CHAPTER 4

Wastewater Characteristics, Wastewater

Flow Rate And Sewerage System

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Wastewater sources and flow rates
Design Flows
Variation of Domestic Wastewater Flow Rate
Wastewater characteristics
Pretreatment of Industrial Wastes
Sewerage
Plant Sizing and Layout

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

1. Residential districts.
2. Commercial districts and institutional
facilities.
3. Industrial wastewater flows.
4. Infiltration and inflow
5. Storm water.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Residential districts.
Historic records provide the best estimate of
wastewater production (for the existing
wastewater collection system).
In the absence of existing data for the client
community, installation of temporary flow
meters or nearby communities with similar
demographics are used for data.
A rough estimate of 60 to 90 percent of the
domestic water-withdrawal can be used.
The average daily flow shall be based on 225
Lpcd (MS 1228 1991).
Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima
 Commercial districts and institutional
facilities.
Estimate range from 7.5 to 14 m3/ha.

Industrial wastewater flows.

Estimate of wastewater made by assuming
85 to 95 percent of water used becomes
wastewater when internal recycle is not
practiced.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Infiltration and inflow
Infiltration. The water entering a sewerage
system, including sewer connections and
from the ground through foundation drains,
defective pipes, pipe joints, connections or
manhole walls.
Inflow. The water discharge in to the sewer
system, including service connection from the
roof downspouts, basement, yard and area
drain; cooling- water discharges; manhole
cover and from storm sewer.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Storm water
Runoff resulting from rainfall and snowmelt.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 The accurate determination of wastewater flows is the first
fundamental step in the design of wastewater facilities. To
ensure proper design, accurate and reliable data must be
available. This entails proper selection of design period,
accurate population projection, and the determination of the
various flow rates.

Different types of flow rates are used in design of wastewater

facilities: average daily flow rate, maximum daily flow rate,
peak hourly flow rate, minimum daily flow rate, minimum
hourly flow rate, sustained high flow rate, and sustained low
flow rate. Each of these flow rates has its own use in design
(Table 4.1)

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Table 4.1 Principal Flow Rates Terms and Their
Use in Design and Operation

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Average daily flow rate
The average daily flow rate is the mean of all the daily flow
rate values obtained from an exhaustive length of flow
record. For example, if the total measured flow at a treatment
plant for one year (365 days) is 9,000,000 cubic meters, the
average daily flow rate is 9,000,000/365 = 24,658 m3 per
calendar day.
If the duration of record is more than one year, an average
daily flow rate value is established for each year. All these
averages are considered together to arrive at a single average
daily flow rate. The longer the record, the more accurate the
value will be.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Maximum daily flow rate
The maximum daily flow rate is the largest total flow that
accumulates over a day as obtained from an exhaustive
length of flow record. For example, suppose the flow on
March 10 of a certain year was 49,316 m3 accumulated over
the day. If the whole flow record is examined and no one flow
summed over the length of one calendar day exceeds this
value, then 49,316 m3/d is the maximum daily flow rate.
On the other hand, the minimum daily flow rate is the
smallest total flow that accumulates over a day as obtained
from an exhaustive length of flow record. This is just the
reverse of the maximum daily flow rate

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Peak hourly flow rate
The peak hourly flow rate is the largest accumulation of flow
in an hour during a particular day as obtained from an
exhaustive length of flow record.

Minimum hourly flow rate

The minimum hourly flow rate is the smallest accumulation of
flow in an hour during a particular day as obtained from an
exhaustive length of flow record. This is just the reverse of
the peak hourly flow rate.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Wastewater production
change with seasons,
the days of the week,
and the hours of the
day.
Fluctuations are
greater in small
communities than in
large communities and
during the short rather
than long periods of
time. Typical hourly variation in domestic
wastewater flow rates

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Table 4.2. Typical Rates of Water Use in
Community (source, Hamidi (1999))

Community Liter/capita.day

Peak community 300

Scotland 250

England 180

Primitive 50

Malaysia 225

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Average daily flow rate (m3/day) depend on
population and water use.
Qavg. = q X PE .(4.1)

Where
Qavg = average daily design flow
q = water usage per capita per day
PE = population equivalent.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Peak flows. The peak hourly flow, which will
require in the design of sewers, pumping
stations, and components of the treatment
plant, shall be determined from the
following formula:
Qpeak = Qavg. X peaking factor( MS 1228, 1991)

Q peak = 4.7 XP -0.11 Q avg. ..(4.2)

Where P is estimated equivalent population, in

thousands

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Table 4.3 Required population equivalent (PE) (source, guidelines for
developer volume IV).

