MEE6801 All Units Assessments (June 2019)

MEE 6801

Unit 1 Assessment

1. Identify the terms biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids, and discuss the relationship between the two metrics as they relate to wastewater treatment.

2. Explain the impact of industrial and hazardous waste on human populations.

3. List each priority pollutant category, with one constituent of concern for each category. Discuss the concerns associated with each constituent you have listed.

4. Identify the relevant laws and standards that are used to ensure best practices in industrial and hazardous waste management. Discuss how these standards prescribe the laboratory testing to differentiate different key attributes of waste types.

MEE 6801

Unit 2 Assessment

1. Discuss the importance of particle size and water temperature as they relate to sedimentation theory.

2. Describe a dissolved air flotation (DAF) unit and discuss the benefits, limitations, and applications for DAF unit use.

3. Compare and contrast the benefits and limitations of a conventional API oil-water separator against a rotary drum oil skimmer.

4. Discuss application techniques and volume requirements as they relate to flow equalization basin design.

MEE 6801

Unit 3 Assessment

1. Discuss the aspects of a chemical flocculation process design that must be considered during the engineering process.

2. Discuss the techniques of coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation as they relate to an engineered precipitation process for wastewater treatment.

3. Consider that you are treating a liquid phased waste stream with high concentrations of heavy metals in solution. You need to precipitate the heavy metals out of the solution in order to continue your treatment process. Describe your decision to either increase the pH or decrease the pH of the wastewater treatment system in order to effectively precipitate the heavy metals. Be diligent to defend what you suggest.

4. 4. Discuss the aspects of a secondary circular clarifier process design that must be considered during the engineering process.

MEE 6801

Unit 4 Assessment

1. You are a consultant who has been hired by a city to help reduce organic matter in their system while improving the dissolved oxygen concentration and deriving an optimal sludge to ultimately bag and sell as an agricultural soil conditioner. Explain the chemistry necessary to properly digest the waste during the aerobic digestion process in order to maximize effluent oxygen concentrations in the water while deriving higher concentrations of nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, and phosphorus in the final sludge product.

2. Describe the design considerations inherent in a completely engineered biological oxidation unit. Be sure and describe every aspect of the unit relevant to the design considerations.

3. You are a consultant who has been hired by a city to help reduce organic matter in their system while improving the dissolved oxygen concentration and deriving an optimal sludge to ultimately bag and sell as an agricultural soil conditioner. What equation(s) would you use to calculate the number of days the sludge must remain in the anaerobic digester in order to maximize volatile organic digestion and still produce a favorable sludge high in nitrogen and phosphorus? Be sure and explain the chemistry behind your equation selections.

4. Describe the Cyclic Activated-Sludge System, discuss its mode of operation and the potential benefits as an equipment option for an activated sludge unit to be designed into a batch wastewater pretreatment system.

MEE 6801

Unit 5 Assessment

1. You are a consultant who has been hired by a city to help treat hydrocarbon-laden wastewater in its pre-treatment system. Discuss the calculations you would make in order to determine the risks associated with the ambient air environment, relative to the pumps, mixers, and other electrical equipment that the city has already elected to use in the pre-treatment process.

2. Discuss the necessary design features of a biological filtration system. Be sure and include information regarding distribution, volume, and media considerations and options.

3. Discuss the necessary design features of a secondary settlement tank. Be sure and include information regarding capacity design considerations in your discussion.

4. You are a consultant who has been hired by a city to help treat hydrocarbon-laden wastewater in its pre-treatment system. Specifically, the client knows that there is a significant concentration of ethane in the influent waste stream. Discuss the importance of understanding the solubility of ethane in the wastewater, relative to the process efficiency and relative safety of the entire pre-treatment system, and describe the steps that you would take to fully understand the ambient air quality of the system.

MEE 6801

Unit 6 Assessment

1. Discuss the reason for creating cake in the system. Be sure and discuss the concepts of sludge conditioning as a means of total solids removal from the waste stream.

2. Discuss the physical and chemical characteristics of sludge and other solids produced during wastewater treatment operations. Be sure and provide additional focus on digested primary sludge and anticipated heavy metal content in sludge.

3. Discuss the sources of sludge and other solids from conventional wastewater treatment systems.

4. 4. Discuss the available technologies for dewatering sludge. Be sure and describe the benefits and limitations of belt filter presses compared to recessed plate filter presses.

MEE 6801

Unit 7 Assessment

1. Discuss the process for characterizing cake solids derived from a liquid treatment process as being either hazardous or non-hazardous.

2. Discuss the relevance of the analytical testing methods as they relate to modeling waste behaviors in a landfill.

3. Discuss liquid effluent management strategies related to a sewer cleanout of a petrochemical facility.

4. Discuss liquid effluent management strategies related to chemical cleaning operations within an oil refinery facility.

MEE 6801

Unit 8 Assessment

1. Discuss the waste profiling process using the laboratory report as a metric of the industrial and hazardous waste treatment system’s effectiveness. Be sure and describe any suggested engineering considerations that would be necessary in order to improve the system as it relates to reducing hazardous solid waste (such as filter cake).

2. Discuss the landfill coordination and acceptance of solid waste generated from the industrial and hazardous waste treatment process (to include the filter cake). Be sure and include the manifest paperwork, personnel training, and other important aspects of transporting and disposing of the solid waste into a landfill in your discussion.