Biological Principles in Wastewater Treatment

Water scarcity is one of the most critical challenges in human society. Billions of people in the world have poor access to clean water and such a situation is getting worse with rapid population growth and industrial development. Wastewater treatment is an important approach to recover valuable water and reduce its pollution to the environment and risks to humans. Biological wastewater treatment is a cost-effective and most used technique for wastewater treatment.

This course introduces the fundamental design principles and practice of biological wastewater treatment and prepares students for designing wastewater treatment systems. At the end of the course, students are expected to understand general biological principles and design practices of wastewater treatment, apply the knowledge to select the best unit process to treat wastewater, and design a wastewater treatment component or process to meet water quality treatment goals.

Week 1:

• Introduction of Wastewater Treatment
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand
• Overview of Wastewater Treatment Processes
• Pump Station
• Bar Screen
• Grit Chamber
• Equalization Basin

Week 2:

• Primary Treatment
• Sedimentation
• Primary Sedimentation

Week 3:

• Microbiological principles for biological wastewater treatment
• Microbial kinetics
• Mass balance equations

Week 4:

• Bacterial growth kinetics
• Sludge production
• Oxygen demand and transfer
• Food to microorganism ratio
• Denitrification

Week 5:

• Secondary Settling
• Disinfection