Process Window Determination for Biofiltration by the Taguchi Method

Man Chung Law,Hong Chua,Ka Po Cheng,Chi Wai Kan

doi:10.4236/jwarp.2012.410095

Abstract

Raw water from the Yantian Reservoir in Southern China was used for this study. Several process parameters of biofiltration, temperature, media, empty bed contact time, ozone dosage and concentration of geosmin and MIB, were adopted in order to determine their effects. Experiments were conducted using the Taguchi method and 9 experiments were needed to obtain the best process parameter settings and parameter effects. The results of these experiments indicate the use of biological filtration as a method of geosmin and MIB removal, to be satisfactory. In addition, the results show that temperature impacts the removal rate of both geosmin and MIB. Useful insights into the effects of the filter media on such as, empty bed contact time, ozone dosage and concentration of geosmin and MIB were also obtained.

Highlights

Yantian reservoir, established in 1976, is situated in Dongguan (Figure 1)
The optimum condition for Geosmin was shown in experiment no 1 while the optimum condition for MIB was experiment no 1
From the experimental results (Table 3 and Figure 3), it is seen that the removal rates of both Geosmin and MIB are better when the working tempera ture is 20 ̊C

Summary

Introduction

Yantian reservoir, established in 1976, is situated in Dongguan (Figure 1). It is used mainly as a source of drinking water for the Dongguan area—Fenggang. The area and storage capacity of the Yantian reservoir are equal to approximately 256,000 m2 and 8,990,000 m3 respectively. From October 2010 to October 2011, the geosmin and MIB concentration of Yantain reservoir are around 3 ng to 168 ng/L and 4 ng to 139 ng/L respectively (Figure 2). Several factors may significantly influence geosmin and MIB removal in biofilters. These factors include such asseasonal water temperature variations, filter me dia (GAC, EC, or sand), empty bed contact time.

Methods

Results

Conclusion