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2023/2024

Treatment and Management of Urban and Consumer Water

Code: 102816 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2501915 Environmental Sciences OT 4 0

Contact

Name:
Oscar Jesús Prado Rubianes
Email:
oscarjesus.prado@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites


It is recommended to attend the Environmental Engineering course before attending the present one


Objectives and Contextualisation

The course will serve as an introduction to the treatment and management of urban wastewater and drinking water. At the end of the course, students will be able to understand the operation and to design the main elements of a water treatment plant. During the course, a visit to a wastewater treatment plant or a water purification plant is planned.


Competences

  • Adequately convey information verbally, written and graphic, including the use of new communication and information technologies.
  • Analyze and use information critically.
  • Collect, analyze and represent data and observations, both qualitative and quantitative, using secure adequate classroom, field and laboratory techniques
  • Demonstrate adequate knowledge and use the most relevant environmental tools and concepts of biology, geology, chemistry, physics and chemical engineering.
  • Demonstrate concern for quality and praxis.
  • Demonstrate initiative and adapt to new situations and problems.
  • Develop analysis and synthesis strategies regarding the environmental implications of industrial processes and urban management
  • Information from texts written in foreign languages.
  • Learn and apply in practice the knowledge acquired and to solve problems.
  • Quickly apply the knowledge and skills in the various fields involved in environmental issues, providing innovative proposals.
  • Teaming developing personal values regarding social skills and teamwork.
  • Work autonomously

Learning Outcomes

  1. Adequately convey information verbally, written and graphic, including the use of new communication and information technologies.
  2. Analyze and use information critically.
  3. Analyze, evaluate, design and operate systems or processes, equipment and facilities associated with environmental engineering in accordance with certain requirements, standards and specifications under the principles of sustainable development.
  4. Apply relevant knowledge of basic sciences to enable compression, the description and the solution of typical problems of environmental engineering.
  5. Apply the basic principles on which is based environmental engineering and, more specifically, mass and energy balances.
  6. Apply the rules, laws and regulations pertaining to each situation.
  7. Apply the scientific method to systems in which chemical, physical or biological both macroscopic and microscopic scale transformations occur.
  8. Demonstrate concern for quality and praxis.
  9. Demonstrate initiative and adapt to new situations and problems.
  10. Design and implement waste management plans and waste water.
  11. Identify the processes most appropriate to apply chemical engineering to environmental surroundings and to value them properly and originally.
  12. Information from texts written in foreign languages.
  13. Learn and apply in practice the knowledge acquired and to solve problems.
  14. Making decisions globally considering technical, economic, social and environmental aspects.
  15. Objectively compare and select different technical alternatives of an industrial process with parameters of environmental sustainability.
  16. Observe, recognize, analyze, measure, and so properly and safely represent chemical engineering processes.
  17. Rate structured and systematic risks to safety and health, in an existing process or design phase manner.
  18. Recognize and defend the values ??of responsibility and own professional ethics of environmental engineering.
  19. Recognize the role of environmental engineering in preventing and solving environmental and energy problems, according to the principles of sustainable development.
  20. Teaming developing personal values regarding social skills and teamwork.
  21. Work autonomously

Content

This course is divided in nine parts:

1. Introduction to the problem of wastewater
2. Water purification
3. Pipes and pumping
4. Pretreatment
5. Primary treatment
6. Secondary treatment
7. Sludge management
8. Treatment of odours
9. Tertiary treatment and potabilization


Methodology

Directed and supervised activities:
Theoretical classes. Master classes on the contents of the syllabus
Classes of problems. Solving the problems corresponding to the subject. Group work with students and discuss strategies for tackling the problem and solving it.
Elaboration of works. Group activity. Students will have to prepare a report on topics related to the syllabus proposed by the teacher that will be presented and defended in public.
Tutorials. Students will consult with the teacher the main questions that may arise throughout the course.

Autonomous activities:
Study: Individual study. Preparation of diagrams and summaries.
Problem solving. In its aspects of complement to the own study and previous work of the classes of problems.
Search for documentation and bibliography. Consultation of bibliographic collections and essential documentation for the course.
Reading books, articles and houses. The student will complement the information received in class with the reading of bibliographic material of different scope.

