Physical Treatment Technologies: Flocculation
The use of gravity is often the most economical method of separating solids from a liquid. In a sedimentation tank, heavier particles sink to the bottom and are collected in a trough. When particles, like clay, are too small to settle on their own...
Physical Treatment Technologies: Centrifuges and the Baghouse
Centrifuges, such as the baghouse, possess several environmental advantages over surface filtration. As an enclosed unit, it can contain volatile or toxic fumes and mists. Additionally, the fixed barrier used in a centrifuge may simply be back flu...
Physical Treatment Technologies: Filtration
Filtration is one of the most common techniques for physical separation, and is used to remove solids from both gaseous and liquid streams. It is frequently used in the treatment of waste water.
Physical Treatment Technologies: Vapor Pressure: Evaporation Ponds, Air Stripping and Distillation
The physical property known as vapor pressure is the tendency of a material, at a given temperature, to turn into a gas. Substances with a higher vapor pressure will change into a gas more quickly than substances with a lower vapor pressure. These...
Physical Treatment Technologies: Microfiltration and Reverse Osmosis
Microfiltration and reverse osmosis are barrier filters that have the smallest pore sizes utilized. These techniques are heavily dependant on supplementary pressure to force the waste stream across the barrier. After the larger particles have been...
Physical Treatment Technologies: Adsorption
Adsorption is a process that may be considered as either a chemical or a physical treatment method. The forces that hold the adsorbed substance to the surface of an adsorbing material are chemical, but the material itself can be recovered in its or...
Physical Treatment Technologies: Physical Treatment Processes
Physical treatment technologies often provide the initial and most efficient form of treatment, but do not actually transform or destroy the waste. Physical treatment processes often rely on natural forces to do the work.
Physical Treatment Technologies: Waste and Emissions Standards
In the past, when the waste load was light, nature's ways of purifying itself were sufficient. However, the amount of waste generated by contemporary society has overburdened these restorative powers. As a result, regulations now control the quant...
Physical Treatment Technologies: Electrostatic Precipitation
Particulate matter created as a result of burning coal may be too hot to draw through a baghouse. With an electrostatic precipitator, the hot, dirty stream of exhaust gas passes through a densely spaced series of plates. High voltage electricity c...
Introduction to Waste Stream Management: Liquid Waste
In the past, some of the major sources of water pollution have been landfills, underground storage tanks, and untreated effluent. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA sets industry-specific discharge limitations for water pollutants. Treatment metho...