Although, in Australia there has been an increase in pressure from the Australian Government for many manufacturers to reach a higher standard of treatment of wastewater for environmental discharge the biggest problem is the existing pipe network. Especially the sewerage pipes, high sugar-nutrient loads of industrial waste water can cause damage to the pipes that are already aging. This is due to fermentation that occurs in wastewater both cracking and eroding the pipes, this in turn leads to water ingress which adds pressure to water treatment plants because of the higher volumes of water – especially during wet weather.
Large volumes of mostly biodegradable liquid and soil waste comes from the food manufacturing industry and when the wastewater is released it looks *muddy* and is full of fats, oils, suspended solids, grease and nutrients such as phosphate, nitrogen and ammonia.
The issue food manufacturers face is that the existing wastewater treatment systems are unable to reduce that nutrient load in the biological treatment stage to a level that is acceptable to discharge. Many of the more traditional systems are too expensive to maintain and operate and often they are not as effective anyway.
Many of these systems rely on large tanks that house bacteria which is submerged in water and aerated – just like the bubbles in a fish tank. Unfortunately, aeration is hungry when it comes to the amount of energy it uses and it can also form a *sludge cake* on the top of the water which can be quite hard to treat.The Interfil sludge dewatering system is commonly used to dewater the sludge cake for land fill and clean water.
Waste water is water that is no longer needed or suitable for its most recent use. Wastewater treatment is a process that can convert wastewater into an effluent that can be either returned to the water cycle with very minimal environmental issues or re-used. Treatment means removing the impurities from the water that is being treated. The actual infrastructure for wastewater treatment is performed at a wastewater treatment plant.
A wastewater treatment plant manages the treatment of human waste, solid waste, stormwater drainage, sewer treatment and water treatment. By products from waste water treatment plants such as screenings for sewage sludge and grit is also sometimes treated at a wastewater treatment plant. If the waste water is predominantly from households and industry/businesses it is called sewerage and its treatment is called sewerage treatment.
A typical sewerage treatment plant may include primary treatment to remove solid materials. Secondary treatment to digest suspended and dissolved organic materials along with phosphorus and nitrogen. Today the term sewage treatment plant has been replaced by the term wastewater treatment plant.
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