Το work with title Performance of pilot horizontal roughing filter as polishing stage of waste stabilization ponds in developing regions and modelling verification by Daee M., Gholipour Amir, Stefanakis Alexandros is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Bibliographic Citation
M. Daee, A. Gholipour and A.I. Stefanakis, "Performance of pilot horizontal roughing filter as polishing stage of waste stabilization ponds in developing regions and modelling verification," Ecol. Eng., vol. 138, pp. 8-18, Nov. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2019.07.007
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2019.07.007
Roughing Filters are natural systems widely used as an efficient, cost-effective and simple treatment method, especially in low income regions. In this study, an experimental Horizontal Roughing Filter (HRF) with two design modifications, i.e., varying (3 and 4) number of compartments and gravel media sizes, was operated and monitored for 2 years under three filtration rates (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 m/h) as polishing stage of a Waste Stabilization Ponds facility. The proposed modification of the WHO-approved HRF with 3 instead of 4 compartments and with modified gravel sizes showed an improved performance in terms of turbidity, TSS, BOD5, COD and chlorophyll-a reduction, complying with the local standards for irrigation reuse, while lower filtration rates were found to further enhance the efficiency. The experimental results were successfully modelled with the Subwet software, which proved to be a reliable tool for performance verification and HRF design. This study demonstrated that the combined system of Waste Stabilization Ponds and Roughing Filters can be an attractive and effective treatment scheme based only on ecological processes, providing a high treated effluent quality with limited costs and simple operation and maintenance.