A Novel High Rate Flocculator/Filter in Water and Wastewater Treatment

상하수처리를 위한 새로운 고효율 응집/여과 장치

Conventionally used flocculation tanks require large space and high energy requirement for mixing. Static flocculators using gravel bed filter operate at a lower flow rate ($5-10m^3/m^2{\cdot}h$). Further, the cleaning of this system is difficult. A novel high rate static flocculator/filter developed at UTS packed with buoyant media such as polystyrene, polypropylene has been found to operate at higher filtration rates (30-45 $5-10m^3/m^2{\cdot}h$). They can easily be cleaned with minimal energy. Detailed experiments conducted with an artificial kaolin clay solution show that buoyant media is an excellent static flocculator in producing uniform filterable microflocs (12-15 m) even when it is operated at a high rate of 30-40 m/h. Detailed filtration experiments were conducted in a wastewater treatment plant to treat the biologically treated effluent with a floating media of depth of 120 cm. This filter was able to remove majority of phosphorus and remaining solids. It reduced significantly the fecal coliforms and fecal streptoccoci, thus requiring less amount of chlorine for disinfection. The advantage of this system is the low energy and water requirement for cleaning of filter bed. The periodic backwash adopted 30 seconds air and water and 30 seconds water cleaning every 90 minutes filter operation. Thisis equivalent to 1-2% of filtered water production. Mechanical cleaning system on the other hand, requires very low energy requirement (<1% of filtered water production).