Activated sludge is a process in sewage treatment in which air or oxygen is forced into sewage liquor to develop a biological floc which reduces the organic content of the sewage. In all activated sludge plants, once the sewage has received sufficient treatment, excess mixed liquor is discharged into settling tanks and the supernatant is run off to undergo further treatment before discharge. Part of the settled material, the sludge, is returned to the head of the aeration system to re-seed the new sewage entering the tank. This fraction of the floc is called R.A.S - Return Activated Sludge. The remaining sludge, also called W.A.S - Waste Activated Sludge, is further treated prior to disposal. Sewage treatment is the process that removes the majority of the contaminants from waste-water or sewage and produces both a liquid effluent suitable for disposal to the natural environment and a sludge. ... Flocculation refers to a process where a solute comes out of solution in the form of floc or flakes. The term is also used to refer to the process by which fine particulates are caused to clump together into floc. ... Organic has several meanings and related topics. ... Sewage is domestic, municipal, or industrial liquid waste products disposed of via a pipe or similar structure. ... The liquid, containing soluble compounds, that is left behind after a mixture is centrifuged or precipitated. ... Sludge is a generic term for solids separated from suspension in a liquid by a variety of processes. ...

There are a variety of types of activated sludge plants. These include :

Diffusers

Sewage liquor is run into deep tanks with diffuser blocks attached to the floor. These are like the diffuser blocks used in tropical fish tanks but on a much larger scale. Air is pumped through the blocks and the curtain of bubbles formed both oxygenates the liquor and also provide the necessary stirring action. Where capacity is limited or the sewage is unusually strong or difficult to treat, oxygen is introduced . Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series Chalcogens Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ...

Cones

Vertically mounted tubes of up to 1 metre diameter extend from just above the base of a deep concrete tank to just below the surface of the sewage liquor. A typical shaft might be 10Metres high. At the surface end the tube is formed into a cone with helical vanes attached to the inner surface. When the tube is rotated, the vanes spin liquor up and out of the cones drawing new sewage liquor from the base of the tank. In many works each cone is located in a separate cell that can be isolated from the remaining cells if required for maintenance. Some works may have two cones to a cell and some large works may have 4 cones per cell.

Package Plants

There are a wide range of other types of plants, often serving small communities or industrial plants that may use hybrid treatment processes often involving the use of aerobic sludge to treat the incoming sewage. In such plants the primary settlement stage of treatment may be omitted. In these plants, a biotic floc is created which provides the required substrate. Sewage treatment is the process that removes the majority of the contaminants from waste-water or sewage and produces both a liquid effluent suitable for disposal to the natural environment and a sludge. ...

Pasveer Ditch

In some areas where more land is available sewage is treated in large round or oval ditches with one or two rotating paddles called brush aerators which drive the liquor around the ditch and provide aeration. These are Pasveer ditches, also called oxidation ditches or carousels. They have the advantage that they are relatively easy to maintain and are resilient to shock loads that often occur in smaller communities (i.e at breakfast time and in the evening).

Deep Shaft

Where land is in short supply sewage may be treated by injection of oxygen into a pressured return sludge stream which is injected into the base of a deep columnar tank buried in the ground. Such shafts may be up to 20 metres deep and are filled with settled sewage liquor. As the sewage rises the oxygen forced into solution by the pressure at the base of the shaft breaks out as molecular oxygen providing a highly efficient source of oxygen for the activated sludge biota. The rising oxygen and injected return sludge provide the physical mechanism for mixing of the sewage and sludge. Mixed sludge and sewage is decanted at the surface and separated into supernatant and sludge components. The efficiency of deep shaft treatment can be high but both installation costs and running costs are higher than most other methods and maintenance problems at many plants have given this method a poor rating General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series Chalcogens Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ...