Publication

The use of laboratory sand, soil and crushed-glass filter columns for polishing domestic-strength synthetic wastewater that has undergone secondary treatment

Healy, Mark G.
Burke, Padraic
Rodgers, Michael
Citation
Healy, M.G., Burke, P., Rodgers, M. (2010) 'The use of laboratory sand, soil and crushed-glass filter columns for polishing domestic-strength synthetic wastewater that has undergone secondary treatment'. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A: Toxic/Hazardous Substances and Environmental Engineering, 45 (12):1635-1641.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the performance of intermittently loaded, 150 mm-diameter stratified filter columns of 2 depths (0.65 and 0.375 m) comprising different media - sand, crushed glass and soil - in polishing the effluent from a laboratory horizontal flow biofilm reactor (HFBR) treating synthetic domestic-strength wastewater. The HFBR has been successfully used to remove organic carbon and ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) from domestic wastewater. In this treatment method, wastewater is allowed to flow over and back along a stack of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheets. Biofilms on the sheets reduce organic carbon, suspended matter, and nutrients in the wastewater, but to achieve the quality of a septic tank system, additional treatment is required. In all filters, at a hydraulic loading rate of 100 L m-2 d-1, 40-65% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and practically 100% of total suspended solids (TSS) were removed, nitrification was complete, and bacterial numbers were reduced by over 80%, with best removals achieved in the soil filters (93%). Soil polishing filters with the depth of 0.65 m performed best in terms of organic carbon, total nitrogen (Tot-N) and bacterial removal. Data from this preliminary study are useful in the design of treatment systems to polish secondary wastewaters with similar water quality characteristics.
Funder
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Publisher DOI
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland