FED/2011/279-318

WATSAM
Support to Arba Minch Town water utility and Municipality in the
water & sanitation sector through capacity building and
partnership development with Italian water organizations

Assignment 2
E-learning course on Wastewater Treatment and Disposal of Urban Solid Waste
This assignment consists in 2 exercises. Choose ONE and follow the instructions.

Exercise A
Instructions:
1) Draw a wastewater treatment plant without nitrogen elimination with activated sludge tank,
screen, sand trap, secondary clarifier, primary clarifier and sludge treatment with all flows. If you
draw it on the computer, insert the picture directly in the box below. If you draw it on paper, make a
scan copy of photo and insert it in the box below.
[Insert your picture here]

FED/2011/279-318

WATSAM
Support to Arba Minch Town water utility and Municipality in the
water & sanitation sector through capacity building and
partnership development with Italian water organizations

2) Describe the configurations and the treatment steps that you outlined in your picture (max 10
lines)
[Describe your picture here, max 15 lines)
Screening removes debris such as rags, branches and dead animals. The grit chamber slows down the flow
so that solids such as sand, coffee grounds and egg shells settle down. Primary clarifier removes about 5060% of suspended solids and in the process removes about 30% of BOD. Activated sludge tank is aerated
and is mainly for removal of BOD through aerobic process but also removes a small fraction of nitrogen and
phosphorous through an assimilation ratio of microorganisms typically 100:5:1 for C:N:P. Secondary
clarifier removes the remaining suspended solids as further purification. The return sludge from the
secondary clarifier is a fraction of microorganisms in excess sludge that is pumped back to the aeration
basin to balance the culture (food to microorganisms ratio) as process optimization. The sludge treatment
involves sludge thickening to remove water from secondary sludge, digestion to produce biogas and
centrifugation to remove further water from the sludge. The final sludge can be used as compost fertilizer
or landfill. The reject water from sludge dewatering can be further treated or returned to the system.

3) Which changes are required if nitrogen must be removed (nitrification and denitrification)? Answer
in max 10 lines

[Answer here, max 10 lines)

The activated sludge tank can be modified for nitrogen removal by either pre-denitrification or postdenitrification process. In pre-denitrification, the denitrification chamber (anoxic zone) is placed ahead of
the nitrification chamber (aerobic zone). Here the BOD in the raw wastewater is used as carbon source for
the denitrification. The nitrate formed in aerobic zone is recycled back to the denitrification zone for
denitrifying. The oxygen demand of the nitrification zone is reduced since some carbon is used in the
denitrification zone. Also, denitrification recovers alkalinity lost during nitrification. In post-denitrification,
the denitrification chamber is after the nitrification chamber. This configuration requires addition of a
carbon source to the denitrification since BOD is consumed in nitrification. If the carbon source contains
ammonium, it is necessary to recycle back to the nitrification zone so that the ammonium can be converted
to nitrate.

FED/2011/279-318

WATSAM
Support to Arba Minch Town water utility and Municipality in the
water & sanitation sector through capacity building and
partnership development with Italian water organizations

Exercise B
Instructions:
1) Consider the following data that has been measured through 4 different samplings in a wastewater
treatment plant equipped with primary clarifier and nitrogen removal processes.

Pollutant concentrations

FED/2011/279-318

WATSAM
Support to Arba Minch Town water utility and Municipality in the
water & sanitation sector through capacity building and
partnership development with Italian water organizations

2) Decide where the samplings 1, 2, 3 and 4 were taken by matching them to the following locations.
Motivate your choice in max 5 lines each.
Location:
Inflow WWTP

Which sampling was taken here?

(Mark with an X the corresponding number)
1
2
3
4

Motivate your choice (max 5 lines)

Location:
Inflow activated sludge tank

Which sampling was taken here?

(Mark with an X the corresponding number)
1
2
3
4

Motivate your choice (max 5 lines)

Location
Inflow secondary clarifier

Which sampling was taken here?

(Mark with an X the corresponding number)
1
2
3
4

Motivate your choice (max 5 lines)

FED/2011/279-318

WATSAM
Support to Arba Minch Town water utility and Municipality in the
water & sanitation sector through capacity building and
partnership development with Italian water organizations

Location
Outflow secondary clarifier

Which sampling was taken here?

(Mark with an X the corresponding number)
1
2
3
4

Motivate your choice (max 5 lines)