REVIEW PAPER 11

A review of current and developing potable water

treatment processes

D G Stevenson
University College, London

Abstract: The changes in water treatment technology that have occurred within the United Kingdom over
the past 25–30 years, together with the present direction of development, are reviewed. Water treatment for
public supply differs from many other process technologies, notably in the large scale of operation, the
longevity of the plant, the regulatory environment and the slow rate at which new processes can be
introduced. Thus, many developments are initiated as a result of regulatory requirements rather than
economic factors. Reliability is paramount, and this leads to mechanical simplicity.

Keywords: water treatment, potable water, granular media
ltration, settlement, dissolved air otation,
lamella settlement, sand-ballasted settlement

1 INTRODUCTION and any innovation could be regarded with some suspicion.

This review is concerned primarily with the treatment of
water for public supply or for industrial use, on a scale of
several cubic metres per hour upward to perhaps 10 000 m3/h
or more, by continuous processes. The average daily
production in England and Wales is about 500 000 m3/h.
(The newcomer will immediately notice the de
ant use of
megalitres per day (Ml/day) and in some utilities thousand
cubic metres per day (tcmd) rather than using cubic metres
(m3) to describe plant ows.)
Treatment technology has evolved over some 200 years in
a rather haphazard manner. Initially, the various supply
companies tended to evolve from local communities with
the assistance of pioneer innovators. For most of the twen-
tieth century there were the water companies and boards,
specialist water treatment companies and consultants with
water treatment specialists. In the background there was
some academic expertise in civil engineering faculties.
Innovation tended to come from the specialist treatment
contractors who were and are under
nancial pressure to
offer the best bid for new schemes. The utilities until 1974
were mainly small and fragmented (with some exceptions)
and under little
nancial pressure. Civil consultants played a
major part, as most schemes involved a considerable civil
engineering component and the treatment side was often a
small item. The incentive was to achieve technical success,
The MS was received on 10 June 2002 and was accepted after revision for
publication on 23 September 2002.
Author’s address: Firstones, Adbury Holt, Newtown, Newbury, Berkshire
RG20 9BN, UK
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First-hand observation indicates that many if not most treat-
ment specialists in consultant companies came from treat-
ment contractors or utilities. At that time the Water Research
Association and some university civil engineering faculties
made notable contributions.
In 1974 the industry was reorganized into regional water
authorities (plus a few residual private companies) which
then had in-house resources to undertake major schemes and
development work. They were then in a position to adopt a
more positive policy on many matters. About that time,
process engineers started to appear in the industry. Never-
theless, there were government constraints and, after an
initial surge, activity was pruned. Later, an increasing
concern about contaminants in water resources and fears
of a major increase in the necessary capital work programme
and cost of treatment led the government of the day in 1989
to transfer the responsibility to the private sector. This
enabled many European and other companies to establish
ownership of the water industry. During the period from
1974 until the mid-1990s there was a surge in innovation by
the utilities, but at the present time new technology is rising
again, mainly from specialist treatment contractors and other
suppliers (e.g. membrane specialists), some academic insti-
tutions and specialist research bodies such as WRc. Much
that was previously done by the utilities is now contracted
out. Many have concerns about the loss of experience,
knowledge and skills with the swing to management and
‘outsourcing’. Fewer appreciate the reasoning and theory
behind the design of existing plants.
The traditional requirement for the product was that it
should be ‘wholesome’ and non-corrosive, i.e. suitable for
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drinking. More recently, various guidelines from the World
Health Organization, directives from the European Union
and national regulations have been issued to de
ne more
precisely the criteria, not only for potentially toxic
substances and bacteriological quality but also for materials
of construction and purity of chemicals used. For industrial
purposes this quality may often be the starting point for
further puri
cation. The discovery of yet more potential
health hazards in the environment has led to increasing
regulation and the introduction of additional treatment steps
to protect the population from any risk from drinking the
product. It may be argued that some requirements are more
politically motivated than being necessary purely in terms of
cost bene
t, hazard analysis or risk to the public at large.
Also, nationally, some of the funds involved might have
been spent with greater bene
t to the population in other
ways. The privatization of the UK water industry in 1989
freed the regulators and public sector from economic
constraints. New standards and directives have owed
freely. It is understood that some current owners of utilities
are inclined to take the line that the
nes imposed for
occasional failures in quality or performance are less than
the capital expenditure for prevention.
Some 13 or so years ago, outbreaks of gastroenteritis were
traced back to the cryptosporidium organism, which in
the natural environment exists as 5 mm oocysts. These
arise from livestock and are not inactivated by conventional
disinfection procedures. Following this discovery, the
government set up a committee that has convened in three
series (the Badenoch and Bouchier committees). They
examined
ltration procedures and concluded that properly
operated sand
lters are fully effective against penetration
by such oocysts, and this is now the yardstick by which

