Water Treatment and Wastewater Treatment are complex fields. Have you ever met someone that told you, he was fully confident to know everything about them? Well spoiler: that person lied ????
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But don’t worry, by patiently compiling (and never stopping!) all the questions I hear left and right, then looking for the best experts to answer them, I’ll build a definitive Water Industry cheat sheet for you right here.
Check it out ⬇️
The timelines of Water and Wastewater Management started around the same milestones, with the first large civilizations.
Around 3’500 BC, the first evidence is found of Water & Wastewater Management in the Mesopotamian Empire.
The Romans would then be the first to provide a full-circle integrated water cycle management.
And then… nothing!
With the collapse of the Roman Empire, everything that the Mesopotamians, the Indus, the Greeks, or the Romans had brought to human wellbeing kind of vanished.
Water would recover gradually. But for wastewater… the dark age would last over a millennial!
Dive into the depth of that story here to answer this simple question: how long do Wastewater Treatment Plants exist?
This exercise is for sure very subjective, yet here’s my attempt:
5️ The Man who defied a US President
4️ The Water Detective that triggered an Industry Revolution
3️ The Man that triggered desalination – and got a dismal reward
2️ The Man that made Drinking Water “Pure and Wholesome.”
1️ The Technology, that’s somehow in my garden
To clarify my choices (a little), I also give you the list of people that were close to making it towards the end of this deep dive!
It is the most rapidly growing wastewater treatment technology and has the power to turn a secondary treatment into an almost quaternary one.
Yet, 25 years ago, early pioneers were seen as slightly mad to believe, Membrane Bioreactors could become a thing!
At the time, membranes already had difficulties establishing themselves in clean water applications, so you can imagine that in wastewater, it was even worse…
What’s the secret of MBRs? We’ve made a thorough tour of the question (… and if there’s something missing, please reach out!)
Dive into the depth of that story here: What are Membrane Bioreactors?
As we’ve just seen, membrane treatments grew in 30 years to a dominant water treatment technology (almost from scratch). Yet, do you know everything about them?
I strived to put all the key knowledge about membrane filtration in a single place so that you’ll know the ins and outs of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and all their friends!
They may well be around for 120 years, but ozone plants are still a riddle to many.
Killer Gas? Killer Song? We investigate all of this in this ozone water treatment deep dive.
In short, ozone is tri-oxygen, an unstable form of oxygen that happens to be one of the most powerful oxidants on earth.
You can produce it by breaking dioxygen through UV radiation or electrical shocks.
… and once introduced into water, it may disinfect, purify, and remove specific pollutants (and much more).
So, did you know:
???? … that the “Ozone Layer” is almost a fraud?
???? … that the guy that discovered Ozone actually did not notice?
???? … that 19th-century hipsters saw the gas as a source of well-being?
???? … that the First World War almost killed ozone treatments?
???? … that it took the discovery of Four Horsemen to revive the ozone hype in the s?
???? … that one of the major improvements in ozone generation resulted from another lab accident?
???? … that history was made both in the South-West of Germany and in LA?
???? … And that you can find ozone quite easily around you if you’d like to experience it first-hand?
No? Then you’ll love the video summary you’ll find here.
Water is integral to Singapore’s success, and it is not a coincidence. Since the country took its political independence from Malaysia, it conscientiously built its water independence as well!
This water management marvel will be over in when Singapore cuts the last cord that still ties it to Malaysia, and it involves water reuse, the most advanced water treatments, and gigantic water infrastructure.
How does that work in detail? You’ll find out in this deep dive!
Water treatment is essential in making sure that we can use water safely and effectively. It’s not just about ensuring there are no chemicals or contaminants present but also making sure that the pH level of the water is ideal for our needs.
From industrial process water to potable drinking water, it’s important to make sure that proper methods are put in place to ensure safe and clean water for all our needs.
Depending on the source of the water, various processes may need to be implemented, such as filtration, clarification, sedimentation, sterilization, disinfection, or more advanced technologies (if you want to know more about those, you may want to subscribe to my podcast!).
All these measures are key to preventing any negative health impacts from using poor-quality water. It’s easy to take safe drinking water for granted, but without proper treatment processes, this wouldn’t be possible!
Oh, and in case you really took it for granted, did you know that 2.2 billion people on earth have no access to safe drinking water?
