Use of recycled crushed glass as a filtration medium in municipal potable water treatment plants

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of recycled crushed glass as a filtration medium for municipal potable water treatment plants. It evaluated the main physical parameters of recycled glass and its performance in a potable water treatment application. Pilot-plant testing was used to compare the performance of recycled glass to a typical sand filter medium in a conventional treatment process. Laboratory analysis was used to determine media characteristics. Pilot-plant testing determined that the filtration performance of the glass medium was similar to that of a typical sand medium of similar effective size and uniformity under all conditions tested. The glass medium had the benefit of taking 10-15% longer than the sand to reach particle breakthrough. The glass also appeared to accumulate headloss in most runs at a slightly lower rate than the sand. Backwashing observed during pilot-plant testing also showed that the glass expanded more than the sand under the same backwash water rates. This was noted to be a potential benefit to installations that have low backwash water flow.