝑔𝑏𝑖𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑
𝑌= ≤1
𝑔𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑
• because biomass is mostly organic material, an increase
in biomass can be measured by volatile suspended
solids (VSS) or particulate COD (total COD – soluble
COD)

If rx = rate of change in biomass, and rs = rate of change of

substrate concentration, then rx and rs are related via Y:
𝑟𝑥 = −𝑌𝑟𝑠

4C-20
 Biomass Yield (Y)
The Monod Model:
𝑑𝑋
𝑟𝑥 = = 𝜇𝑋
𝑑𝑡
𝑋 𝑋 𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑆
𝑟𝑥 = −𝑌𝑟𝑠 𝑟𝑠 = − 𝜇 = −
𝑌 𝑌 𝐾𝑠 + 𝑆
𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑆
𝜇=
𝐾𝑠 + 𝑆

4C-21
 Solids Retention Time (qc)
solids retention time, qc, is analogous to hydraulic
retention time only that it is for the solids:
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚
𝜃𝑐 = = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑
• qc is also known as sludge age, or mean cell resident
time (MCRT)
• based on the above definition:
𝑉𝑋 𝑉
𝜃𝑐 = =
𝑄𝑋 𝑄
• rate of solids destroyed = rate of biomass produced:
𝑉𝑋 𝑉𝑋 𝑋
𝜃𝑐 = = =−
𝑟𝑥 𝑉 −𝑌𝑟𝑠 𝑉 𝑌𝑟𝑠
4C-22
 Relating qc, S, and mmax
• from mass balance:

• at steady state, dX/dt = 0, it can be shown that:

1 𝐾𝑠
=𝜇 and 𝑆=
𝜃𝑐 𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜃𝑐 − 1
4C-23
 Relating qc, S, and mmax

1 𝐾𝑠
=𝜇 and 𝑆=
𝜃𝑐 𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜃𝑐 − 1

• can use these to design the reactors and process

requirements

• qc  size of reactor or unit (V), process flow rate (Q)

• S  substrate concentration (e.g., concentration of
organic waste, nitrate, phosphorus, etc)
• Ks, mmax  characteristics of the microorganism for the
substrate

4C-24
Biological Treatment Processes

4C-25
 Biological Nitrification
nitrification: oxidation of ammonia (N(-III)H3) to
nitrite (N(+III)O2-) and eventually nitrate (N(+V)O3-)
• need to remove ammonia because it can impact
aquatic life in receiving waters:
– reduce DO concentration (oxidation of NH3)
– toxic to fish
– can contribute to eutrophication
• nitrification: can be carried out in suspended
growth or attached growth processes
• single-unit process (common)
• two-unit process (if wastewater may be toxic or
inhibitory to nitrifiers)
4C-26
4C-27
 Biological Nitrification
Two-unit or Two-sludge system:
• two aeration tanks and two clarifiers in series
• 1st tank operates at short solid retention time for
BOD removal
• BOD and toxic substances are removed in the first
unit so that nitrification can proceed unhindered in
the second
• a portion of influent wastewater has to be bypassed
to the second unit to provide sufficient amount of
solid for efficient solids flocculation and clarification
• nitrifying bacteria grow much more slowly than
heterotrophic bacteria, so nitrification systems
generally have much longer hydraulic and solids
retention times than those for BOD removal
4C-28
 Biological Denitrification
biological reduction of nitrate to nitric oxide
(N(+II)O), nitrous oxide (N(+I)2O), and nitrogen gas
(N(0)2)
• used when there are concerns for eutrophication
or when need to safeguard against high levels of
nitrate concentration
• two modes of nitrate removal: assimilating and
dissimilating nitrate reduction
• assimilating nitrate reduction: NO3- to NH3 for
use in cell synthesis
• dissimilating nitrate reduction: denitrification is
coupled to the respiratory electron transport
chain
4C-29
 Biological Denitrification
assimilating nitrate reduction:
• nitrate reduced for building new biomass
• NO3- to NH3 for use in cell synthesis

dissimilating nitrate reduction:

• nitrate reduced for energy purpose
• denitrification is coupled to the respiratory
electron transport chain
• NO3- or NO2- is used as electron acceptor

4C-30
Biological Denitrification: Two Configurations

MLE process or
preanoxic denitrification

postanoxic denitrification

4C-31
 Biological Denitrification
Two basic denitrification configurations:
(a) Modified Ludzak-Ettinger (MLE) process
• 1st tank: anoxic, where denitrification occurs
• 2nd tank: aerated, where nitrification occurs
• nitrated produced in the 2nd tank is recycled to
the anoxic tank (i.e., produced NO3- can be
denitrified)
• organic substrates in influent as electron donor
• because the anoxic process precedes aeration
tank, the process is also known as a preanoxic
denitrification
4C-32
 Biological Denitrification
(b) Postanoxic denitrification process
• 1st tank: aerated, where nitrification occurs
• 2nd tank: anoxic, where denitrification occurs
• depends solely on endogeneous respiration for
energy, has a much slower rate of reaction than
preanoxic processes that utilize wastewater
BOD
• exogeneous carbon source (e.g., methanol,
acetate) may be added to provide sufficient BOD
(or “food”) for nitrate reduction and to increase
rate of denitrification
4C-33
Nitrogen transformations in
biological treatment processes:
A summary

4C-34
 Biological Phosphorus Removal
• phosphorus is often a limiting nutrient in most
freshwater systems
• phosphorus removal from wastewater is
necessary to control/prevent eutrophication
• treatment plant effluent discharge limits ~ 0.1 to
2.0 mg/L
• (P can be removed with chemical treatment
using alum or iron salts, see previous notes)
• main advantages of biological-P removal when
compared with chemical precipitation:
– reduced chemical costs
– less sludge production
4C-35
 Biological Phosphorus Removal
• phosphorus in influent wastewater is
incorporated into cell biomass and subsequently
removed through sludge wasting
• phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) are
encouraged to grow and consume phosphorus
in systems

4C-36
 Digester / Sludge Treatment…

To be followed up in the Landfill Section !

4C-37
End of Lecture