The term water treatment refers to the procedure of getting rid of contaminants from wastewater. And here is where types of water treatment plants come into the picture. Water purification is the primary purpose of these plants. They help wastewater to become reusable again for Commercial, industrial, and sometimes domestic activities.Â
A treatment facility is essential to any industrial wastewater management strategy. It lessens environmental contamination and the use of industrial water. Large amounts of on-site industrial effluent may be reused after being treated in the treatment facility.
5 Types of Water treatment Plant
There are a total of 5 types of water treatment plants. A brief description and purpose of each is mentioned below.
1. Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs)
To remove waste water impurities, a sewage treatment procedure is used. The sewage treatment facility may also include household sewage or it may also include industrial wastewater, depending on the size of the municipality where it is located.
STPs work by purifying wastewater with a combination of physical, chemical, and biological treatment before releasing it into the environment. It plays a critical role in keeping communities safe and healthy. Because they approach their wastewater in the three crucial stages of primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment, many STPs are known as three-stage processes.
How does it function?
When wastewater gets to a sewage treatment facility, it goes through a pre-treatment procedure called filtering. Here, wastewater passes past screens and into settling basins that have considerable debris-removing capacity.
As previously said, it serves as a pre-treatment because it happens before three more aggressive rounds of treatment: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
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Primary Treatment
The wastewater enters the clarifiers at this time. The settlement basins exhibit slow wastewater flow. The design of these tanks causes settling, whereby the lighter material floats to the top and is easier to remove while the heavier material settles to the bottom of the tank.
A main sludge blanket is the term for the organic material that collects at the bottom. After a short while, the sludge that has accumulated in the clarity tanks is transferred into aeration basins to perform the activated sludge process.
Second Line of Treatment
Aerobic aeration is a common component of secondary treatment. The microorganisms in the sewage use oxygen exchange to decompose the common materials that give the wastewater its distinctive smell and colour.
Tertiary Treatment
Following the primary and secondary stages, tertiary treatment also includes mechanical and photochemical operations. This more sophisticated method of disinfection is especially helpful when dealing with sanitary sewage that contains microorganism pollutants.
Sand filters are used in this stage of the treatment to filter out extremely small particles from the wastewater. Following this, the water flows beneath ultraviolet (UV) lights, causing any bacteria and viruses as well as any illnesses to be destroyed by the photochemical process.
So, after going through the three processes indicated above, the wastewater in the sewage water treatment plant is entirely safe to discharge into the environment as an effluent.
 2. Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
Water that comes from home, agricultural, industrial, medicinal, or transportation activities is referred to as wastewater. It essentially falls into one of two categories:
Sewage water– It is the wastewater produced by residential appliances such sinks, showers, and toilets.
Industrial Wastewater– While sewage water is made up entirely of sewage, industrial wastewater is made up of waste from manufacturing, industrial, and commercial activity.
How does it function?
The wastewater is directed by gravity through the primary sewer system to the water treatment facility as the first step in the process.
The preparatory treatment, often known as the pre-treatment, is the following mechanical stage. The water circulates through the gravel chamber at this point to flush out any grit. After that, the gravel is dumped to the dump.
And then, the water flows to the bar screens, which catch big things. These are screens for a course. The smaller things, such as matches or undigested food, are then removed by the fine screens.
The grit chamber permits any grit in the wastewater to settle at the bottle similarly to the gravel chamber. Then, this is taken out of the tank and dumped at the dump.
The sedimentation phase, usually referred to as the primary treatment, follows. The primary settling tanks, often referred to as pre-settling basins, are where the water flows during this phase.
These tanks contain hoppers at the bottom of the tank through which water flows. The cleaned water remains at the edges as a result of this hopper’s movement along the tank’s edges, while the wastewater particulates with the highest sedimentation settle to the tank’s bottom.
Inspection is the final stage of wastewater treatment plant process. This inspection entails determining the degree of contamination in the treated water and ensuring that it satisfies the strictest requirements before it is discharged or reused for household or industrial uses.
3. Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs)
Chemical and pharmaceutical businesses employ effluent treatment facilities to filter harmful substances out of wastewater. Industrial wastewater is handled in effluent treatment plants.
For the purpose of preventing pollution, effluent treatment is crucial, and contaminated material needs to be appropriately disposed of. ETPs involve a series of treatments, including preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary. ETPs procedure is similar to what we discussed above, so we will not talk about that here.
 4. Demineralization (DM) Treatment Plants
The technique of demineralization involves employing the ion exchange method to remove mineral salts from water. Demineralization can generate water of a higher quality than traditional distillation from the majority of natural water sources.
Demineralization results in the total removal of minerals from the water and is typically used in businesses that demand highly pure water, such as the food and beverage industry, process streams used in the production of electronics, and makeup or feed water in high-pressure boilers. They are also employed in the production of steam, power, and cooling in industrial settings.
5. Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Treatment
The reverse osmosis (RO) process relies on a filtration technique that involves applying pressure to wastewater while it is on one side of a membrane in order to remove a significant amount of pollutants and impurities.
Reverse osmosis water treatment facilities are extensively used in sectors like mechanical, boiler feed, semiconductor production, and metal finishing for food and beverage.
So that’s all for this article, hope we covered all the main types of water treatment plants and how some of them function. Comment below if you think we left something or have any questions!
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