Abstract
Sustainable reuse of urban stormwater is inevitable in the fight against water crises in arid regions. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a low-cost ceramic filtration process for reuse applications of urban stormwater. Stormwater was collected from a storage pond located in Buraydah (Qassim, Saudi Arabia) for laboratory experiments. The filtration tests were performed in a continuous mode with constant pressure using a low-cost ceramic filter made of clay soil and rice bran. The removal rates of the contaminants (heavy metals) as well as the turbidity, suspended solids, and nutrients of the stormwater were assessed. High removal efficiencies for turbidity (97.4%), suspended solids (97.0%), BOD5 (78.4%), and COD (76.1%) were achieved while low removals were achieved for the nutrients: 19.7% for total nitrogen, 25.3% for nitrate, and 8.6% for phosphate. Removal efficiencies ranged between 36.2% and 99.9% for the heavy metals, i.e., iron, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, copper, cadmium, selenium, and barium. Contaminant removal rates observed for the ceramic filter were also compared with the alum coagulation process operated in a continuous mode at an optimum alum dose of 50 mg/L. Similar removal behaviors for removal of turbidity, suspended solids, organics, nutrients, and heavy metals suggested that both ceramic filtration and alum coagulation can be effectively used for stormwater treatment. Effluent qualities of both the ceramic filter and alum coagulation met the standards, for recycling/reuse of wastewater, set by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and World Health Organization for unrestricted irrigation and toilet flushing. The study results revealed that ceramic filtration is a low-cost, energy efficient, and easy to maintain technology which can be complimentary to best management practices for stormwater.
Highlights
Most of the urban areas in arid and semi-arid environmental regions are focusing on innovative and sustainable approaches for stormwater management, such as integrated greywater and stormwater reuse for green buildings, groundwater recharge through infiltration ponds, and improved drainage systems with retention storages [1]
Raw stormwater was manually fed to the filtration tank where the ceramic filter was submerged horizontally on a plastic board to ensure an effective use of the entire surface of the filter (Figure 1a)
In order to prevent the fouling materials accumulated on the filter, air was provided by a diffusor without controlling the aeration rate
Summary
Most of the urban areas in arid and semi-arid environmental regions are focusing on innovative and sustainable approaches for stormwater management, such as integrated greywater and stormwater reuse for green buildings, groundwater recharge through infiltration ponds, and improved drainage systems with retention storages [1]. Appropriate urban stormwater management can reduce both the hydraulic and pollution loads on drainage system and enrich the groundwater resources [2]. Recycling of stormwater for non-drinking applications or for groundwater recharge needs to be applied for sustainable stormwater management as well as for protection of the environment [3]. Urban stormwater runoff transports a wide range of pollutants (generated by anthropogenic and biogenic activities) into the receiving water bodies (i.e., retention ponds and natural drains) that exceed the maximum contamination limits set for recycling as well as groundwater recharge. Stormwater can be contaminated by intrusion of emerging pollutants from cross-contamination or overflows of municipal sewers [7,8]
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