Conventional Methods of Wastewater Treatment

This chapter reviews various physico–chemical techniques applied to pollutants for their removal from wastewater. A particular focus is given to coagulation–flocculation, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, membrane filtration and electrochemical treatments. The main particularities, advantages and disadvantages of the described techniques are presented. Coagulation–flocculation and chemical precipitation can be applied for the treatment of wastewater with metal concentrations higher than 1000 mg/L. Ion exchange and adsorption are recognized as effective and economic methods of pollutant removal from wastewaters at pollutants concentrations in the range of <10–100 mg/L. Membrane filtration and electrochemical treatment can only be feasible for special technological tasks because of their high costs.