The estimation of per capita loadings of domestic wastewater in Tehran

The amount of wastewater characteristics loading is one of the main parameters in the design of wastewater collection and treatment systems. The generation per capita per day (GPCD) of wastewater characteristics was estimated by analyzing the monthly data of nine wastewater treatment plants in Tehran, capital city of Iran. GPCD values were calculated from measured collected wastewater flow, the population and concentration data. The results indicated the values of 32.96 ± 1.91, 49.25 ± 2.49, 37.31 ± 2.44, 6.77 ± 0.53, 1.96 ± 0.11, 92.23 ± 5.68, 2.07 ± 0.39 and 128.96 ± 6.69 g/d.cap of GPCD for BOD5, COD, TSS, TKN, P, TDS, ON and TS, respectively, for Tehran’s wastewater. The per capita estimated for the wastewater production and treatment were determined to be 186.06 ± 7.85 and 136.72 ± 5.43 L/d.cap, respectively. It is estimated that about 504 m3/d and 346 m3/d of sludge, will be produced and waste as excrement raw sludge, respectively, in Tehran. Simple regression models were presented the relationships such as the change of collected and treated wastewater with population and changes of GPCD parameters with each other. It was revealed that the Tehran’s wastewater may be classified as highly degradable, but during recent decades its Biodegradability Index (BI) has been reduced up to 15%. The new suggested revised per capita parameters can be used for design purposes in Tehran, and possibly, in areas with similar characteristics, substituting the classical values obtained from foreign textbooks. These values could help in designing more accurate treatment systems and may lower the required capacity for the treatment of wastewater up to 40% in Tehran.