A nation with a population of 1.3 billion and diversity like India needs a strong water treatment facility. In recent years, the rapid expansion of cities and migration has caused concerns in regards to it. To manage the wastewater in line with the regulations and the safety of the populace and environment, there are many water treatment plants in India that function day in and day out.

How Does A Water Treatment Plant Work?

All the major treatment plants consist of components and processes like cooling towers, ultra-filtration, demoralization, reverse osmosis and in the end, a pumping station.

The process for treating wastewater is divided into four phases - Pre-treatment, Primary, Secondary, and Sludge.

Pre-Treatment

Companies in India begin the treatment process with a pre-treatment process. In the pre-treatment process, plants remove large items such as tree limbs, garbage, leaves, cans, rags, plastic bottles, diapers and other waste materials with a set of bar screens.

Special treatment plants use the method of equalization and chambering to regulate the rate of water inflow as it helps to get rid of stones, glasses and big sand particles. These plants are equipped with basins that keep control over the flow of sewage. Only after the processing is done, it is released for further processing.

Primary Treatment

The process that is followed after pretreatment is the primary treatment. In this process, the wastewater is collected in clarifiers, which comprises many large tanks. Before passing the material to the machines, a sort of mechanical scraper collects material that is solid and directs it to smaller machines called hoppers which manage to sludge the waste.

If there is the residue of oil and grease in the debris and it is not removed in the earlier process, it is removed in this process. Plants use surface skimmers and some special machinery like saponify.

Secondary Treatment

After primary treatment, the wastewater is flown through the secondary phase where plants aerate and agitate the wastewater in basins. In the basin, the water is treated by mixing it with microorganisms that help in breaking down organic matter into sludge for further processing.

For example, treatment plants create a mixture of microbes and pass the wastewater over the biofilm. Generally, treatment plants mix the biomass with waste material, creating a kind of sludge that can be recycled.

Sludge Treatment

The final phase in the water treatment method is sludging. In this process, treatment of the remaining water and biosolids is performed. After the separation of the waste from the sludge, the remaining sludge is passed through to a thickener. In the thickener, the sludge is centrifuged and fed to digesting tanks containing anaerobic bacteria.

This is the general process of wastewater treatment in major water treatment companies in Pune and anywhere else in India.