Water treatment engineering courses avail you of the opportunity to gain access to knowledge on the design of systems that will help attend to the treatment of used water discharged from residential or commercial sources. And this water is known as wastewater.
Wastewater refers to any water that has been used and discharged from various sources, such as residential, commercial, or industrial sources.
It is often a combination of water from different processes, including domestic activities like bathing, washing dishes, and flushing toilets, as well as water used in industrial processes, agriculture, and stormwater runoff.
Wastewater can be categorized into two main types namely: Domestic Wastewater and Industrial and/or Commercial Wastewater. Domestic wastewater also known as sewage is wastewater generated from households which includes water from sinks, showers, toilets, and washing machines.
It may contain organic matter, human waste, soap, detergent, and other household chemicals. While industrial and/or commercial wastewater comes from industrial facilities, commercial establishments, and institutional buildings.
It can be different in composition depending on the specific industry or activity. Industrial wastewater often contains pollutants such as heavy metals, chemicals, oils, solvents, and other contaminants associated with manufacturing or production processes.
However, the issue of wastewater in the environment can be addressed through the presence and activities of water treatment engineers.
Water treatment engineers play a vital role in ensuring that the water we rely on every day is safe and healthy to use and drink. These professionals are involved in various aspects of water regulations, including ensuring clean water, disposing of sewage and wastewater, and preventing damage caused by floods.
Water treatment engineers typically spend much of their time maintaining, building, and repairing water structures such as reservoirs and pumping stations. This type of engineering is considered to fall under the category of environmental engineering.
Skills needed to be a successful water treatment engineer include problem-solving skills, analytical skills, and communication skills.
In this article, we’ll explore the water treatment engineering courses that will fully equip you to address wastewater problems effectively.
Table of Contents
10 Best Wastewater Treatment Engineering Courses
Listed and discussed below are the best wastewater treatment engineering courses you can undertake and their website for easy access.
- Low-Pressure Boiler Water Treatment Course
- Cooling Water Treatment Course
- Produced Water Treatment Course
- Sewage and Effluent Treatment Training
- Water Treatment Plant Operation
- Operation and Maintenance of Wastewater Collection System
- Industrial Waste Treatment – Instrumentation and Control and Facility Maintenance
- Solids Management and Plant Maintenance
- Environmental Engineering: Drinking Water Treatment
- Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling, and Design
1. Low-Pressure Boiler Water Treatment Course
Low-pressure boilers operate at a lower pressure and reach lower temperatures than high-pressure steam boilers.
This course is aimed at broadening the knowledge and skills of technicians in basic principles, techniques, and concepts that govern the maintenance of industrial boilers.
In this course, you’ll learn
- How to identify and troubleshoot boiler problems quickly and efficiently.
- Understand steam and combustion processes.
- Carry out installation, operation, maintenance, and management of boiler plants.
- Understand the boiler water system.
- Understand the principles of low-pressure boiler plants.
- Identify the boiler contents and ancillaries.
You can access this course here
2. Cooling Water Treatment Course
Cooling water systems is an integral part of process operations in industries. Industrial production processes need cooling water systems to operate efficiently and safely.
This course is built in such a way that it gives one basic understanding of the main water treatment principles used in cooling systems including the formation of scale, suspended solids, metallic corrosion, and bio-fouling and how to deal with them effectively.
The course gives you first the classification of cooling systems as:
- Closed Cooling systems.
- Integrated cooling systems.
- Open Cooling systems.
- Once through the systems.
In this course you will learn the following:
- Basics of cooling systems.
- Concepts of water treatment.
- Water-related troubleshooting in the cooling system.
You can access this course here
3. Produced Water Treatment Course
Produced water is the wastewater formed when water is brought from subsurface reservoirs during oil or gas extraction.
Currently, produced water is mainly treated using conventional trains that contain absorbates, phase separators, membrane filters, and cyclones.
This course provides you with the initiative of how to work with conventional trains with filters, cyclones, etc to treat water from oil and gas extraction.
You can access this course here
4. Sewage and Effluent Treatment training
Sewage is a suspension of waste that comes in the form of solid or liquid. Which comprises human and animal waste while the effluent is wastewater which is discharged from industrial and commercial activities.
This course is aimed at exposing one to the operational principle of the removal of contaminants from sewage and effluent to produce suitable water to be discharged into the surrounding environment or intended for reuse application, thereby preventing water pollution from raw sewage and effluent discharge.
You can access this course here
5. Water Treatment Plant Operations
This course is designed to train operators to safely and effectively operate and maintain drinking water treatment plants. The material of the course includes:
- Introduction to water treatment plants
- The role of the operator
- Source water
- Reservoir management
- Intake structures
In this course, you will learn how to safely operate and maintain coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection processes.
Also discussed in the course are techniques to control tastes and odors in drinking water, control corrosion to meet copper and lead requirements, perform basic water laboratory procedures, and complete mathematical calculation used in plant operation.
The courses cover; daily operating procedures, chemical use, and handling, records and reports, regulation of flow, safety, emergency conditions and procedures, plant maintenance, handling complaints, and conservation of energy.
You can access this course here
6. Operation and Maintenance of wastewater collection system
This course is designed to train operators in the practical aspects of wastewater collection system operation and maintenance (O&M), with an emphasis on safe practices. The material focuses on the knowledge and skills operators need to identify system problems and select appropriate methods to solve them.
Topics in this course include:
- The responsibilities of the collection system operator.
- The need for collection system O&M.
- The typical components and design of collection systems.
In this course, operators learn about safety procedures for:
- Working in traffic with temporary traffic control (TTC) devices.
- Setting up and working in excavation sites requiring shoring.
- Following confined space entry requirements.
- Inspecting and testing new and rehabilitated sewers.
- Completing underground repairs and construction.
Collection system inspection methods and equipment are discussed in detail. Topics include closed-circuit television (CCTV) equipment, clearing stoppages, cleaning sewers, and controlling corrosion and other problems in collection systems.
You as well practice solving math problems related to the collection system O&M in the appendix which provides a thorough introduction to basic math for operators.
You can access this course here
7. Industrial Waste Treatment – Instrumentation and Control and Facility Maintenance
This course is designed to train operators in the practical aspects of using instrumentation and control equipment, including variable frequency drives, sensors, and meters.
This is for process automation and measurement in disinfection systems, compressed air systems, regulatory compliance, and for safe and effective maintenance of treatment facilities and equipment, including general facility maintenance such as electricity, motors, pumps pneumatic systems, unplugging pipes, pumps, and valves.
You can access this course here
8. Solids Management and Plant Maintenance
This series of courses train operators to properly operate, maintain, and inspect wastewater treatment plant systems. This course is designed to train operators in the practical aspects of operating and maintaining wastewater treatment plants emphasizing safe practices and procedures.
Information is presented on solids handling, treatment, disposal, and reuse including preliminary sludge processing, sludge thickening, sludge stabilization, and dewatering, volume reduction, and procedures to safely maintain wastewater treatment plants and equipment, including motors, pumps, pneumatic systems, pipes, pumps, and valves.
You can access this course here
9. Environmental Engineering: Drinking Water Treatment
This course covers fundamental science and engineering principles that deal with natural and water environmental systems.
The focus of this course appears in three forms which are: firstly, it focuses on what influences water quality and sources, characteristics, and effects of water pollutants.
Secondly, it focuses on the exploration of the basic chemical concepts needed to understand how pollutants may change their forms and influence water quality.
Finally, the knowledge of different physicochemical processes used in drinking water treatment processes and how they will remove water pollutants and improve the water quality.
You can access this course here
10. Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling and Design.
This course seeks to address the quantity, complexity, and diversity of the developments in the wastewater treatment profession, particularly in developing countries where access is not readily available to advanced-level courses in wastewater treatment.
The course is meant for Sanitary engineers, (environmental) biotechnologists, biochemists, civil engineers, environmental engineers, chemists, environmental scientists, and different professionals working or interested in the wastewater treatment field.
The course fee includes access to the course materials as well as individual guidance and mentoring during the course. The maximum number of participants is 20.
A reliable and reasonably fast (ideally 512 kbps) internet connection is necessary. Upon successful completion of the course, participants will receive a Course Certificate issued by IHE Delft.
You can access this course here
Conclusion
I do hope you found this article interesting and I believe it will spur you to take up water engineering courses if you have the passion to design a system that will address the issue of untreated wastewater discharged into the environment.
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Ahamefula Ascension is a Real Estate Consultant, Data Analyst, and Content writer. He is the founder of Hope Ablaze Foundation and a Graduate of Environmental Management in one of the prestigious colleges in the country. He is obsessed with Reading, Research and Writing.