Biological wastewater treatment
Biological wastewater treatment is a group of methods to free water from biological and chemical pollution.
Most water treatment systems include a number of steps for waste water treatment. Screening, filtering, biological treatment and chemical filtration. Some systems also include Ultra-violet and ozonation.
Contents
Water treatment units
Primary treatment
Screening
Screening removes large objects such as vegetable matter or sanitary napkins from the water stream in order to avoid clogging the system. It is usually accomplished using wire mesh screen, bar meshes, rotating drums or other mechanical removal systems for continuous operations.
Settlement chambers
Secondary treatment
Tertiary treatment
Energy and space requirements
The active littoral zone
a long term alternative to standard water treatment is to use the active littoral zone of lakes and ponds. The littoral zone of a lake is the shallow part, where water plants and a great variety of small animals and microbes are living. It is biological active, that is, it has a cleaning effect upon the water. Even pharmaceuticals are digested. However, the cleaning capacity is limited.
Such a lake could eventually be an important part of the waste water treatment in a Martian settlement. Lakes and ponds on Mars would require enclosure in a pressure vessel to avoid freezing and evaporating.
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