What is the history behind Sewage Treatment Plant invention?
The general goal of sewage treatment is to generate an effluent that can be released to the environment with little water contamination, or an effluent that can be reused in a beneficial manner. This is easily accomplished by filtering the sewage for pollutants.
Let us look at how Sewage Treatment Plants were introduced back in time!
The history of sewage treatment dates back approximately 12,000 years, despite the fact that you may not have realized it. Sewage treatment has gone a long way from wells to copper drainage pipes to the wastewater systems we know today. Continue reading to find out more!
The origin of sewage treatment
Humans appear to have constructed permanent wells for water usage during the Neolithic era, often known as the New Stone Age, which lasted from roughly 12,000 to 6,500 years ago. However, nothing is known about sewage and its pathways.
However, about 3000 BCE, there is evidence of a tiny 'cell-like' area in residences at Skara Brae (a community in Scotland) that may have been used as a primitive-style toilet. These chambers looked to be connected to an internal, tree bark lined, stone fresh and wastewater system that circulated liquids around the tiny space.
The following advancements occurred in the history of sewage treatment:
It started with land application (sewage farms) in the 1840s in England, then moved on to chemical treatment and sewage sedimentation in tanks, then biological treatment in the late 1800s, and finally the activated sludge method in 1912.
It wasn't until the late 1800s that it became practical to treat sewage by biologically decomposing the organic components and eliminating the contaminants using microorganisms. As cities developed, the volume of sewage generated could no longer be absorbed by the farms on the edges, land treatment became less viable.
During the 1870s, Edward Frankland performed tests at a sewage farm in Croydon, England, demonstrating that filtration of sewage via porous gravel generated a nitrified effluent (the ammonia was changed to nitrate) and that the filter remained unclogged for lengthy periods of time. This pioneered the then-revolutionary concept of biological sewage treatment utilizing a contact bed to oxidize the waste.
William Libdin, the head chemist for the London Metropolitan Board of Works, proposed this proposal in 1887:
In all likelihood, the proper method of purifying sewage...will be to first separate the sludge, then convert it to neutral effluent, hold it for a suitable amount of time, during which time it should be thoroughly aerated, and then discharge it into the stream in a pure state. On a sewage farm, this is exactly what is aspired for and poorly accomplished”.
Filters based on this concept were built all throughout the UK between 1885 and 1891, and the idea was also taken up in the United States at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Massachusetts, where Frankland's work was validated. The LES created a 'trickling filter' in 1890 that provided significantly more consistent results.
Sewage Treatment in India
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), and the newly established Ministry of Jal Shakti are in charge of wastewater treatment rules in India.
When it comes to sewage treatment, these are some of the processes followed_
1: Sewage treatment plants
2: Septic Tanks
3: Plants for Sewage Treatment at Residential and Commercial Areas
Technical assistance and guidance
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