Effect of composition and depth of filter-bed on the efficiency of Sand-intermittent-filter treating the Industrial wastewater at Haridwar, India

Abstract

Sand Intermittent Filtration (SIF) is an established technology of wastewater treatment and in recent years it gains renewed interest due to its simplicity and less energy requirement. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the modified filter-bed Reactor using Sand-intermittent-filtration (SIF) for the removal of physicochemical parameters viz dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total hardness (TH), calcium hardness (CaH), chloride (Cl), turbidity, total solids (TS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and total suspended solids (TSS) of the Industrial wastewater of State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (SIDCUL) at Haridwar. The experiments were performed with the composition of the filter-bed having sand and gravel in the ratio of 1:1 (Reactor I); 1:2 (Reactor II) and 2:1 (Reactor III) at the room temperature 300C. Each Reactor was categorized into A, B and C type based on depth of filter-bed (A=10 cm, B=15 cm, C=30 cm). The maximum removal of TS (52.21%), TDS (50.66%), TSS (57.20%), turbidity (67.36%), chloride (28.81%), BOD (39.18%), COD (38.66%), TH (53.40%), and CaH (62.57%) was observed in Reactor II C (soil and gravel- 2:1 and 30 cm depth of bed) using 0.49 mm effective size and 0.49 uniformity coefficient (UC) of the sand. A mixture of sand and gravel in the Reactor II with a ratio of 2:1 yielded better efficiency in comparison to the Reactor I and Reactor III. Thus, SIF technology could be environment-friendly and economically cost-effective for removing various physicochemical parameters from Industrial wastewater.