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 A wastewater treatment plant receives
wastewater from a residential area of 2000
house, a shopping complex of 30,000 m2
gross area, fully residential school of 2,000
student, hospital with 200 beds and hotel
with 150 room. If the sewer flow rate (q) is
250 l/capita. Calculate:
1. Average daily flow rate (Qav.)
2. Peak hourly flow rate (Q peak)

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Physical characteristics of domestic wastewater
Odor. Fresh, aerobic domestic wastewater has
odor of Kerosene or freshly turned earth.
Septic sewage has rotten-egg odor.
Color. Fresh sewage is gray and septic sewage
is black.
Temperature. In general, the temperature of
wastewater is higher than that of the water
supply (because of the addition of warm water
from households).

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Oxygen is less soluble in warm water than
in cold water.
High temperature can encourage the growth
of undesirable water plants and wastewater
fungus.
Solids: one cubic meter of wastewater
weighs 1,000,000 grams. It contains 500
grams of solids. One-half of the solids are
dissolved solids and the remaining 250
grams is insoluble.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Chemical characteristics of domestic
wastewater

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5): laboratory

measurement of the amount of oxygen consumed by
microorganisms while decomposing organic matter.

Chemical oxygen demand (COD): laboratory test used to

determine the oxygen equivalent of the organic matter
that can be oxidized by a strong chemical oxidizing
agent (potassium dichromate) in an acidic medium.
COD is greater than BOD5 because more compounds
can be oxidized chemically than can be oxidized
biologically and because BOD5 does not equal ultimate
BOD.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN): is a measure of
total organic and ammonia nitrogen in the
wastewater.
Phosphorus: found in many forms in
wastewater- orthophosphate, polyphosphate
and organic phosphate. They referred to as
total phosphorus (P).

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 The biological characteristics of wastewater are of
fundamental importance in the control of diseases
caused by pathogenic organisms of human origin,
and because of the extensive and fundamental role
played by bacteria and other microorganisms in the
decomposition and stabilization of organic matter
both in nature and in wastewater treatment plants.
Organisms found in surface water and wastewater
include bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, plants and
animals, and viruses.
Bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, and viruses can
only be observed microscopically.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Table 4.4.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 The characteristics of industrial wastewater
and levels of pollutants vary significantly
from industry to industry.

The environmental protection agency (EPA)

has grouped the pollutants into three
categories conventional pollutants,
nonconventional pollutants and priority
pollutants (Table 2.5 & 2.6).

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Table 4.5

Table 2.5 continue

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima
 Organic loading (O.L.) (gram/capita.day)
O.L = Q (m3/capita.day) X BOD5 (4.3)
For Malaysia
Organic loading for BOD5 = 55 gram/day for each
person (MS 1228:1991)
For SS = 68 gram/day for each person
Example 2.2:
If the organic loading per capita for sewage is 59
gram/day and the flow rate per capita is 182 liter/day.
1. Calculate BOD5 concentration in the sewage?
2. Calculate the BOD5 concentration if the flow rate per
capita is 136 liter/day?

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Solution:
O.L = 59 gram/capita.day
Q= 182 liter/capita.day
O.L = Q X BOD5

1.BOD5 = 59 X 103 (mg/capita.day) = 324 mg/l

182 (liter/capita.day)
2. BOD5 = 59 X 103 (mg/capita.day) = 434 mg/l
136 (liter/capita.day)

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Daily organic loading, kg/d
= BOD5 (g/m3) X flow rate (m3/d)
103 g/kg
..(4.4)

Organic loading rate is presented as the

weight of organic matter per day applied
over a surface area, (surface organic load)
such as pounds of BOD5 per day per square
foot/square meter

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Example 4.3
One of the industries has a flow rate of 1500
liter/day and BOD5 of 2000 mg/l. if the organic
loading with BOD5 basis per capita is 60 gram /day.
What is PE?

