Ballasted Clarification in Conventional Municipal Wastewater Treatment in Iraq

Abstract

In this work a practical comparison has been done between the conventional coagulation and flocculation method and Ballast flocculation as a primary settling procedure that was used to treat sewage water in Al-Zaafraniya apartment complex. The results show that the conventional method using alum as coagulant 75 mg/L, gives removal efficiencies of Total suspended solid TSS 50-60%, BOD 30-40% and total phosphorus TP 40% at total time of 60 minutes. While the Ballast flocculation method using alum 75 mg/L , polyelectrolyte 1.5 mg/L and sand 10 mg/l (70μm) gives removal efficiencies of TSS 50-70%, BOD 30-40% and TP 68% at total time less than 22 minutes. From the above, a conclusion can be noticed that the Ballast flocculation method means reduction in equipment size and footprint area more over efficiency in total phosphorus removal.