ltration is assessed. Indeed, to avoid the need for contin-
uous sampling, removal of particles larger than 1 mm is
required on ground water supplies. It is interesting to note,
however, that an occurrence of the oocysts in Sydney,
Australia, was not accompanied with illness attributable to
these organisms.
An irksome restriction in the introduction of new tech-
nology is the approval procedure for all new materials of
construction, especially of organic origin and any new
chemical not already in use and on the permitted list.
Even existing chemicals are subject to purity standards.
Such regulations are of course necessary, but unfortunately
they have tended to be applied blindly without taking the
conditions of use into account. The situation with water
sitting in a domestic service pipe overnight is very different
to that of a grommet in a treatment plant with many cubic
metres passing over it or through it each minute. Even
though the whole component dissolved in a few days, the
treated water would still be below the limit for any toxic
constituents. Furthermore, it is unfortunate that there is no
coordination between the water and food industry regulators
so that dual approval is required.
The objective of this paper is to concentrate on process
aspects, many of which are speci
c to water treatment.
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D G STEVENSON
2 MAIN WATER TREATMENT PROCESSES
The treatment applied to any particular source of water
varies with the nature of the source and hence the impurities
to be removed. The
rst classi
cation is between surface
sources (lakes, reservoirs and rivers) and ground water
(wells and boreholes). The latter, more often than not, are
not treated apart from disinfection, although under the latest
regulations many are now being scrutinized and possibly
treated for cryptosporidium oocysts. Surface sources are
classi
ed according to their quality, some being considered
too polluted for treatment. Individual river sources may vary
considerably and rapidly. Turbidity is a convenient primary
parameter measured in NTU (nephelometric turbidity unit),
where 1 NTU usually corresponds to 2.5 mg/l of suspended
solids. Rivers in spate in the United Kingdom may exceed
100 NTU (overseas rivers can exceed 10 000 mg/l of
suspended solids), whereas reservoir waters and chalk or
mountain streams will be less than 1 NTU. The treatment
process must be tailored to the source and, unless the source
is similar to another that has already been examined,
laboratory treatment tests are undertaken.
2.1 Filtration
The core process of conventional water treatment is sand
(granular media)
ltration. The sand used is usually a close
cut with a 2:1 size range and, for consistency, tending to be
of rounded shape. The traditional bed depth is 600–700 mm.
Properly operated and with the correct chemical treatment,
this provides the required clarity and level of suspended
solids [normally 1 NTU (2.5 mg/l) maximum suspended
solids with a target of less than 0.2 NTU]. Sand
ltration
is not a form of straining or surface
ltration but relies on
the capture of suspended particles mainly on the leading
edge of the grains of sand or other media, much like snow
being caught on the upwind side of trees and lamp posts.
The various sizes of sand grain and suspended particles
produce a mixture of exponential decays in concentration as
the water passes through the bed. This adds up to an overall
logarithmic pro
le that never actually reaches zero. Coagu-
lants play a vital part in the process at ‘rapid’
ltration rates,
e.g. 4–8 m/h (so-called ‘slow’
ltration is discussed below).
They assist adhesion and are essential if the quality is to be
achieved.
Dual-media
lters with a coarser but less dense layer of
anthracite over sand are common. Triple-media
lters with a
layer of garnet below also exist, but the density difference in
this case is insuf
cient to give sharp strati
cation. The
additional bene
t is questionable. A wide media size range
will lead to reverse grading, with
ne media on top. This
tends to produce a poorer performance.
Coagulants (normally added at the preceding stage) have
the extra advantage of agglomerating many stable suspen-
sions and precipitating dissolved organic substances. The
pH is important. The particles being
ltered are retained in
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 CURRENT AND DEVELOPING POTABLE WATER TREATMENT PROCESSES
the interstitial pores of the sand, which typically have a
volume of about 40 per cent of the volume of the bed. The

lter bed has a limited dirt holding capacity and normally
must be taken out of service after a day or so and back-
washed. Because of this there is a limit to the concentration
of incoming solids. A primary clari
cation process such as
settlement or otation is therefore usually added. This is
continuous and able to handle a wide range of concentra-
tions of solids to produce a consistent intermediate product
that is suitable for
ltration (typically, 2–3 mg/l of
suspended solids). Although these primary processes do
not meet the quality standards on their own, the combination
with
ltration gives a very exible and tolerant performance.
As the solids collect in the voids within the
lter media,
the shear stress at the surface of the grains reaches a given
limit when deposition ceases. As this condition develops,
wormhole-like channels form through chains of larger pores
so that a perforated clogged layer accumulates and
progresses into the bed. Finally, the active deposition
zone, or front, which precedes the clogged layer starts to
emerge from the bottom of the bed, and the
ltrate quality
deteriorates. A typical conventional
lter has 700 mm of
0.5–1.0 mm sand, often
lters at a maximum of 6 m/h and
runs up to 2 m headloss (0.2 bar), at which point the
lter is
washed, although there are many examples outside this
range (rates of up to 30 m/h and depths of 2000 mm).
Indeed,
lters can be designed for various duties and
con
gurations, but the industry is very conservative and
tends to stay close to tradition
The initial
ltration ef
ciency is low and increases as the

rst particles are deposited, increasing the effective rough-
ness of the grains. Recently, particularly in connection with
the removal of cryptosporidium oocysts, a number of
recommendations for good practice have been promulgated
and generally adopted by the industry. Slow start has long
been used but tends merely to dilute the initial turbidity
emerging at a lower rate with more water from the matured

lters. Other techniques are to hold the
lters out of action
for a period after washing before returning them to service,
or better still to keep them idle until the next
lter is taken
out of service for washing. This latter procedure avoids the
need to increase the rate on the operating
lters while the
overall plant output remains constant. A more effective but
complementary procedure is to run the
rst
ltrate to waste
or the re
lter through the matured
lters. The wash main,
which is used intermittently, provides a means for imple-
menting the latter. Another recent move to minimize break-
through is to control the rate at which the ow is increased.
Water treatment plants give the best quality when operating
under steady state conditions. Open ‘gravity’
lters are more
tolerant in this respect as they are more able than closed
pressure
lters to absorb surges.
Cleaning (backwashing) is by reversed ow either just
above the uidization rates, preceded by an air scour, or,
particularly with slightly coarser media, with combined air
and water at subuidization rates. During the period under
review, the combined method has become more popular in
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the United Kingdom, but with the
lter media used the
losses and cost are somewhat greater. The design of the oor
to apply air scour and uidization evenly during backwash is
more critical than the design for forward operation. Conti-
nental practice is based on somewhat coarser media with the
combined wash, but few in the United Kingdom are willing
to move in this direction under the prevailing regulatory
environment.
Filter sizes of 200 m2 and above exist. Single
lters can
process 2000 m3/h or more, and there is an example of a
single plant with 60
lters. Needless to say, such
lters are
in open (gravity) tanks. Increasingly, such
lters are being
enclosed in buildings to exclude avian and insect contami-
nation. At the other end of the scale, small pressure
lters of
only 300 mm diameter are available. Pressure
ltration is
identical in principle but facilitates running to a higher
pressure differential, although this is not often exploited.
Its main advantage is in avoiding breaking pressure and
repumping where the plant is situated on a descending pipe-
line between source and the supply area. [Unfortunately, there
are few pressure options for pretreatment (clari
cation).]
The size of pressure
lters is limited to about 4.5 m diameter
in vertical format, or 4.5 m 6 12 m length horizontally. On
the above scale it is dif
cult for other processes to compete
with sand
lters for such a duty.
The alternative to ‘rapid’
ltration is ‘slow’ sand
ltration
at 0.1–0.3 m/h, which is used to treat much of London’s
water in football pitch sized tanks. At this rate, no chemical
treatment is required but biological processes are involved.
The sand is progressively skimmed for cleaning each few
weeks and, eventually, each
lter has to be resanded. Such

lter technology dates back to 1829, but the cost and area of
land make the technology unattractive in most situations.
The media in both types of
lter should last inde
nitely, say
25 years or more, and the structure 50 years or more.
Finally, it should be mentioned that upow
lters have
been developed, but, as the dirty wash water emerges in the
same direction as the
ltrate, they are not acceptable as a

nal stage of treatment for potable water. Continuously
moving bed
lters and large cellular
lter beds with a
travelling bridge continuous wash system have been in
existence since before the period under review. They have
been re
ned and continue to be represented in potable water
treatment, but most installations have been for tertiary waste
water
ltration.
2.2 Coagulation,
occulation and clarication
Coagulation with a ferric or aluminium salt produces a
voluminous hydroxide precipitate, and often the amount
required may overload the
lters even without including
the suspended solids in the raw water. Hence, coagulation in
most cases forms part of the primary treatment. Over the last
30 years, water-soluble polymers (polyelectrolytes)approved
for use with drinking water have been available and are now
widely used to improve the settlement rate. In some cases it
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14 D G STEVENSON

is possible to use these on their own as coagulants to reduce

the solids loading and avoid primary treatment prior to
‘direct
ltration’, i.e.
ltration without a primary stage of
clari
cation. The term ‘clari
cation’ in water treatment
applies speci
cally to the primary removal of suspended
solids before
ltration.
The precise doses of such chemicals and the optimum pH
are determined in laboratory ‘jar’ tests in which various
doses of the chemicals are added and mixed, and the sample
is stirred slowly to occulate or agglomerate the solids.
Slow stirring is then stopped and the suspension is allowed
to settle. A oc particle may have a diameter of up to
3–5 mm and a density of about 300 g/m3 above that of the
water. Settlement rates under optimized conditions range
from 1 to 10 m/h. The maximum size and, hence, settlement
rate are inversely related to the prevailing uid shear rate,
and therefore quiescent conditions are essential.
The setting of the coagulant and polyelectrolyte dose is
Fig. 1 Hopper-bottomed uidized oc blanket clari
er
the one step in water treatment that still requires occasional
manual intervention. Streaming current measurements have
been partially successful and also algorithms based on past particles then continue the work. A mass balance is main-
experience, but large changes in raw water quality (storm tained, with excess sludge being decanted over a submerged
conditions) still defeat such systems. weir (the rim of the sludge concentrator hopper.) The
rst
The
rst designs of settlement plant used a continuous examples were hopper-shaped with a downward pointing
version of the jar procedure, with rapid mixing and occu- inlet (Fig. 1). Hopper tanks were popular for a period and
lation with slow-speed mechanical paddles with tip speeds tanks of up to 12 m square were built but the cost of
of about 0.5 m/s for about 45 min, followed by horizontal construction (because of the depth) made them, uncompe-
ow settlement in rectangular (linear) or circular radial ow titive compared with later developments. They were super-
tanks. It was later found that, by raising the concentration of seded by a design consisting of a matrix of downward inlets
the suspended solids in the occulation zone by recycling at 1–1.5 m centres over a at oor. (There are several
some of the sludge, the occulation time could be reduced versions, but the principle is shown in Fig. 2.) The simpler
very considerably. Also, by holding the oc in suspension design uses open feed channels with a constant ow.
for longer, the density increased and settlement improved. Another, with a pulsed inlet ow in pipes or ducts, enables
These changes enabled the size of the tanks to be reduced a wider ow range to be achieved in a single tank, but in
and led to designs with fewer moving parts. In the mid- practice the dose of polyelectrolyte can be varied to control
1930s a chance discovery paved the way for entirely non- the oc blanket over a wide range of owrates. All of these
mechanical settlement tanks exploiting the uidized-bed later designs avoid moving parts apart from sludge valves
principle. In this, the uidized mature oc particles (the and, in the case of the pulsed design, a blower exhauster
oc blanket) capture the small freshly precipitated particles with a oat-operated vent valve. Should there be fast settling
and grow until the surface shear causes them to split and two grit that is not uidized, such tanks can be
tted with oor

Fig. 2 One of several designs of at-bottomed clari
er

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 CURRENT AND DEVELOPING POTABLE WATER TREATMENT PROCESSES
scrapers. Surface rates range from 1.0 to 4–5 m/h or more in
plain tanks when polyelectrolytes are used. In one Japanese
design, rates of up to 100 m/h were claimed when treating
clay suspensions, but polyelectrolyte doses were in excess of
permitted levels. Some conventional examples have an area
of 1200 m2. Practically the whole area occupied by these
tanks is productive in terms of separation area. There is little
additional hardware, such as occulation tanks, and after
1970 the uidized blanket tanks superseded the sludge
recirculation designs that were common from about 1950
to 1970.
The main penalty of simplicity in the uidized oc
blanket clari
ers and recirculation types, which rely on the
accumulation of a suspension to achieve optimum puri
ca-
tion, is that it takes time for the solids inventory to build up
when starting with an empty tank. Indeed, in some cases it
may take a few days, although after this operation they are
able to continue in uninterrupted operation for many
months. However, most plants have multiple tanks and the
oc suspension can be pumped from one to another to speed
up restarting. Should a metering pump fail or an incorrect
coagulant dose be added, the solids inventory may be lost
and the process must start again. (Such failures can of
course be detected, and the response time is such that
corrective action can usually be taken.) In spite of this, the
process is very ef
cient, but there is an incentive for more
robust processes to be introduced.
The improvements in the surface rate (or reduction in size)
of settlement tanks over the past 30 years have mainly
followed the introduction of polyelectrolyte chemicals and
an understanding of the correct method of use and control
(which lagged behind their introduction). The area of sludge
concentrators for the extraction of surplus solids, for exam-
ple, has been increased. The changes have reduced the area
for a given ow by a factor of 2–5 or more without sacri
cing
the basic simplicity of a hopper or at-bottomed tank or
increasing the mechanical complexity. There is now a better
understanding of the operation of such tanks and bottlenecks,
but there is a danger that this expertise will be lost as staff
move or retire and are replaced with increasing automation.
2.3 Precipitation softening
Prior to 1970, when a link between soft water and cardio-
vascular disease was postulated, precipitation softening was
fairly common, particularly where new sources contained
more calcium than previous sources. Several of the older
clari
er designs were able to accept the process, but not the
at-bottomed types with multiple inlets which would block
up with calcium carbonate scale. The surface rate could be
several times that for conventional settlement (prior to the
introduction of polyelectrolytes.). The pellet reactor, which
can reach surface rates of 100 m/h when used with caustic
soda or 70 m/h with lime to precipitate calcium carbonate, is
another example of the uidized-bed clari
er. However,
nucleating precipitate particles will not remain in the tank
at this rate. Fine sand or other heavy minerals are used to
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seed the units. The precipitated calcium carbonate emerges
as 1.5–2 mm granules. All of these types of unit can, and
are, applied to industrial uses. Where softening is still used,
the
nal water is blended to maintain not less than
60–70 mg/l of CaCO3 hardness.
2.4 Lamella clarication (settlement)
The principle of settlement in inclined tubes or plates was

rst published in 1920. The use of closely spaced plates
applied to water treatment evolved in about 1970. Lamella
clari
cation is based on the principle that the ow of water
that can be treated is dependent on the settlement rate of
the particles and the total horizontally projected area avail-
able for settlement, irrespective of depth. Thus, use can be
made of a plain rectangular tank or a much more compact
stack of horizontal ducts or indeed a stack of inclined ducts,
all of the same total horizontally projected area. The latter
provides a truly continuous process. The angle of inclination
in the latter case must of course exceed the angle of friction
for the deposit to slide out at the bottom. Horizontal tubes
were used in one design of small package plant but appear to
have been abandoned at an early stage.
Most embodiments consist of stacks of plates or tubes set at
55–60¯ to the horizontal. However, although this provides a
signi
cant improvement, the performance is below the theo-
retical expectation and limited by the tendency of the water
entering at the base of each tube or plate to sweep the emerging
solids back into the duct, as shown in Fig. 3. This problem was
resolved in a Swedish design that provides entry from side
ducts to plate lamellae so that the oc can fall out unhindered
at the bottom while the clari
ed water ows upwards. Plates
are not self-supporting and are more expensive compared with
tubes, which can be assembled in large rigid hexagonal
honeycomb structures. A very spectacular reduction in the
size of the vessel is achievable by such lamellar systems.
Initially, the occulation ion tanks followed traditional hori-
zontal ow practice with a retention of 30–40 min, but with the
recirculation of solids this has been reduced.
Polyelectrolytes are added as well as coagulants to maxi-
mize the throughput. One proprietary example is the Degre-
mont Densadeg clari
er, which is a combination of a
compact recirculation system with a bottom-entry tube
pack with a scraped oor below. The Passavant Turbo
LME (Fig. 4), on the other hand, although somewhat similar,
uses the side-entry lamella plate system and the scraping
system below is designed as a thickener, giving in one
instance a sludge with 19 per cent dry solids. In both
designs, part of the
nal sludge is recirculated to improve
and reduce the volume of the occulation stage.
In these designs, high surface rates are claimed for the
lamella section, but the total area occupied by the curious
shape of the parallelogram plate stacks in a circular tank
plus the reaction zones is considerably larger than that
implied by the surface rate. The assembly of ducts has to
be cleaned and kept free of algae growths and other adherent
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Fig. 3 Lamella settlement: left, bottom entry tubes; right, side entry plates
material. The means for achieving this are more complicated
than a simple scraper. Lamellae are usually fabricated from
plastic material with a life signi
cantly shorter than concrete
or steel and also requiring speci
c approval. In many
instances the occulation process (which occurs simulta-
neously with settlement in the uidized blanket designs)
involves a separate compartment which remains at the
original size. Thus, overall the savings are not as much as
they might seem at
rst sight.
Some examples exist in the United Kingdom, although
they are used in some other countries where so-called
horizontal ow tanks have been more common. Passavant,
for example, claim a reference list of 80 000 m3/h
(2000 Ml/day) with just over 50 installations from 1972 to
the present time (none in the British Isles). This
gure would
be swamped by the capacity of oc blanket clari
ers and
otation in the same period. The main advantage of the
lamella system is the quicker start-up compared with the
designs discussed above. It is perhaps more appropriate for
industrial applications with higher solids concentrations.
The chief weakness of lamella systems as applied to the
clari
cation of the main ow is that, while reducing the size
of the separation section, the occulation stage remains
largely as before. There are limits to the reduction achiev-
able by the recirculation of sludge. However, in
lter wash
water and sludge treatment the suspension is already oc-
culated and lamellae are providing cost savings.
Fig. 4
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D G STEVENSON
It should be noted that there are designs of upow
uidized oc blanket clari
er that have inclined plates, but
these are widely spaced and have deector
ns under each
plate. These are claimed to prevent the upward current under
each plate from entraining oc particles, but such an action
would negate lamella-type settlement. Their role would
seem to be as uidization stabilizers rather than true lamella
settlers.
2.5 Dissolved air
otation
In the United Kingdom, the past 30 years have seen a major
change from previous clari
cation practice with the intro-
duction of dissolved air otation (DAF). Indeed, the vast
majority of new plants in this period have used DAF. The
relatively low settlement rate of the oc particles produced
by the aluminium or iron hydroxide, especially with upland
coloured water and reservoir waters with low turbidity, is
reversed and enhanced by attaching air bubbles. It is
possible to improve the surface rate by a factor of 10 or
more while still using a relatively simple system with few
moving parts or a large area of plastic lamella sheeting.
Flotation (Fig. 5) involves recycling about 10 per cent of the
product to a pressure vessel at 3.5–6 bar, where it is
saturated with air from a compressor. The chemically
dosed water, after a shortened occulation period, is
LME compact combined settler/thickener
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Fig. 5 Dissolved air otation

