FPPC Terminology

Acrylamides: type of polymer used as water-soluble thickeners.

Alum: specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds known as hydrated aluminum potassium sulfate with the formula KAl (SO₄)₂•12H₂O.

Anionic: species has a negative charge.

Aerobic Treatment: This waste water treatment usually involves the unheated conversion of the COD to sludge, a bulky waste product. The sludge can be costly to dispose of and the elemental oxygen has to be continuously supplied usually at a great energy expense.

Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment: Anaerobic treatment is the biological treatment of wastewater without the use of air or elemental oxygen. Typical applications are directed towards the removal of organic pollution in wastewater, slurries and sludges. The organic pollutants in slurries are converted by anaerobic micro-organisms to methane and carbon dioxide, known as "biogas".

BOD - (Biochemical Oxygen Demand): a measure of the content of biologically degradable substance in sewage or waste. Substances are broken down by micro-organisms in the presence of and with the consumption of oxygen. Oxygen demand is measured in terms of the oxygen consumed by micro-organisms over a period of 5 days (BOD5) or seven days (BOD7).

Bioremediation: Anaerobic technologies are not only suitable for the removal of bulk COD , but can also be utilized for the biodegradation or biotransformation of toxic priority pollutants. Microbial communities in anaerobic environments can either cause the oxidation of the pollutants or they can cause the reductive biotransformation of pollutants to less toxic substances (e.g. dechlorination). Bioremediation can take place in bioreactors or in situ at contaminated sites.

Cationic: species has a positive charge

COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand): is another means of measuring the pollution strength of waste water. Most oxidisable organic compounds in a waste water sample can be measured using this method.

Denitrification: is an anoxic process in which either an organic or inorganic electron-donating substrates are oxidized at the expense of reducing nitrate (NO₃) or nitrite (NO₂) to N₂ gas. Nitrogen is naturally occurring and an inert gas which accounts for 70% of our atmosphere; thus the denitrification process converts nitrate- or nitrite- pollutants into an environmentally benign gas. Denitrification processes are popular as a post treatment removing nitrogen nutrients before treated effluents are discharged into the environment. The removal of nitrogen nutrients is important to prevent eutrophication in receiving waters.

E. coli: is an abbreviation for Escherichia coli, a common type of bacteria that can contaminate food, like beef and vegetables.

Effluent: outflow from a treatment facility or the wastewater discharge.

Electro-coagulation (EC): is an evolving technology that has been effectively applied in waste water treatment. Chemical and physical complexity as well as the cost limitations of the needed power supplies have hindered large scale applications.

Flocculants (or flocculating agents): are chemicals that cause colloids and other suspended particles in liquids to aggregate, forming a floc. Flocculants are used in water treatment processes to improve the sedimentation or filterability of small particles.

Gasification: is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal, petroleum or biomass into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the raw material at high temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. The resulting gas mixture is called synthesis gas or syngas and is itself a fuel. Gasification is a common method for extracting energy from many different types of organic materials.

Geo-tubes: is a large porous heavy-duty woven textile container. The tube or bag can have a 45' circumference and be 100' long and act as a temporary storage container. Applications typically require pumping effluent into the tube and as the liquid portion weeps or escapes through the porous weave, the solids are trapped inside the bag. The process is repeated until the tube is full.

Incineration: is a technology that involves the combustion of waste in the presence of air. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatments can generate undesirable levels of NOx and SOx levels of airborne pollutants.

Liquefaction: is a physical change from a gas to a liquid usually through condensation and cooling.

Mesophilic range: moderate temperatures typically between 15 and 40°C (77 and 104°F)

Micro-filtration: is a filtration process which removes contaminants from a fluid through a microporous membrane. A typical microfiltration membrane pore size range is 0.1 to 10 micrometres (µm). Microfiltration is not fundamentally different from reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration or nanofiltration, except for the size of the molecules it is capable of capturing.

Nitrification: is the biological oxidation of ammonia with oxygen into nitrite followed by the oxidation of these nitrites into nitrates. Degradation of ammonia to nitrite is usually the rate limiting step of nitrification. Nitrification is an important step in the nitrogen cycle in soil.

Organic matter: derived from a once-living organism. Organic compounds are capable of or the product of decay.

Pathogen: agent or micro-organism causing infection or disease, such as a bacterium , protozoan or a virus.

Pyrolysis: is a thermoconversion process and is most commonly used for organic materials. It occurs spontaneously at high temperatures (ie typically above 300°C for wood, but varying for other materials). It does not involve reactions with oxygen or any other reagents but can take place in their presence. Extreme pyrolysis, which leaves only carbon as the residue, is called carbonization and is also related to the chemical process of charring.

Reverse osmosis: is a filtration process that uses pressure to force a solution through a membrane, retaining the solute on one side and allowing the pure solvent to pass to the other side.

Struvite (ammonium magnesium phosphate): is a phosphate mineral ((NH₄)MgPO₄•6H₂O) which is sparingly soluble in neutral and alkaline conditions, but readily soluble in acid.

Thermophilic range: temperature between 45 and 80°C (113 and 176°F).

Torrefaction: is a low temperature pre-treatment of biomass at a temperature between 200-300°C. During torrefaction the biomass properties are changed to obtain a much better fuel quality for combustion and gasification applications. In combination with pelletization, torrefaction can change the density and improve the economics of transporting biomass.

Total dissolved solids (TDS): comprised of inorganic salts (principally calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulfates) and small amounts of organic matter that are dissolved in water. Dissolved solids refer to any minerals, salts, metals, cations or anions dissolved in water that can pass through a filter (usually with a pore size of 0.45 micrometers). Total dissolved solids means the total dissolved (filterable) solids.

Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN): is the sum of organic nitrogen; ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH₄+) in the chemical analysis .TKN is determined in the same manner as organic nitrogen, except that the ammonia is not driven off before the digestion step.

Total solids: The term used for material left in a container after evaporation and drying of a water sample. Total Solids includes the total of suspended solids, the portion of total solids retained by a filter and the dissolved solids, the portion that passes through a filter. Total solids can be related to both specific conductance and turbidity.

Total suspended solids (TSS): are the solids in wastewater that can be trapped by a filter. TSS can include a wide variety of material, such as silt, decaying plant and snd animal matter. To measure TSS, a water sample is filtered through a pre-weighed filter. The residue retained on the filter is dried in an oven at 103 to 105°C until the weight of the filter no longer changes. The increase in weight of the filter represents the total suspended solids. TSS can also be measured by analyzing for total solids and subtracting total dissolved solids.

Ultra-Filtration: is a variation of membrane filtration in which hydrostatic pressure forces a liquid against a semi-permeable membrane. Suspended solids and solutes of high molecular weight are retained, while water and low molecular weight solutes pass through the membrane.

Volatile solids: are those solids lost when heating to 550°C. They give a rough approximation of the amount of organic matter present in the solid fraction of wastewater, activated sludge and industrial waste.

Waste steam: is a mapping of all liquids, gaseous and waste solids that change state during thermal, chemical and biological treatments

Zeolites: are microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents.