DOI 10.1007/s10661-007-9782-3
Received: 15 January 2007 / Accepted: 6 April 2007 / Published online: 15 May 2007
# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007
Introduction
The average annual amount of distributed water per
Taiwanese resident is only one-sixth of the global
average. Therefore, water recycling and reuse become
an urgent issue in Taiwan. Wastewater accounts for
210% of the total water production in water
treatment plants (Cornwell and MacPhee 2001;
Dotremont et al. 1999; Le Gouellec et al. 2004;
Nasser et al. 2002; Vigneswaran et al. 1996).
Wastewater contains the backwash water from the
rapid sand filter and the drained muddy water from
the flocculation/sedimentation basins and the clarifier.
Reuse of such wastewater reduces water consumption
for complying with wastewater effluent standards of
water treatment plants. Supernatant reuse can significantly reduce effluent volume and achieve the goal of
total wastewater reduction.
Wastewater reuse facilities are designed and
utilized in water treatment plants in most developed
countries. Large quantities of impurities in reuse
wastewater recycled to raw water may contaminate
raw water quality and caused difficulty for subsequent
water purification processes. Generally, wastewater is
recycled and reused via direct and process reuse.
Direct reuse
Direct reuse is the most common method of recycling and
reusing wastewater in Taiwan, mainly containing reuse of
backwash water in rapid sand filters (Arora et al. 2001)
472
473
efficiency%
Assessment methods
Water quality data was analyzed to evaluate wastewater treatment efficiency and assess the feasibility of
supernatant reuse during each treatment process.
Analytical results for supernatant water quality were
used to evaluate whether recycled water quality
complies with effluent standards. Table 2 shows
effluent standards for water treatment plants in
Taiwan. Effluent standards for chemical oxygen
demand (COD) and suspended solids (SS) for water
treatment plants in Taiwan are 100 and 50 mg/L,
respectively. Table 3 shows the quantities and quality
at CCLWTP. Recycled water quantities at four
sampling times were 12,20022,410 CMD, occupied
about 3.55.7% of treated water. From the formula of
to calculate the concentration of recycled water and
raw water combined. The formula is as follow:
Types of wastewater
Wastewater basin
Backwash wastewater
A1
Supernatant reuse
A2
The drained muddy water of flocculation/sedimentation basin mixed with bottom concentrated A3
liquid of wastewater basin
Supernatant reuse
A4
Bottom concentrated liquid of wastewater sedimentation basin
A5
Supernatant reuse
A6
Wastewater
sedimentation basin
Sludge thickener
Sample
no.
474
Effluent limits
Unit
100
50
mg/L
mg/L
Sampling dates
Jan. 9
15,500
22,410
19,480
3.5
5.7
5.1
13.7
9.4
13.1
21.7
Maximum limit
Unit
AmmoniaN (NH3N)
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
Total Organic Carbon (TOC)
1
25
4
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
Analyzing method
1.13(mg/L)
0.11(mg/L as N)
7.75(mg/L)
Fig. 4 The NH3N concentrations during each treatment process for the four
sampling days
475
476
Fig. 6 The turbidity values
during each treatment process for the four sampling
days
Fig. 7 The COD concentrations during each treatment process for the four
sampling days
477
478
than the 12.0613.63 mg/L at the Fongshan traditional water chlorination treatment plant. The mixed
concentrations of COD were far less than the
25 mg/L of the water quality standard for drinking
water. Therefore, the reuse of wastewater is feasible.
Conclusions and suggestions
1. The treatment efficiency of SS and turbidity are
48.3599.68% and 24.1599.36%, respectively.
Therefore, the wastewater treatment units confirm
that the SS and turbidity removal are significant
throughout the wastewater processes.
2. The removal efficiency of NH3N, TOC and
COD are limited by wastewater treatment processes. Because of wastewater treatment units is
used as a substitute for sedimentation and sludge
dewatering of wastewater recycling. Thus, wastewater treatment units were not effective in
reducing NH3N, TOC and COD. Therefore, the
ozonation treatment step in wastewater treatment
oxidizes and removes NH3N, TOC and COD
improving the follow-up treatment efficiency.
3. During wastewater treatment processes, NH3N,
TOC and COD of mixing supernatant and raw
water is regulated raw water quality standards.
Therefore, supernatant reuse is feasible and
workable during wastewater processes at the
CCLWTP.
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