ABSTRACT

Potable water is essential for human and enviornmental health. In Pakistan, quick
urbanization and industrialization in the last twenty years have stressed on the
availability of quality surface and ground water resources. The discharge of
untreated wastewaters in to the receiving water bodies have led to several
environmental consequences such as poor water quality and increase in waterborne
disease outbreaks. Although conventional primary and secondary wastewater treatment
remove contaminants upto a certain level, the treated effluents may have
contaminents more than the required standard. Therefore, additional treatment
(tertiary) may be required. There are few methods like adsorption and
sandfiltration that can be considered suitable for on-site water treatment. This
present research focused on the use of sandfilter as one of the promising methods
for additional wastewater treatment. Different types of sandfilters are used for
tertiary treatment which has the ability to remove pollutants to fulfil the
required standards. The hydraulic loading rate through the sandfilter was varied
from 12 to 24 gpd/ft2 to check the treatment efficiency by selecting treatment time
of 50 days for each loading rate. The major outcome of the study is that sandfilter
removed 78% of Turbidity, 65% of Total suspended solids (TSS), 34% Chemical Oxygen
demand (COD), 51% Nitrate and 44% Phosphate from secondary treated effluent at
loading rate 24 gpd/ft2. After that loading rate was reduced upto 12 gpd/ft2, at
this loading rate efficiency of sandfilter increased upto 5-6% for different
parameters. With the addition of sandfilter the overall removal efficiency of pilot
scale treatment plant increased upto 85% for Turbidity, 75% for TSS, 77% for COD,
66% for Nitrate and 61% for Phosphate at loading rate 24 gpd/ft2 and removal
efficiency further increased upto 2-3% when loading rate was 12 gpd/ft2. The
maximum removal efficiency obtained at 24 gpd/ft2 was 85% for Turbidity, 78% for
TSS, 57% for Nitrate, 50% for Phosphate and at 12 gpd/ft2 it increased up to 91%
for Turbidity, 85% for TSS, 60% for Nitrate, 53% for Phosphate. It can be concluded
that addition of sand filter at the tale of pilot plant significantly improved the
quality of treated wastewater because of its stability, easiness and low cost. This
study has demonstrated the ability of sandfilter to improve wastewater quality and
reuse in agriculture so, we recommend building more units specifically at that
treatment plant which has lower removal efficiency.

Keywords: Biofilm, Filtration, Sand Filter, Secondary Clarifier, Tertiary Treatment