Scientific Rationale for the Use of Wastewater as an Alternative Source of Irrigation under Water Deficit

Abstract

This article presents the scientific rationale for the application of wastewater as an alternative source of irrigation under water deficit. The purpose is to develop technological solutions for the use of the drainage effluent as an alternative source of water in reclamation systems. This research investigated the process of filtration through the filter element, which is made on the basis of coal production waste and has a cylindrical shape with a cavity inside that is filled with the sorbent based on rice husks, and developed a method for the preparation of the drainage effluent for the agricultural use. Studies of the filtration process were carried out on the models of the radial pressure filter.
 The results of the conducted research on the pressure loss increase in the filter element have shown that when the diameter of the grains of the filter element is increased, there is a reduction in the pressure loss increase with respect to time. At dg=0.18 mm the critical dirt-holding capacity starts at 3 hours of the filtration process, at dg= 0.23 mm – 6 hours, and at dg=0.71 mm –14 hours. The efficiency of purification when using the developed filter element depending on the diameter of the grains and the filtration rate decreases over time, and towards the end of the filtration cycle (15 hours), their content is reduced from 8.2 to 0.2 mg/dm3 at a uniform filtration rate. The method helps to improve the quality of the preparation of the drainage effluent for crop irrigation, to expand the range of the use of drainage water, having a different chemical composition, and to simplify the process of installation of the filter elements through the use of more light weight construction.