mixed with the recycled water (after it emerges from ori
ces assisted its adoption. Regulatory restrictions and a different
that maintain the back pressure). Air bubbles of 50–100 mm procurement procedure in the industry have hampered its use
nucleate and attach to the oc. This oats to the surface of in the United States. Flotation is not so suitable for highly
the tank and the clari
ed water is drawn off from below. In turbid water (e.g. above 80–100 NTU) but ideal for coloured
earlier designs the resultant scum was scraped off, but the and algae-laden waters and almost all UK sources.
mechanical complexity of the scraper system and its
tendency to knock down and sink some of the scum have
led many to prefer hydraulic decanting of the scum over a 2.6 Sand-ballasted clarication
weir. The direction of ow of the water helps to carry the
Sand-ballasted clari
cation emerged (in Hungary) at about
scum towards the weir. In some cases the sticky scraped
the same time as dissolved air otation but did not receive the
sludge has to be diluted for conveyance. With hydroxide
same promotion by an independentand impartial body. Being
sludges a scraped sludge could be 5 per cent dry solids,
a proprietary process offered by a single contractor has
whereas a decanted sludge may be 0.5–0.75 per cent
possibly led to some scepticism. The original patents have
dry solids. Sludge from a oc blanket tank on similar
long expired (it was described in a review in 1974, when plants
water would normally be more dilute still. Although more
were already in service). There are similarities to otation in
water has to be recovered in the sludge plant, the size is
that a ballasting agent (about 100 mm sand) is added to the
not normally affected (as the size is usually determined by
stirred suspension (see Fig. 6) together with a polyelectrolyte
the underow solids ux) and the system is simpler and less
to promote adhesion. The resultant suspension is settled in a
expensive.
simple scraped tank and the sand is extracted for cleaning in a
Early DAF plants used slow-speed paddle occulators,
hydroclone system. Lamella inclined plates (plain bottom
but these have been eliminated in later designs, which
entry) are also incorporated to raise the effective settlement
exploit hydraulic energy, without moving parts. Thus, the
rate further. Again, there is little mechanical complexity. On
latest versions only involve a recycle pump and compressor
most plants the structures are in concrete. Very high rates of
as moving parts (ignoring control valves). The area occupied
separation (30–50 m/h) are claimed, but the ground plan
is usually less than half that of a modern settlement tank.
‘footprint’ area occupied, including mixing, contact and
The separation zone typically operates at 10 m/h, with an
recovery plant is not much less than that obtainable with
overall unit ground area or ‘footprint’ corresponding to
compact versions of otation or the higher rate versions of
5–8 m/h, but rates up to twice this are now being claimed.
uidized blanket settlement. Like dissolved air otation, the
It is possible to combine otation and
ltration in a single
performance is governed by the density and concentration of
tank, thus saving even more on total plant area, but in this
the ballasting agent (in this case sand), not the oc suspension,
case the size is governed by the
lter rating. In another
and start-up is rapid. On the other hand in contrast to otation,
arrangement the occulation zones are stacked under the
the weighting agent is not available free of charge and there is
otation zone to give a similar result. The retention time in
a constant make-up of
ne sand with a close size speci
cation.
the system can be as short as 15–20 min. In contrast to the
The treated water quality is similar to that from other methods
above settlement systems, there is no start-up period for
of clari
cation. In contrast to dissolved air otation,there is no
sludge to accumulate. When
lled with clean water, starting
deterioration in performance at high turbidities. Blockage of
and stopping are instantaneous and the product quality is as
pipes with the
ne sand is a potential hazard.
good as the best settlement systems. A further advantage is
that in most cases polyelectrolytes are not needed.
Over the past 25 years, otation units have accounted for
2.7 Magnetite clarication
the majority of new clari
ers in the United Kingdom and
indeed in countries such as Australia. The involvement of the To complete this review, another process, installed on three
Water Research Centre, then owned by the industry, greatly sites in the United Kingdom and also in Australia, uses
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Fig. 6
magnetite as an absorbent for colour and other organic
matter and, together with a polyelectrolyte, as a carrier for

ne suspended matter. This was originally developed by the
CSIRO in Australia and has been called the Sirooc process.
Magnetite tends to be positively charged at low pH values
and absorbs organic matter (colour). It can be regenerated at
high pH values, for which caustic soda is used. The quantity
varies with the alkalinity of the water being treated. Thus,
the process is more suited to non-limestone upland water.
Micron-size magnetite will ‘occulate’ when magnetized
and can be settled at a high rate. Magnetic drum separators
are used in the recovery process. Like the sand-ballasted
process, there is some loss and replacement magnetite is
required. In addition to the requirement for this specialized
material, the efuent is a coloured alkaline liquid that
requires treatment by conventional means. The latter and
the reliance on a specialized grade of magnetite have made
the process less attractive.
3 MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY
The present situation is confusing, as numerous designs and
concepts come and go, and has yet to stabilize. Some
examples have proved spectacular and expensive failures,
while others are beginning to prove very viable. Like any
new product, prices are likely to fall as the scale of produc-
tion builds up. Regulatory and political pressures are tending
to drive the technology into directions and at a speed that
may not otherwise be justi
ed on economic grounds or levels
of experience. Plants of 20 000 m3/h (500 Ml/day) capacity
are now being considered, as well as many smaller plants.
There is a feeling at management level that the protection
provided by membranes justi
es the investment. (Traditional
scienti
c terminology has also been corrupted. Micro
ltra-
tion has been de
ned arbitrarily as 0.1 mm cut-off, and
ultra
ltration as 0.02–0.03 mm cut-off, instead of the
previous scienti
c de
nitions, the latter normally describing
the separation of soluble molecules, e.g. colour).
Eventually, membranes could challenge conventional
treatment at all points of the treatment sequence, although
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Fine sand ballasted clari
cation
so far it is being introduced more as secondary back-up
protection. One recently completed plant on a ground water
source, claimed to be the largest, has a capacity of 4900 m3/h
(118 Ml/day). The situation on smaller supplies in outlying
areas is more favourable to membrane technology. The cost
involved in manpower travel to unmanned sites and in
transporting, handling and controlling chemicals is dispro-
portionately large. Ultra
ltration (the correct de
nition) is
able to remove colour, suspended solids and bacteria without
coagulant chemicals. (Only cleaning chemicals are used.)
Several plants are now in operation in Scotland and in
Ireland.
Membrane plants are modular and comprise large
numbers of repeating units, often in tubular vessels, contain-
ing bundles of hollow
bres or microtubes, or membranes in
‘swiss roll’ format. Hitherto, reverse osmosis (RO) and
genuine ultra
ltration plants have been based on cross-
ow technology. The running costs comprise the driving
pressures for
ltration and, in the case of RO, for over-
coming the osmotic pressure plus the energy involved in
circulating the water to provide cross-ow scouring. The
main breakthrough in recent years has been the development
of ‘dead-end’
ltration systems, which eliminate the latter.
In contrast to cross-ow
ltration, no energy is used to
maintain the solids in suspension. Back ushing with
ltrate
clears away the sludge, and this may be augmented by a
through ush with raw water One design uses air, applied in
the reverse ow direction, with a raw water cross-ow ush.
A representative arrangement is shown inFig. 7. There are
also signs of a move away from the very complex tubular
module and pipework labyrinths of reverse osmosis and
ultra
ltration technology towards exposed membrane
bundles housed in tanks (Fig. 8, for example). In such
examples there is a through ow with increasing solids
concentration in the train of tanks. The continuing regula-
tory pressure to ensure removal of cryptosporidium oocysts
has spurred developments in this area. The performance and
economics will be inuenced by the solids concentration,
and such systems are being introduced particularly on
suspect ground water sources where occasional penetration
from the surface may occur.
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Fig. 7 Tubular dead-end
ltration membrane module