Wastewater treatment is the process through which water is cleaned before being discharged to make sure it does not pollute the environment. Sometimes it gets reused, even though not enough!
Wastewater is generated whenever water is used. This wastewater can contain pollutants such as oil, grease, detergents, suspended solids, heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, and other pollutants.
Treating it is important because it prevents these pollutants from entering the environment and contaminating our water sources. Wastewater treatment also makes sure that water can be reused in some way, such as for irrigation or industrial processes. If untreated wastewater gets into rivers, lakes, or even oceans, it can cause water pollution and harm ecosystems. And before you ask, yes, we still don’t treat 44% of the wastewater on earth…
Wastewater treatment is usually done in several stages, starting with the removal of large solid particles such as sand, rocks, and wood. This is followed by biological treatment processes that use bacteria to break down organic matter, such as fats, oils, and grease. Water then gets clarified and sometimes further treated (to remove micropollutant or reuse it).
According to an informal survey, the most common ones shall be:
Water treatment typically targets several major categories of contaminants to ensure safety and usability:
The specific treatment approach varies based on the water source, intended use, and local regulations, with different technologies designed to target these diverse contamination challenges.
Wastewater treatment processes target several key categories of contaminants before water can be safely returned to the environment:
More recent treatment innovations address emerging contaminants of concern that traditional processes weren’t designed to handle. These include microplastics, endocrine-disrupting compounds from medications and industrial processes, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The specific treatment approach varies depending on the wastewater source (municipal versus industrial), local regulations, and whether the water will be discharged or reused. Advanced technologies like membrane filtration, advanced oxidation processes, and biological treatments are increasingly deployed to handle these complex contamination challenges as standards become more stringent.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Wastewater Treatment Tanks.
New York City has a fascinating and surprising water history that begins with a fundamental paradox – despite being surrounded by water, the city had virtually no drinkable water sources.
That’s how early New Yorkers resorted to drinking… warm beer rather than unsafe water, and how a spectacular scam by Aaron Burr created a “water company” that was actually a bank in disguise. T
he city’s desperate water situation led to epidemics, fires, and a growing crisis as the population expanded, until engineers finally devised an ambitious 50-kilometer aqueduct system from the Croton River in the s.
This remarkable engineering feat, completed in after numerous challenges, finally gave New York reliable drinking water… 218 years after the city’s founding!
Today, New York remains one of only five major U.S. cities with unfiltered drinking water, protected through innovative watershed conservation rather than traditional filtration plants.
And if that piqued your curiosity, here’s the full strange history of how a city with no viable water source became a metropolis of millions by watching
We really are jumping around it seems, right? Well, here are the 5 most common types of water treatment plants:
Many modern water treatment facilities are actually hybrids of these categories, customized to address the specific characteristics of local water sources and the contaminants of concern in each community.
Denmark is the country with the most expensive drinking water. And also – in quite related news – the country with the most sustainable water management there is!
Now, that has not always been the case; excellence is never a given. It did not happen overnight, but there’s a lot many other countries may want to steal in this approach, let’s wrap it up in just 2 minutes ⬇️
PFAS can be difficult to remove from water due to their chemical properties.
Treatment options for removing PFAS from water include granular activated carbon filtration, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Granular activated carbon filtration is a common method for removing PFAS from water, but it can be expensive and may not be effective for removing all PFAS. Reverse osmosis can also be used to remove PFAS, but it is a more complex and expensive process. AOPs, which use chemical reactions to break down PFAS molecules, is a newer treatment technology that shows promise for removing PFAS from water.
But the most effective approach for removing PFAS from water will depend on the specific characteristics of the contamination, the water source and what levels you effectively want to reach at the output.
Since the early s, Stockholm has used a unique method of treating wastewater: instead of a conventional #WastewaterTreatmentPlant, they use… a mountain!
Wastewater from all over the town is collected and treated to the highest standards in Henriksdal and beneath the Hammarbybacken ski slope. And it isn’t over yet!
Stockholm Vatten SFA project will increase the plant’s capacity, improve its treatment performance, and collect the remaining wastewater that is currently flowing through Bromma to treat the entire city’s sewage in one location.
Have you ever seen Dr. No’s cave in a James Bond film? Imagine a modern wastewater treatment plant in it, and you’ll have a good idea of what Henriksdal is all about!
