Wastewater reuse is a useful tool in minimizing the amount of wastewater in the environment. Therefore, evaluation of the suitability of Al-Rustamiyah WWTP municipal treated wastewater for irrigation was made according to its compo-sition and the international irrigation water quality standards. In addition, to classify water quality and to evaluate its suitability for irrigation purposes, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP) and Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) were calculated following standard equations and found experimentally as (2.11), (35.67) and (–12.75) respectively. Plotting the values of conductivity (EC) and sodium absorption ratio (SAR) on the US salinity diagram illustrated that most of the samples fall in the field of C3-S1, indicating high salinity and low sodium water which can be used for irrigation on almost all types of soil without danger of exchangeable sodium. Furthermore, the data indicate slight to moderate degree of restriction on the use of this treated wastewater in irrigation due to chloride hazard. RSC value is negative at all sampling sites, indicating that there is no complete precipitation of calcium and magnesium. Overall, the treated wastewater can be classified with few exceptions as suitable for irrigation use

The rheological characterization of sewage sludge at different steps of wastewater treatment is important since it allows predicting and estimating sludge behavior when submitted to almost all treatment and disposal operations. Rotating biological contactor (RBC) is being widely used for wastewater treatment, which is a biological treatment process following primary treatment. The rheological characterization of RBC sludge at different solid contents (TSS = 32.2 g/L-50.2 g/L) and temperatures (5-40 C) was carried out using a rotational viscometer. The RBC sludge showed a shear-thinning behavior, where the apparent viscosity decreased rapidly with the shear rate reaching the limiting viscosity (  ) at the infinite shear rate. An exponential relationship described the evolution of the limiting viscosity with the sludge TSS content. In addition, a dramatic increase in the limiting viscosity beyond a TSS concentration of 42.4 g/L has been observed. On the other hand, Bingham model described well the non-Newtonian behavior of sludge suspensions. It was clear that the yield stress is more sensitive than the Bingham viscosity for the variation in temperature and solid content. However, the rheological results revealed that both the limiting and Bingham viscosities have the same behavior with the TSS content and with the temperature. accordingly. The obtained yield stress increased significantly from 59 mPa at TSS=32.2 g/L and T=45 o C to 5520 mPa at TSS=50.2 glL and T=5 o C. On the other hand, the Bingham viscosity exhibited less pronounced

Turbidity is a characteristic related to the concentration of suspended solids particles in water and has been adopted as an easy and reasonably accurate measure of overall water quality. The most widely applied water treatment processes, a combination of some or all of coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation and filtration to reduce or eliminate turbidity and improve water quality. In this research, proposed approach was adopted on the basis of applying two sequent treatments that used coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation processes under certain operating conditions of mixing speed, mixing time and settling time for each treatment. The environmentally friendly natural coagulants of date seeds (DS) or pollen sheath (PS) from local Iraqi palm was used in the first treatment and alum was used in the second treatment at their predetermined optimum doses to treat low ( NTU), medium ( NTU) and high ( NTU) ben- tonite synthetic turbid water. Experimental results clearly show that the proposed approach was superior in perform- ance in terms of residual turbidity compared with conventional approach using both of (DS) and (PS) natural coagulants in which it achieved a significant reduction in turbidity to less of 5 NTU that meeting WHO drinking water guidelines for all tested synthetic turbid water. Moreover, in some cases, it produced excellent water quality having residual tur- bidity less of 0.1 NTU. In addition to decrease the settling time to 30 minutes and minimize risks of alum dose required to 60%. These viable advantages are significant to current practices in advanced water treatment technologies such as reverse osmosis in cost, energy, effectiveness, safety and maintenance. So, it is recommended to consider proposed approach in this research work to be a novel pretreatment approach in advanced water treatment

Coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation processes for treating three levels of bentonite synthetic turbid water using date seeds (DS) and alum (A) coagulants were investigated in the previous research work. In the current research, the same experimental results were used to adopt a new approach on a basis of using coagulation rate constant as an investigating parameter to identify optimum doses of these coagulants. Moreover, the performance of these coagulants to meet (WHO) turbidity standard was assessed by introducing a new evaluating criterion in terms of critical coagulation rate constant (k c). Coagulation rate constants (k 2) were mathematically calculated in second order form of coagulation process for each coagulant. The maximum (k 2) values corresponded to doses, which were obviously to be considered as optimum doses. The proposed criterion to assess the performance of coagulation process of these coagulants was based on the mathematical representation of (WHO) turbidity guidelines in second order form of coagulation process stated that (k 2) for each coagulant should be C (k c) for each level of synthetic turbid water. For all tested turbid water, DS coagulant could not satisfy it. While, A coagulant could satisfy it. The results obtained in the present research are exactly in agreement with the previous published results in terms of finding optimum doses for each coagulant and assessing their performances. On the whole, it is recommended considering coagulation rate constant to be a new approach as an indicator for investigating optimum doses and critical coagulation rate constant to be a new evaluating criterion to assess coagulants' performance.

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