In contrast to conventional treatment, where the
nal
reject material is solid, there is a liquid efuent, which
will require further treatment for concentration, or which
may have to be discharged to a sewage treatment plant if
available. Chemical cleaning in place (CIP) is usually
provided to supplement back ushing when required.
This of course produces an efuent that way require
neutralization.
The pressure differential across membranes used in dead-
end mode for water treatment varies from 1 m head (0.1 bar)
to 2 bar. In the open-tank designs, the water ows by gravity
or is sucked through the membranes. Thus, the power
consumption is no longer a problem. At the present time,
membrane life is far from in
nite. Indeed, fouling has been a
recurrent theme ever since the
rst membranes were put into
service, but mechanical deterioration and wear also limit the
life. Much progress has been made, but replacement in
5 years may be necessary at a cost that corresponds to a
substantial proportion of the initial cost of the plant.
For low levels of suspended solids (e.g. ground water)
disposable cartridge
lters can be more cost effective and
have been approved. In this case there is no liquid efuent.
The solids are a dry waste disposal problem. A point that
tends to be overlooked is that the cartridge replacement
costs fall linearly as the number of cartridges rises and the
ux falls. There is a minimum in the total capital plus
operational cost curve at numbers well above the
gure
normally quoted by suppliers who tend to aim at lowest
initial cost.
Another matter that may be of concern is that membrane
plants use proprietary components that are not interchange-
able. In a conventional plant, one contractor may build it and
another may extend or uprate it 5 years later. Other specialist

rms may refurbish
lters. With a membrane plant a utility
is tied to the supplier unless the whole plant is replaced. The
membrane formulations and manufacturing techniques are
proprietary intellectual property. Such companies cannot be
guaranteed to remain in business for the life of the plant or
to grant favourable terms for replacement modules.
An important requirement on membrane plants used in
critical applications is the monitoring of integrity. A sand

lter is a rugged device. Membranes, on the other hand, are
intrinsically delicate, and the fracture of a single hollow

bre could let through a vast number of organisms. Some
suppliers use intermittent air testing to look for penetration.
This is not applicable to membranes installed in tanks.
Another technique accepted by the Drinking Water
Inspectorate is the deliberate application of a transient
turbidity ‘spike’, with monitoring of the feed and
ltrate
responses.

Fig. 8 Submerged membrane module

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4 ANCILLARY PROCESSES
4.1 Disinfection, etc.
Another essential component of a potable water treatment
plant is the contact tank where the disinfectant (chlorine or
chlorine dioxide) is allowed to react. Although simple in
principle, the design requires a residence time distribution
approaching plug ow so that ideally no element of the water
passes through in under the intended retention time. Princi-
ples established many years ago in other process industries
are now being applied to contact or reaction tank design.
Unfortunately, the World Health Organization’s most recent
guidelines on disinfection, which recommend 30 min reten-
tion time, appear to be based on benchtop, not plant,
conditions, and no advice or speci
cation for the residence
time distribution of the disinfection tanks is given. Many
contact tanks in service are single unbafed compartments.
Chlorine,
rst used in 1905 is still the most widely used
disinfectant. In the middle of the twentieth century, bulk
storage (with up to 21 t tanker deliveries) was fairly common
on large plants, but concerns about public safety have led to
a return to drums. On-site electrolytic generation of hypo-
chlorite enjoyed a passing popularity, but electrode replace-
ment costs have proved higher than forecast and the trend is
now to chilled bulk storage of sodium hypochlorite. Ultra-
violet light is used on some small supplies but leaves no
residue to protect the distribution system.
As mentioned earlier, cryptosporidium oocysts have been a
major concern over the past decade. These are not killed by
practical doses of chlorine, and, as already noted,
ltration
procedures have been re
ned and additionalmonitoring added
to ensure their removal. However, medium-pressure ultraviolet
light has been found effective and this is now approved for
public supply in the United States, Australia and Eire, but in
the United Kingdom for sports pools only. Approval is eagerly
awaited, but it could be a bitter blow for the membrane
suppliers when it comes and it may have a major impact on
the future direction of water treatment.
There is a view that the environment surrounding children
is too clean and that the previous natural immunity acquired
by the population from low dose contact with organisms is
being lost. A precedent for action has been set by uorida-
tion whereby in some areas the uoride content is adjusted
to 1 mg/l, with bene
cial results on dental decay. In parallel,
it is common practice to dose phosphate for plumbosol-
vency control and pH correction to render the water going
into supply non-corrosive. In some areas, hexametaphos-
phate or silicate was added as a corrosion inhibitor and to
stabilize manganese, but revised limits on manganese
curtailed this practice.
Trihalomethanes (THMs) such as chloroform, produced
by the reaction of chlorine with organic matter, became
another concern about 1970. This has led to a revision of
disinfection practice, and chlorine is now applied only after

