Whether to go for chemical or biological wastewater treatment will actually depend on the industry that you belong to. This article offers a couple of comparative pointers that will help you in making the most appropriate decision.

  1. There are two primary types of biological treatments – attached growth and suspended growth. MBBR (moving bed biofilm reactors) are utilized in the attached growth biological treatment process. Activated sludge is utilized in the suspended growth biological treatment process.
  2. Biological treatments comprise aeration, the formation of the activated sludge, phytoremediation and mycoremediation of the wastewater and so on. This is carried out via the utilization of varying filters and bioreactors. The pattern of treatment could be either aerobic or anaerobic.
  3. Common biological treatments of wastewater are not expensive and they mainly work for wastewater that contains pollutants that are biodegradable. They are utilized in removing suspended, soluble organic contents. They can become costly with the utilization of technology as well as controls for the monitoring of pressure, aeration, temperature, pH, and so on. Thus, this might appear to be an initial investment, but it eventually turns out to be a truly cost-effective option in the long term.
  4. Chemical treatments are needed in instances that involve toxic substances. These comprise soluble metals like mercury, nickel, as well as lead among several others. The toxic contents are treated using chemicals like calcium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide to formulate insoluble metal hydroxides, which then precipitate and separate from the water. This is basically what the chemical wastewater treatment process entails.
  5. The easiest illustration of the biological treatment process would be the decomposition of garden and kitchen waste with the assistance of bacteria. Thus, these are all basically biodegradable substances that contain edible fats, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and sometimes hydrocarbons.
  6. Apart from the toxic substances’ precipitation, chemical treatments comprise flocculation and coagulation processes to further take out the finer contaminants. These processes all help the fine particles in combining with the heavy ones, which then separate from the water.
  7. Disinfection and ion exchange processes are also aspects of the process of the chemical treatment of wastewater. The chlorination of water is just a very simple process of disinfection. Ion exchange functions to make the water a lot more potable, and thus it is used for all applications that need pure water.
  8. The power that is consumed by biological systems could turn out to be significantly more than that which is consumed by chemical systems, and it could turn out quite challenging to set a biological treatment system in a remote area.

By and large, the kind of required treatment – whether biological or chemical, will be dependent on the following parameters;

  • Wastewater characteristics and features including toxicity.
  • Pre-treatment contaminants level.
  • Available resources and land for facility setup and operation.
  • Flowrate.
  • Acceptable post-treatment contaminants level.

By now, you have an excellent idea about both chemical and biological wastewater treatment. Whichever you eventually choose, it’s imperative that you have meters, a well-engineered pumping system, as well as other varying equipment. If you need new pumps or other varying filtration equipment, ensure that you approach only water technology suppliers who are most reliable.