Abstract
The quest for simple, low-cost and high-performance decentralized wastewater treatment system for rural application in developing nation necessitated this study. The ability of sand-clays fortified by pebbles in rural wastewater treatment was investigated in this article. Clay samples, collected from northeastern Tunisia, were characterized by studying the mineralogical and geochemical composition using X-ray diffractometer and atomic absorption spectrophotometer, respectively. Permeability studies were conducted to determine the best combination ratio (3:1) of sand-clay/pebbles. The sand-clay mixture, containing 90% of sand and 10% of clay by weight and fortified with pebbles in a ratio of 3:1, this reconstituted sand filter, gave the optimum wastewater purification and appropriate permeability, the values are 2.18 × 10-6 m/s for no fortified sand-clay and 2.29 × 10-5 m/s for fortified sand-clay in ratio 3:1. The performance efficiency of the fortified column was studied and the results showed a decrease of nitrogen (65%), biochemical oxygen demand (75%), chemical oxygen demand (73%), and bacteria such as fecal coliform (0.7 Ulog), fecal streptococci (4 Ulog), and total bacteria (2 Ulog).
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