ltration. Chlorine dioxide produced from sodium chlorite is
used as an alternative that does not produce THMs.
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D G STEVENSON
4.2 Ozone and granular activated carbon
In the past 10–15 years within the United Kingdom, priva-
tization of the industry has paved the way for radical changes
in the enforcement of stricter water quality requirements.
Concern about pesticide residues has led to the installation of
ozonization plus granular activated carbon treatment on
many plants treating surface waters, and indeed on some
ground water plants. Ozone is a powerful oxidant and is
produced on site by the application of an electrical discharge
to dry air, enriched air or oxygen in a purpose-designed
reactor system, followed by a direct dissolution system and a
residual ozone gas destructor. Water is contacted by granular
activated carbon in vessels closely resembling sand
lters.
However, in contrast to the latter, where sand may remain in
service for 25 years, carbon must be replaced possibly every
3 months in severe cases. Thus, facilities for easy and
complete removal and transfer to road tankers or on-site
regeneration furnaces have to be included. It has been
remarked that water treatment plants are becoming more
like chemical plants. Ozone treatment may in the future
encounter competition from advanced ultraviolet treatment.
4.3 Ion exchange
With the demise of municipal softening in the 1970s, ion
exchange has almost ceased to be used in mainstream
municipal water treatment. It is, however, the most widely
used process for removing nitrate from potable water.
Biological processes using carbon sources such as sugar,
ethanol, methanol or acetic acid have been developed, but
particularly on ground waters these result in undesirable
biological contamination. The disposal of the brine used for
regeneration presents a major problem. Also, the resin being
in chloride form, then releases chloride into the product
water, making it corrosive. This is prevented by conversion
to the bicarbonate form.
A new zero-efuent process in which the regenerant is
recovered and the nitrogen discharged as a gas has been
developed, under a Eureka project, jointly by Ionex Limited
and Yorkshire Water. Potassium chloride is used as the
regenerant, and the nitrate in the spent regenerant is subse-
quently reduced ef
ciently in a bipolar electrocatalytic cell
to nitrogen gas, facilitating immediate reuse. This may well
provide ion exchange with a new foothold.
5 WASTE DISPOSAL
Thirty years ago it was common for waste solids in the form
of clari
er sludges and
lter wash water to be discharged
directly to drying beds or lagoons or to the river from which
the water being treated had been abstracted, although down-
stream of the intake. Regulations have now eliminated this
practice. It could be argued that matters have proceeded to
the point of absurdity, bearing in mind the relatively small
proportion of ow that is often abstracted. Overseas, rivers
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 CURRENT AND DEVELOPING POTABLE WATER TREATMENT PROCESSES
often contain such high levels of suspended solids that
treatment to avoid discharge is impracticable. The sludge
spoil heap would reach mountainous dimensions.
Thirty years ago, ‘dewatering’ of hydroxide sludges was a
dif
cult task as the gelatinous sludge was almost impossible
to
lter or centrifuge. Fortunately, at that time polyelectro-
lytes (water-soluble polymers) appeared on the market and
eventually gained approval for use with potable water. These
enable the sludges to be concentrated by settlement and to
be
ltered on
lter presses. The latter already existed, having
been developed for the pottery and other industries. Like-
wise, centrifuges also developed for the process industries
were found to give an acceptable product. Sludges, which
may only be 0.5 per cent dry solids from a settlement tank,
are normally thickened to about 5 per cent by gravity and
then converted to a cake of, say, 15–20 per cent dry solids,
or more, for disposal.
Disposal of waste from treatment plants is becoming
more dif
cult, with a non-scienti
c bureaucracy classifying
many wastes such as spent activated carbon as hazardous.
Surprisingly, thermal inactivation is not an acceptable treat-
ment for cryptosporidium, etc., in recycled water or sludges,
although consumers are advised to boil water in the event of
an outbreak. The land
ll tax, site owner’s charges and
transport can be signi
cant factors in the overall cost of
treatment.
Used
lter wash water is fairly dilute and was once
returned to the front end of plants, but this often must be
treated to prevent recycling of cryptosporidium oocysts.
Sand
lters with chemical dosing have been found to be
effective, but other means such as membranes and
bre
lters
are being used. The volume is much smaller than the main
plant ow and economic considerations are less important.
There have from time to time been attempts to recover
aluminium and iron coagulants, but few, if any, have been
commercially successful. The standards now being
demanded for water treatment chemicals would indeed
prevent economical reuse.
6 AUTOMATION
At one time the pace of life and plant design was conditioned
by the 24 h manning cycle. Filters were required to run for at
least 24 h. During the 1970s, more and more plants were
mechanized, but industrial action in the early 1980s led to a
massive programme of automation and ‘demanning’. This
also demonstrated the scope for reducing operating costs.
Until then there were many examples of sons following
fathers in the industry. This has gone. Most manual and
partially manual plants are now automated, many with remote
operation from control centres. Chemical storage was
extended to enable plants to operate without deliveries for
longer periods, and any making up of chemicals was also
automated. This situation has encouraged the production of
liquid versions of almost all chemicals, so that transfers are
simpli
ed. Even lime is now available as a concentrated
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cream (Kalic) that can be pumped direct from a storage tank.
Granular carbon is transferred hydraulically. In spite of these
developments, a 24 h
lter run is always expected, even
though this may not be the optimum for minimum installed
or running cost on a fully automated plant.
In the early days of automation, hydraulically operated
valves were used extensively, but oil hydraulic systems
present a contamination hazard in a water treatment plant.
Electrical operation has become virtually universal. It is not
always appreciated that operations in water treatment plant
are not measured in milli- or microseconds. Many controls
can pause after operation for a while rather than responding
continuously, as might be the case in aeronautical engineer-
ing or robotics. Examples exist of valves wearing out from
unnecessary continuous trimming. Rapid operation can lead
to water hammer, for example, and failure of actuators or
couplings, which can lead to a valve slamming shut, can
have expensive consequences.
As already mentioned, the setting of chemical doses is the
one area where a completely satisfactory situation has yet to
be achieved. This is possibly the Achilles heel of conven-
tional treatment which may allow membranes a wider
penetration.
The overall processes are fairly leisurely. It is normal to
monitor most operations such as motorized valve positions
and potential sources of failure. Metering pump failure is
perhaps the most critical. Parameters such as pH and
residual chlorine at disinfection are commonly validated
by triple measurement. Some may be impatient at the slow
rate of change. The rate of automation may be a matter of
concern, but in terms of public health the priorities of the
utilities probably lie elsewhere.
7 POWER CONSUMPTION
Power consumption in settlement is trivial (the equivalent of
pumping up less than 1 m). Dissolved air otation uses
energy equivalent to pumping the main ow up about 6 m,
and sand-ballasted clari
cation uses a similar
gure, mainly
on sand cleaning and recovery. Conventional sand
ltration
involves a loss from the inlet channel to the
ltered water
channel of 2.5–3.0 m. There are other losses through the
plant with dividing weirs, etc. The new membrane plants do
not exceed 20 m and some much less. The total, however, is
far less than the power involved in distribution, where a
100–200 m lift or more may be common, and in some cases
much more. The latter is of course a very variable
gure and
depends on the geography and terrain. Undue concern about
power consumption speci
cally on treatment plants is there-
fore misplaced. The total power consumed by the large
pumps and blowers installed for backwashing
lters and
which run for a few minutes per wash is usually much less
than the power consumed by the much smaller metering
pumps that run 24 h per day. The main power cost is
therefore in ‘low lift’, i.e. supplying the raw water, and
‘high lift’ into supply. This is not being neglected.
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8 CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
Water treatment differs from many other branches of process
engineering in this respect. Two aspects that stand out are
the scale of the operation and the life of the installation. A
plant deals with an essential service, and no interruption of
supply is normally permitted. A typical speci
cation would
be for structures to last for 50 years, heavy machinery to be
based on 25 years and instrumentation to last for, say, 10
years. In practice, these
gures may be exceeded, especially
with concrete structures which may often be adapted to
house new processes. All moving equipment is duplicated or
provided with a standby, and it is not uncommon to provide
twin independent streams through plants. This, in turn, has
had a considerable effect on the choice of treatment unit.
A tendency to consider a shorter-term horizon has opened
the way for the use of steel tanks in place of concrete. Even
relatively low-cost, bolted-up, glass-coated steel tanks,
which
rst appeared for industrial and agricultural use,
now house water treatment processes. The cost is far
lower, particularly in temperate and tropical areas where
frost protection is not an issue. Packaging and preassembly
have their place.
On many contracts, civil engineering work is priced
separately from mechanical and electrical work. It was not
uncommon at one time for tenders to be awarded purely on
the mechanical and electrical content. This practice has led to
the deliberate avoidance of steel structures and even the use
of concrete ducts instead of steel or ductile iron pipes. The
hopper tank clari
ers already mentioned provide an extreme
example. In these, mechanical equipment is almost comple-
tely eliminated. However, in very many cases such tanks have
been built with the rim close to ground level and in ground
with a high water table. They may then be expensive to build,
even though the mechanical element is small.
9 NATIONAL AND ARCHAIC TRADITIONS
This review applies speci
cally to the United Kingdom. This is
an old industry with inherited concepts and traditions. Each
country tends to have its own designs, practices and regulatory
systems. The industry also abounds in non-scienti
c terms that
can be misleading to the outsider but refuse to go away. One
example is the ‘effective size’ of
lter sand, which predates the
understanding of ow in porous media and has no signi
cance
either in
lter performance or ow. Imperial screen designa-
tions can still appear in speci
cations for
lter media. Clari
er
design and
lter backwashing practices also differ. Interna-
tional contractors can face frustration from regulatory proce-
dures that favour processes already in use in the customer’s
country rather than more appropriate processes well proven
elsewhere. Patent protection can be a further barrier to the
transfer of expertise across national boundaries.
UK technology has been applied widely throughout the
world where UK consultants and contractors have been
active. French contractors using technology with certain
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D G STEVENSON
differences have been very aggressive both in the United
Kingdom and throughout the world. The use of combined
air and water for washing
lters, long used on the continent,
took a long time to be adopted in the United Kingdom. The
regulatory environment and structure of the industry have in
general hindered change in the United States. For many
years a 4 h retention time in settlement tanks was mandatory
(although this is an irrelevant parameter). Any new process
must be demonstrated in the United States at full scale.
Overseas patents and publications are not recognized. Thus,
progress has been even slower. Dissolved air otation is still
a suspicious novelty, whereas it is entering its third decade
in United Kingdom and is even older in Scandinavia.
10 INTERDISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES
The term ‘engineering’ tends to be interpreted in popular
parlance as mechanical engineering. However, most engi-
neering disciplines are now involved in water treatment. For
historical reasons and because of the scale of the operation,
the primary discipline involved in water engineering is
undoubtedly civil engineering. In the academic institutions
this is the faculty that usually provides the centre for
education in the subject. It might well be argued that, if
the technology were to emerge today, it would probably be a
branch of chemical engineering. This wide spread of disci-
plines creates problems with the exchange of information,
indexing of abstracts and training of graduates. Water
engineering and treatment is a hybrid technology. Examples
of the wheel being reinvented are not uncommon. Textbooks
tend to cover ‘centreline’ subjects within established sylla-
buses. Specialist water treatment topics may be overlooked.
11 CONCLUSION
Advances in technology are slow moving and the hardware
long lasting compared with many other industries. The staff
turnover rate is faster than the rate of evolution, and expertise
can therefore be lost. Although most plants in the United
Kingdom are automated, there are fewer staff who are able to
correct faults when an excursion occurs, or even able to
design modi
cations or appreciate the reasoning or princi-
ples behind the original design. Mistakes can be repeated.
Poor performance may be the result of lost expertise.
Viewed over a 25 year period, there have been several new
developments in the industry and plants are now much more
compact than previously. The rapid start of DAF and sand-
ballasted clari
cation makes them attractive, although the need
for sand make-up may prove a limitation. There is scope for
further innovation here. Sand
ltration is likely to remain
unchallenged for medium to large-sized plants, while
membranes will continue to make in-roads. Possibly, sand

