DepartmentofCivilandEnvironmentalEngineering

CVNG3007EnvironmentalEngineeringI
Worksheet1

1. (Q3,Incoursetest,2011)Acitydischarges7.2MLDofwastewaterwithaBOD5of295mg/Linto
astream.Answerthefollowingquestions,eachbeingindependentoftheother.
a. If the BOD5 of the stream is zero, what is the BOD5 of the diluted wastewater after
dischargeifthestreamflowis0.15m3/s?
b. WhatstreamdischargeisrequiredtoreducetheBOD5ofthedilutedwastewaterto40
mg/L?
c. TowhatvaluemusttheBOD5ofthewastewaterbereducedbytreatmentsothatthe
BOD5ofthedilutedwastewateris40mg/Lifthestreamflowis0.06m3/s?

2. (Example1.6,Masters,pg15).Abarwithvolume500m3has50smokersinit,eachsmoking2
cigarettes per hour. An individual cigarette emits, among other things, about 1.4 mg of
formaldehyde (HCHO). Formaldehyde converts to carbon dioxide with a reaction rate
coefficientkof0.40/h.Freshairentersthebarattherateof1000m3/h,andstaleairleavesat
the same rate. Assuming complete mixing, estimate the steadystate concentration of
formaldehydeintheair.At25Cand1atmofpressure,howdoestheresultcomparewiththe
thresholdforeyeirritationof0.05ppm?

3. Show that the formula for the fraction removal of a pollutant undergoing firstorder decay in
twoidenticalCFSTRs,connectedinseries,is:

,wherec0 andc2 aretheinfluent

andeffluentconcentrations,k isthedecaycoefficientandtCFSTR,thenominalhydraulicretention
timeineachreactor.

Henceshowthatforn identicalCSTRsinseries,theresultingfractionofremovalisgivenby:

4. (Q2, Incourse test, 2011) The concentration of a particular reactant is reduced from an initial
concentration, c0, of 200 mg/L to a final concentration, ce, of 15 mg/L as the liquid flow
containingthereactantpassesthroughtwoidenticalCFSTRsconnectedinseries.Ifthereaction
inthereactorfollowsfirstorderkineticsandtheliquidflowrateis0.025millionlitresperday
(MLD),whatisthevolumeofeachreactor?Assumethatthereactionrateconstanthasavalue
of 0.4 d1. Recall that the fraction removal achieved in one CFSTR, with a mean hydraulic
retentiontime,t,isgivenas:
1

5. (Example1.7Masters,pg16)Everyyear,herons,seagulls,eagles,andotherbirdsmassalonga
4.75kmstretchofstreamconnectionalaketotheoceantocatchthefingerlingsalmonasthey
migrate downstream to the sea. The birds are efficient fishermen and will consume 10,000
fingerlings per kilometre of stream each hour regardless of the number of the salmon in the
stream.Inotherwords,thereareenoughsalmon;thebirdsareonlylimitedbyhowfastthey
cancatchandeatthefish.Thestreamsaveragecrosssectionalareais20m2,andthesalmon
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DepartmentofCivilandEnvironmentalEngineering
CVNG3007EnvironmentalEngineeringI
Worksheet1

movedownstreamwiththestreamsflowrateof700m3/min.Ifthereare7fingerlingsperm3
in the water entering the stream, what is the concentration of salmon that reach the ocean
whenthebirdsarefeeding?

6. Awastewatertreatmentplantmustdisinfectitseffluentbeforedischargingthewastewatertoa
nearbystream.Thewastewatercontains4.5x105faecalcoliformcolonyformingunits(CFU)
per litre. The maximum permissible faecal coliform concentration that may be discharged is
2,000faecalcoliformCFU/L.Itisproposedthatapipecarryingthewastewaterbeusedforthe
disinfection process. Determine the length of pipe required if the linear velocity of the
wastewaterinthepipeis0.75m/s.Assumethatthepipebehavesasasteadystageplugflow
systemandthatthereactionrateconstantfordestructionofthefaecalcoliformis0.23min1.

7. (Example 1.9 Masters, pg 20) Consider the 10 x 106 m3 lake analyzed in Example 1.5, which,
underconditionsgiven,wasfoundtohaveasteadystatepollutionconcentrationof3.5mg/L.
The pollution is nonconservative with reactionrate constant kd of 0.20/d. Suppose the
conditionofthelakeisdeemedunacceptable.Tosolvetheproblem,itisdecidedtocompletely
divert the sewage outfall from the lake, eliminating it as a source of pollution. The incoming
stream still has flow Qs of 5.0 m3/s and concentration of 10 mg/L. With the sewage outfall
removed, the outgoing flow Q is also 5.0 m3/s. Assuming completemix conditions, find the
concentration of pollutant in the lake one week after the diversion, and find the new final
steadystateconcentration.

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