Evaluation of Domestic Wastewater Treatment Using Various Natural Filter Media

Abstract

The performance of combined anaerobic and aerobic treatment system with different filter medias and their efficiencies were examined for domestic wastewater. The gravitational flow rate to the system includes Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR), Anaerobic Filter (AnF) and Aerobic Filter (AF) and was kept constantly giving hydraulic retention time of 7.6 h, 7.2 h and 11.4 h respectively. The consecutive treatment efficiencies achieved were 43%, 79% and 94% on ABR, AnF and AF during the observation period. In anaerobic filter, gravel media show higher efficiency than slag media and PO 4 removal is proven to fail in the slag media. Gravel (2–4 mm) and pebble (8–10 mm) gives better performance than sand media (0.5 mm) in aerobic filter. Gravel (2–4 mm) with reed show higher efficiency (94%) than all other medias. Combination of these three-system gives excellent alternative (89 to 94.5% efficiency) to conventional treatment system, which proves and reduces the operational cost.