ltration will be revisited to establish a new format unshackled
by the 24 h cycle. The approval of UV for cryptosporidium
could have major repercussions for membrane technology.
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Public health is at stake as well as considerable capital
sums in the event of failure. Consumers are more ready to
resort to litigation and regulators to prosecute. Hence,
progress has to be deliberate and based on well-tested
concepts. Potable water treatment and larger industrial
treatment are a subdiscipline of several other branches of
science and engineering, which have their own speci
c unit
processes that are not often found elsewhere. The key
element is simplicity and robustness in order to achieve
reliability for truly continuous use.
It should be noted that the
gures only illustrate princi-
ples and examples. There are many proprietary variations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is grateful to several manufacturers and indivi-
duals for information, data and suggestions used in the
preparation of this review.
FURTHER READING
Historical
Baker, M. N. The Quest for Pure Water, 1949 (American Water-
works Association).
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Goss, M. H. William Paterson and Frank Candy—Pioneers in
Water Treatment, 1999 (Paterson Candy Limited).
Current practice
Cryptosporidium in Water Supplies, 1990, 1995, 1998 (HMSO).
Binnie, C., Kimber, M. and Smethurst, G. Basic Water Treatment
3rd Edn, 2002 (Royal Society of Chemistry).
Stevenson, D. G. Water Treatment Unit Processes, 1998 (Imperial
College Press).
Twort, A. C., Law, F. M., Crowley, F. W. and Ratnayaka, D. D.
Water Supply 4th Edn, 1994 (Arnold).
Desalination and Membrane Processes (Conference Proceedings),
1997 (Terence Dalton Limited).
Advances in Rapid Granular Filtration in Water Treatment (Confer-
ence Proceedings), 2001 (Terence Dalton Limited).
Water quality regulations are published on the internet at www.dwi.
gov.uk
Laboratory testing
Purchas, D. B. and Wakeman, R. J. Solid/liquid Separation
Equipment Scale-up, 1986 (Uplands Press).
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