The proposed teaching methodology and assessment may undergo some modification depending on the attendance restrictions imposed by the health authorities.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Problems and cases resolution in the classroom 13 0.52 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 13, 15, 11, 16, 12, 14, 19, 18, 21, 20, 17
Seminars and presentations 3 0.12 2, 3, 7, 5, 15, 11, 16, 19, 1, 20
Theory classes 30 1.2 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 13, 15, 9, 8, 11, 16, 12, 14, 19, 18, 1, 21, 17
Type: Supervised      
Development of theory works in group about the subject 15 0.6 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 13, 15, 9, 8, 11, 16, 12, 19, 18, 1, 21, 20
Type: Autonomous      
Documents research 5 0.2 2, 9, 16, 12, 18, 1, 21
Mentoring 4 0.16 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 15, 9, 8, 11, 16, 19, 18, 1, 17
Problems resolution and development of works 15 0.6 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 13, 15, 11, 16, 12, 14, 19, 21, 20
Reading of books, articles and cases 6 0.24 2, 3, 15, 16, 12, 14, 19, 21, 17
Study 49.5 1.98 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 15, 9, 11, 16, 12, 14, 19, 18, 21, 17

Assessment

The evaluation of the course will consist of two parts:

- Two partial examinations (35% each partial) that can include a part of theory and one of problems.
A minimum mark of 3.5 is needed in each one of the partial tests to be able to make an average among them. Otherwise, it will be necessary to recover the failed partial in the recovery exam.

- Written work (individual or in pairs) that will have to be presented orally (30%) in which some of the main units of a sewage treatment plant will be designed.

To participate in the recovery exam the students must have been previously evaluated in a set of activities whose weight equals to a minimum of two thirds of the total grade of the subject.

One-exam evaluation

The students who have chosen the one-exam evaluation modality must take a final test that will consist of a theory exam where they must answer a series of short questions and solve a series of exercises similar to those that have been worked on in the classes.

The student's grade will be the weighted average of the exam and the work, where the exam will account for 70% of the mark and the work 30%.

If the final mark does not reach 5, the student has another opportunity to pass the subject through the recovery exam, that will be held on the date set by the coordination of the degree. In this test, 70% of the mark (corresponding to the theory exams) can be recovered. The working part is not recoverable.


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Partial 2, which includes theory and problems. Mandatory minimum of 3.5 out of 10 to make average between partials 35% 3 0.12 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 13, 15, 8, 10, 11, 16, 12, 14, 19, 18, 1, 21, 17
Written work and oral presentation (individual or in pairs): design of different units of a wastewater treatment plant 30% 3.5 0.14 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 15, 9, 11, 16, 12, 19, 1, 20
Partial 1, which includes theory and problems. Mandatory minimum of 3.5 out of 10 to make average between partials 35% 3 0.12 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 13, 15, 8, 10, 11, 16, 12, 14, 19, 18, 1, 21, 17

Bibliography

  • APHA/AWWA/WPCF. Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. 19th Ed. American Public Health Association, Washington, D. C. 1995.
  • N.P. Cheremisinoff. Handbook of Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies. Butterworth-Heinemann. Boston. 2002
  • J.C. Crittenden, R.R. Trussell, D.W. Hand, K.J. Howe, G. Tchobanoglous. Water treatment: principles and design. John Wiley & Sons. Hoboken. 2005
  • M.L. Davis, D.A. Cornwell. Introduction to Environmental Engineering, 5th Ed. McGraw Hill Inc. Editions. New York. 2008.
  • C. Kennes, M.C. Veiga. Air Pollution Prevention and Control: Bioreactors and Bioenergy John Wiley & Sons Inc., Chichester. 2013.
  • C. Menéndez-Gutiérrez, J.M. Pérez-Olmo. Procesos para el Tratamiento Biológico de Aguas Residuales Industriales. Ed. Universitaria. La Habana. 2007.
  • Metcalf & Eddy, Inc. Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse.McGraw-Hill Inc. Editions. Boston. 2003.
  • H.S. Peavy, D.R. Rowe, G. Tchobanoglous. Environmental Engineering. McGraw Hill Inc. Editions. N.Y. 1985.
  • R.S. Ramalho. Tratamientos de Aguas Residuales. Editorial Reverté. Barcelona. 1993.
  • M.C.M. van Loosdretch, P.H. Nielsen, C.M. López-Vázquez, D. Brdjanovic. Experimental Methods in Wastewater Treatment. IWA Publishing. London. 2016.

Software

No specific software will be required.