Solution:

Q = 1500 liter/day
O.L = 60 gram/capita.day
BOD5 = 2000 mg/l.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

PE = Q X BOD5
O.L per person

= 1500 (L/day) X (2000 mg X 10-3 g/mg/L)

60 (gram/capita.day)

= 50 capita (50 people)

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Application of effluent discharge standard A
OR B as stipulated in the third schedule of
the environmental quality (sewage and
industrial effluents) regulations 1979
depends on the location of the final
discharge points relative to drinking water
intake points (source of drinking water
supply).

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 W.W.T
.P. Standard A is
Applied
W.W.T. Standard B is
P. Applied

River

Intake point
W.T.P.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima
 Industrial wastewaters can pose serious hazards to
municipal systems.
Industrial wastewaters should be pretreated to
pretreatment standards before they are discharged
into the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
The specific objectives of the pretreatment are:
1. To prevent the introduction of the pollutants into
WWTPs that will interfere with their operation.
2. To prevent the introduction of pollutants to
WWTPs that will pass through the treatment works
or otherwise be incompatible with such works.
3. To improve opportunities to recycle and reclaim
municipal and industrial wastewaters and sludge.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 There are three type of sewerage system:
Sanitary sewer
The sewer coming into the treatment plant carries
wastes from households and commercial
establishments in the city or district, and possibly
some industrial wastes.
Storm sewer
All storms run off from streets, land, and roofs of
buildings are collected separately in storm sewer,
which normally discharges to water course without
treatment.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 Combined sewer
In some areas only one network of sewers are constructed to
convey both sanitary wastes and storm water in a combined
sewer.
Sanitary sewers are normally placed at a slope sufficient a
water velocity of approximately two feet per second (2 ft/s)
when flowing full. This velocity prevents deposition of solids
that may clog the pipe.
Manholes are placed every 300 to 500 feet to allow inspection
and cleaning of the sewer.
When sewers are laid on low areas of land or where the depth
of pipe under the ground surface becomes excessive, pump
station are normally installed.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 The elements to be considered in plant sizing
include:
1. Number and size of process units

2. Number and size of ancillary structures

The layout should include:

1. Provision for expansion

2. Connection to the transportation net

3. connection to the wastewater collection system

4. Effluent discharge location

5. Residuals handling system

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 NUMBER AND SIZE OF PROCESS UNITS

To ensure the provision of wastewater treatment, in

general, a minimum of two units is provided for
redundancy.
When only two units are provided, each shall be
capable of meeting the design capacity.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 NUMBER AND SIZE OF ANCILLARY UNITS

The ancillary units include:

Administration building, laboratory space,
storage tanks, building for pumping facilities,
roads, and parking.
The size of these facilities is a function of the
size of the plant.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 PLANT LOCATION
Ideally a site comparison study will be performed
after alternatives have been screened and rough
sizing of the processes is complete.
Many factors may preclude the ideal situation. For
example, in highly urbanized areas the availability
of land may preclude all but one site.
If more than one site is available, there are several
major issues to be considered:
1. Cost is a major element in the selection process.

2. The site should allow for expansion.

3. The location of the plant relative to the receiving

water for disposal of the treated wastewater.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima

 PLANT LOCATION
4. The service area.
5. Transportation net.
6. The physical characteristics of the site alternatives that
must be evaluated include the potential for flooding,
foundation stability, groundwater intrusion, and the
difficulty in preparing the site.
7. The treatment facility is often placed at the lowest possible
elevation.
8. Other issues to be considered including wetland
infringement, independent sources of power, waste
disposal options, public acceptance (particular attention
must be paid to odor control), and security.

Prepared by Dr. Ahmed H. Birima