Water treatment approaches vary across different sectors and water quality conditions. The treatment process for hospital wastewater is determined mainly by the hospital type, scale and actual operating conditions. Regardless of the selected process, online monitoring of medical wastewater shall be implemented to ensure all parameters meet discharge standards. This article briefly introduces common treatment methods for hospital wastewater.
In recent years, the discharge volume of medical wastewater has been rising continuously. Accordingly, medical wastewater treatment processes need optimization to achieve compliant discharge. Medical wastewater treatment technologies can be categorized into the following three types:
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Primary Treatment
This process is mainly adopted by hospitals, including general hospitals, whose wastewater is discharged into municipal sewer networks. In China, most treated medical wastewater enters urban sewer systems, making the typical process of sedimentation combined with disinfection widely applied. As regulatory standards for medical wastewater become stricter, large hospitals adopt secondary treatment to maintain stable water quality compliance.
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Secondary Treatment
Secondary treatment refers to biological treatment. Common technologies include biological contact oxidation and oxidation ditch methods, all classified as biological oxidation processes. Secondary treatment is suitable for hospital wastewater discharged to surface water bodies, achieving comprehensive removal of pollutants and harmful substances in wastewater. However, this method has drawbacks: aeration may cause secondary air pollution, while biological treatment requires long hydraulic retention time and occupies large land area. Hospitals need to optimize the original process to guarantee qualified effluent.
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Disinfection Treatment
Disinfection is a critical step for medical wastewater, with both physical and chemical options available. The suitable method shall be selected according to water quality characteristics.
All treatment methods share the same goal: to ensure medical wastewater meets discharge requirements. Before discharge, all wastewater indicators must be monitored and verified. Effluent can only be released after all parameters satisfy relevant standards. Coliform group is a key monitoring index for medical wastewater, and the WECT-900 online coliform analyzer can be used for this detection task.
