Primary Treatment
Understand the tank, control the solids and protect everything downstream.
Who it is for
Plant operators and operators in training who run or study primary clarifiers.
Format
Online, self-paced: 10 timed modules with the manual reading, worked examples and a short check after each module, plus the student manual to download.
Length and price
2 hours, $60.
What you will learn
Taught by Brad Musick. 10 modules. Worked examples use a fictional 8.0 MGD design plant.
- Why primary treatment matters (5 min)Removing settleable solids, capturing grease and floatables, controlling sludge before it goes septic, and reducing load on aeration and solids handling.
- Inside circular and rectangular clarifiers (10 min)Inlet, settling zone, collectors, surface skimming and effluent weirs.
- Settling principles and design numbers (10 min)The four types of settling behavior and the design and operating numbers every operator should know.
- Influent distribution and storm flow (10 min)Splitting flow, calming the inlet, and what high flow does to settling.
- Sludge blanket control and sludge pumping (15 min)Acting before the failure is visible, pumping frequency and run time, and thin versus thick sludge.
- Scum, grease and weir loading (10 min)Surface control, even draw-off and clean weirs.
- Primary treatment math (20 min)Surface overflow rate, detention time, weir loading, percent TSS removal and primary sludge solids loading, with worked examples and practice questions.
- Troubleshooting (10 min)High effluent TSS, rising sludge and odor, and scum carryover, with decision trees.
- Septicity, hydrogen sulfide and recycle streams (10 min)Why held sludge hurts aeration, H2S safety, and how returns from digesters, dewatering and thickeners come back to the primaries.
- Daily rounds and process control (10 min)What normal and abnormal look like, what to check every shift, and how to log and trend it.
What operators take away
- A clear picture of how a primary clarifier works and what the operator controls.
- Primary treatment math you have worked yourself.
- A sludge pumping approach based on blanket depth, solids and odor.
- Troubleshooting trees and a daily rounds routine.
- Timed online modules with a short check after each one, a final quiz that opens when every check is passed and the study time is logged, and a certificate of completion from Wastewater Academy™ when you pass it.
- A student manual to download (comes with the class).
Look inside
A few sample pages from the student manual. Tap a page to open it full size.
These are sample pages only. The full student manual comes with the class.
Register
2 hours, $60.
CEU approval for this class is pending with Indiana IDEM, and CEUs are not approved yet. If you need CEU credit, please wait to buy until we announce approval here.
Registration is open. Register online and start right away.
After you pay, you are taken to a page where you start the online course and download the student manual. Work through the 10 modules in order; each ends with a 4-question check, and you need 3 of 4 to open the next module. The study timer counts time only while a module page is open and in front, and you have been active in the last 5 minutes. The final quiz opens after every check is passed and 1 hour 50 minutes of study are logged. It has 15 questions; you need 80 percent, with up to 3 attempts. After you pass and fill in a short course evaluation, you get a certificate of completion from Wastewater Academy™ in the name you enroll with. Online access, including the course, manual, quiz, and certificate, lasts 90 days from purchase. To see the style of questions first, try a free practice quiz.
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