Welcome to the second edition of ‘Questions people ask’, where we explain key issues by answering some of the questions we often get asked.
This time, we’re looking at wastewater, which is the water and everything it contains after we have used it – from chemicals to cooking fat, human faeces to urine, agricultural effluent to industrial discharge.
We cannot afford to simply let untreated wastewater flow back into nature – it’s dangerous and a huge missed opportunity.
Safely treated wastewater is a precious source of water, energy and nutrients – and wastewater management can create many jobs.
So, here are five questions we get asked about wastewater.
First edition of ‘Questions people ask’ on water scarcity is available here.
The volume of wastewater that we generate and its overall pollution load – human waste, chemicals, harmful levels of nutrients – are increasing.
At the same time, wastewater management is being seriously neglected, which means a vast and growing quantity of untreated wastewater is being returned to nature, where it can contaminate surface and underground freshwater resources and marine ecosystems.
Wastewater also pollutes beaches, lakes and rivers, thereby degrading nature and our quality of life, and impacting the economic return from recreation and tourism.
The way we collect, treat and dispose of our wastewater – which contains deadly pathogens from human waste, among other harmful contents – has a significant impact on the quality and safety of the water we drink and use in our daily lives.
Sadly, high mortality rates related to poor water quality are common in many parts of the world. Latest data from the World Health Organization show that diseases caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene are responsible for the deaths of around 1,000 children under 5 every day.
Also, poor wastewater management is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), particularly wastewater from healthcare settings, intensive animal raising and antimicrobial manufacturing. Untreated wastewater releases resistant bugs and antimicrobial chemicals into water bodies where they can pass on resistance in a vicious cycle that threatens to make everyday infections in humans and animals incurable with antibiotics.
However, many wastewater treatment plants operating today have been designed in a way that does not always allow complete elimination of microcontaminants. The main purpose of these facilities has been to decrease organic matter, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, which can cause depletion of oxygen and eutrophication of water bodies that receive treated wastewater. Hence, many micropollutants like antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes can be transferred to the environment with treated wastewater. Therefore it is important to improve existing wastewater treatment facilities where possible.
Sustainable Development Goal targets 6.2 and 6.3 requires countries to, by , “achieve universal access to safely manged sanitation systems” and “improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally”. Countries measure progress using global indicators.
As an example of rapid change, in Brazil, in the s and s, government-led investment of more than 10 billion USD resulted in 900 wastewater treatment plants being built in the period between and , significantly improving water quality for millions of people.
Wastewater is the used water collected from toilets, latrine pits, septic tanks, and ‘grey’ water – from washing machines, baths, sinks etc – and rainwater primarily collected from drains.
It’s possible to use grey- and rainwater without much, or any, treatment for uses such as gardening or domestic cleaning.
However, wastewater containing human or animal waste – ‘faecal sludge’ – is hazardous and needs to be filtered and processed (there are various methods) in a treatment facility.
Safely treated wastewater can then be used as a source of water – for activities such as irrigation and industrial cooling – and recovered materials from faecal sludge can be burned for energy or safely used as soil conditioner in food production.
There are many things we can do as individuals to help reduce water use and ensure our wastewater is as clean as possible. For instance:
By reducing the quantity and pollution of our wastewater, and by safely reusing it as much as we can, we’re all helping to protect our most precious resource.
Through the release of potent greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, wastewater accounts for about 1.57 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, just below the climate harm caused by the global aviation industry. (UNEP)
However, wastewater can become a climate solution: in generating biogas, heat, and electricity, it can produce about five times more energy than is required for its treatment – enough to provide electricity for around half a billion people per year. By reducing water insecurity, good management of wastewater can also support countries’ efforts to adapt to climate change (UNEP).
Singapore safely reuses water (NEWater), collected from the public sewerage system, for drinking water and other uses. Alongside desalination and other measures, NEWater has helped Singapore to reduce water stress and improve water-use efficiency to overcome extreme water scarcity.
In the face of climate change, wastewater is a critical source of alternative water, particularly for agriculture. Recovering costs of wastewater treatment has been a major hurdle for years in developing countries. The need for finance and access to climate finance to improve wastewater treatment will be crucial in the years ahead.
For more GFS Tanksinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.