The Tannery Wastewater Treatment Course is run on Level 3 of the SAQA Qualifications Framework.
This is a one year course.
Administrative details for this course are the same as the Intermediate Level courses. There is an optional three day intensive lecture session with a wastewater technical expert.
Lecture 1 Understanding the Water Environment
Wastewater and how it is generated
How industries fit into the water environment
Specific Water Intake (SWI)
Specific Pollution Load (SPL)
The hydrological cycle
Factors affecting the hydrological cycle
Water legislation
Lecture 2 Pre-Treatment Technology
Wastewater and how it is generated
Characterisation of wastewater
Settleable, suspended and floatable solids
Primary and secondary screens
Primary sedimentation or clarification
Flow measurement
Solids dewatering and treatment
Equalisation and buffering
Plant maintenance
Lecture 3 The Activated Sludge Process
Activated sludge organisms and their functions
Organic load and nutrient balance
Dissolved oxygen control in the aerator basin
Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids (MLSS)
The Anoxic stage and Return Activated Sludge (RAS)
The nitrogen cycle: nitrification and de-nitrification
Feed to biomass ratio (F:M)
Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT)
System design capacity
Aerator and clarifier operation
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Laboratory tests and operational control
Sludge management: Sludge age and de-sludge practice
Maintenance of the activated sludge plant and equipment
Lecture 4 Bio-filtration
Bio-filtration micro-organisms
Bio-filter medium
Bio-film
Bio-medium wetting rate
Bio-filter organic load rate
Bio-filter design criteria
Water distribution sytems
Plant safety
High-rate bio-filters
Lecture 5 Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Wastes
Organic wastes
Anaerobic bacteria
Types of anaerobic digesters
Nutrient balance and buffering
Toxic inhibitors
Sludge load rate
Space load rate
Gas production
Operational controls
Mechanical maintenance of digesters
Safety in and around anaerobic digesters
Lecture 6 Ponding Technologies
Conventional ponds
Modified ponds
Reed-Bed ponds
Evaporation ponds
Pond design and construction
Pond maintenance
Advantages and disadvantages of the different types of ponds
Lecture 7 Tannery Wastewater Treatment Options
The difference between the beamhouse, the tanyard, the dyehouse and leather finishing
An overview of how leather is processed
Chemical and water usage in a tannery
The constituents of tannery effluents
The mass balance when processing leather
Clean technology when processing leather
The impact of clean technology on waste reduction
Sources of tannery pollutants
Importance of segregation of waste streams
Fine screening of tannery effluent
Lime liquor recycling
Sulphide oxidation
Chrome recycling
Chrome precipitation and recovery
Importance of effluent stream balancing
Chemical precipitation of solids in tannery effluent
Dissolved air flotation of solids in tannery effluent
Different methods of biological oxidation of tannery effluent
Options for tannery solids dewatering