The course aims to equip students with (1) a knowledge base on the major biochemical, physical and physico-chemical processes relevant to contemporary wastewater treatment; (2) an appreciation of how these processes in ideal reactors respond to environmental and operational factors; (3) a knowledge base regarding the applications and limitations of these biochemical operations; (4) an ability to construct, use, and interpret mathematical models of the main biochemical operations; (5) an ability to perform process design and analysis for the major unit operations, via appropriate steady-state computations or the use of dynamic process simulation. En studerende, der fuldt ud har opfyldt kursets mål, vil kunne:

• List and discuss the components of wastewater and their influence on choice of treatment processes.
• Describe and contrast the underlying mechanisms of the different biochemical and physiochemical reactions used in wastewater treatment.
• Size ideal reactors and estimate operational conditions for steady-state biochemical removal of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous from wastewater by use of mass balances, process kinetics, process stoichiometry, and reactor hydraulics.
• Use, compare, contrast, and apply basic design and operational differences for suspended growth and biofilm bioreactors
• Describe and perform basic stoichiometric and sizing calculations for chemical unit processes in advanced wastewater treatment.
• Describe and perform basic design calculations for various unit operations applicable to solids or liquid separation.
• Sketch and explain complete process trains for treatment of various wastewaters, recognizing limitations with respect to energy consumption, operational simplicity, robustness, and decentralizability.
• Develop and use dynamic mass-balance models to describe, size, and control biochemical processes in various reactor configurations
• Analyze and evaluate full scale treatment plant performance, and document the results in a professional engineering report.
• Perform the conceptual design of a wastewater treatment plant appropriate to a set of specified effluent or treatment performance conditions
• Describe and discuss in a report format, as well as orally present selected bioengineering principals and biotechnology solutions relevant to contemporary wastewater management.

The course covers process understanding, process modelling, and design and operation of treatment unit operation processes for the removal of soluble and particulate organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and synthetic organic chemicals from wastewaters. Special emphasis is given to biochemical processes and physical separation processes. Chemical treatment processes are covered at basic level, necessary to understand how they can optimise/enhance biochemical treatment processes. Conceptual design and analysis of biological wastewater treatment plants, is the ultimate goal of the course. Extensive use of simulation models in all phases of the course is undertaken (no prior programming experience required). Tchobanoglous, G., F. L. Burton, and H. D. Stensel. 2002. Wastewater Engineering. Treatment and Reuse, 5th ed. McGraw-Hill Publishing Co, New York NY

Provided to students in an electronic version:
Henze (2008): "Biological wastewater treatment" – e-Book (IWA Publishing)
Gujer (2008): "Systems analysis for water technology - e-Book (Springer) The course makes extensive use of group/cooperative learning. Group assignments are made by the instructors at the onset of the semester. Individual contributions to group project are explicitly assessed.


Green challenge participation:
The content and aims of this course is not considered relevant for DTU's Study Conference on sustainability, climate technology, and the environment. http:/​/​www.groendyst.dtu.dk 08. november, 2016