ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING CRITIQUE WRITING

Name: Wadhwani Sahil Amar

Reg No: c2120010
Batch: D

DUAL MEDIA FILTER

[CRITIQUE WRITING]

We know that a Dual Media filter is a filter which consists of two or more than two
mediums of filter or use two no of filter material for e.g., Sand Anthracite Coal etc.

This anthracite coal is placed above the layer of sand. This type of dual filtration bed can
be used directly after flocculation or it can be used after conventional sedimentation.

In the Thessaloniki water treatment plant, the dual media bed was used for both the
method for filtrations after flocculation and also for filtration after sedimentation. As we
have learnt that surface water has less turbidity as compared to groundwater therefore
direct filtration is considered as suitable process for the treatment of surface waters with
low turbidity, as well as for multi-medium filter beds, such as anthracite-sand filter,
because the main requirements of this application are that
(A) the influent should be of low initial turbidity, and
(B) it is necessary to have a larger grain diameter in the filter, in order to decrease the
respective head loss.
The substitution of conventional treatment schemes by direct filtration may significantly
increase the cost savings (up to 35%), because of the elimination of conventional
flocculation and sedimentation processes.
In the water treatment plant both the methods or processes were conducted using
large-scale filter beds with single (sand) and double (sand-anthracite) filtration media, in
order to compare the operation of dual filter bed with the single layer one.
As per the basic logic and assumptions we can predict that the one process in which dual
filtration bed of coal and sand is used will give more efficiency because they can
function as a progressive sieve, which can trap the larger solids within the coarser (top)
anthracite layer, whereas the smaller particles would be trapped deeper within the
(bottom) sand layer. As per the procedure if it goes the same it will filter more water as
the coarser solid will be trapped in coal and finer in sand so the load will be distributed
hence increasing the time of filtration cycle and reducing substantially the necessary
time for backwashing.
The Process of direct dual media filtration and indirect filtration were conducted and
were compared with the single-medium filters, which were used during the conventional
treatment scheme. It was also observed that the dual sand filter will require less surface
area as it delivers the water with more efficiency from 80-meter square reduced up to
40-meter square.
After the processes were completed, the results show that the operation of dual-media
filter bed during the conventional water treatment process (i.e.,
coagulation/flocculation–sedimentation–filtration) gives slightly high value of turbidity
as it was new during the first weeks, but as per the time increases upo 2 months, as it can
be observed from the obtained results the two filter beds (containing mono- and dual
filtration media) produce water with the same constant (high) quality, i.e., with final
turbidity below 0.1 NTU.

The larger filter runs of dual-bed filters constitute the most significant advantage in
comparison with the single bed operation. A conservative computation showed that the
water production of a dual bed could be about 10% higher in comparison with the single
bed.
Furthermore, energy cost savings can be also obtained, because of the reduced usage of
pumps during the backwashing of dual filter beds.
The dual filter bed was found to increase the efficiency of direct filtration, regarding the
filtration cycles. Although the use of dual filtration media increased considerably on is a
process, which demands excessive monitoring, because even small variations in the
quality of raw water (e.g. turbidity, algal content, temperature) may cause seriothe
filtration cycles (10–15 h), the filtered water showed also rather increased (but
acceptable) turbidity values (0.2–0.3 NTU)
The conventional treatment results confirmed that the quality of filtered water was
similar for the two examined filter beds, regarding mainly the turbidity and the residual
aluminum concentration. Furthermore, the filtration cycles of dual filter beds can last
about 3–4 times more than the single bed. Experimental data showed direct filtration
operational problems, such as rapid clogging of the beds, or decreased filtrate quality.

It can be supported that direct filtration may be more successful if it would be

applied, when raw water presents lower initial turbidity (i.e. 3–4 NTU), as well as
low algal content.