General
General Information
IntroductionOver the past twenty years, the knowledge and understanding of wastewater treatment has advanced extensively and moved away from empirically-based approaches to a fundamentally-based ‘first principles’ approach embracing chemistry, microbiology, physical and bioprocess engineering, and mathematics. Many of these advances have matured to the degree that they have been codified into mathematical models for simulation by computers.
For a new generation of young scientists and engineers entering the wastewater treatment profession, the quantity, complexity and diversity of these new developments can be overwhelming, particularly in developing countries where access is not readily available to advanced level courses in wastewater treatment. This Online Course on Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling and Design seeks to address that deficiency. It assembles and integrates the postgraduate course material of a dozen or so professors from research groups around the world that have made significant contributions to the advances in wastewater treatment.
The internet-based curriculum on biological wastewater treatment consists of a more than 40 hours of video-recorded lectures by the author professors all compiled into a DVD package available to those registered for the online course, and of the textbook, lecture handouts, and tutorial exercises for students’ self-study (included and provided after enrollment in the paid online course).
For whom?Sanitary engineers, (environmental) biotechnologists, biochemists, civil engineers, environmental engineers, chemists, environmental scientists and different professionals working or interested in the wastewater treatment field.
Learning ObjectivesAfter this course you will be able to:- Describe the prime objective of wastewater treatment and sanitation and critically discuss the main drivers influencing the development of wastewater treatment technologies in their home country or country of residence
- Determine the stoichiometric and kinetic parameters of the metabolic processes (catabolism and anabolism) of the microorganisms involved in biological wastewater treatment as function of their external electron donors and electron acceptors in relation to the redox conditions usually observed in wastewater treatment systems (such as anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic) and assess and describe these processes through mathematical models and expressions including the effects caused by inhibitory or toxic agents on the microbial conversions
- Critically determine and analyze quantity and quality characteristics of wastewaters originating from urban environments and sewage plants themselves as a basis for the design, operation and control of wastewater treatment facilities
- Apply the knowledge on anaerobic and aerobic biological wastewater treatment processes and engineering on the design and critical assessment of conventional, emerging and innovative wastewater treatment systems and configurations for the removal of organic matter (as chemical oxygen demand) and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) as a function of the environmental, operating, and wastewater conditions and characteristics
- Describe the importance of pathogen removal and assess the pathogen removal efficiencies from different wastewater treatment processes and commonly applied disinfection processes as a function of their disinfection principles and operating and environmental conditions
- Design secondary settling tanks based on the settling properties of activated sludge mixed liquor samples following the most widely applied guidelines for the design and operation of secondary settlers from activated sludge systems and apply potential design and control measures to suppress the factors affecting the settling properties (such as the occurrence of filamentous bacteria)
- Critically assess the applicability and advantages of instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) systems when applied to monitor and control the operation of (activated sludge) wastewater treatment processes
References- Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Design and Modelling, edited by M. Henze, M.C.M. van Loosdrecht, G.A. Ekama and D. Brdjanovic (2008). IWA Publishing, ISBN 13: 9781843391883, pp. 526 (included and provided after enrollment in the paid course)
- DVDs that contain the video lectures of the courses recorded by the main authors (included and provided after enrollment in the paid course)
LecturerCourse materials were prepared/organized by Dr Carlos Lopez Vazquez, Associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology, UNESCO-IHE.
Short coursesThis set of course materials is provided as OpenCourseWare without support and interaction with lecturers. For full lectures and support from lecturers, please register online for one of the related courses:- Describe the prime objective of wastewater treatment and sanitation and critically discuss the main drivers influencing the development of wastewater treatment technologies in their home country or country of residence
These open educational resources are part the UNESCO-IHE Online Course:
Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling and Design
INTRODUCTION