Development of a controllable filtration system for treatment of secondary effluent

Backwashing of standard granular media filtration for advanced secondary wastewater treatment is significantly water intensive. The goal of this thesis is the development of a controllable filtration system that meets the goals of advanced secondary treatment and utilizing less water during backwashing and cleaning cycles. In typically granular media filtration, backwashing requires the use of 1% to 5% of filtered for cleaning. An experimental system is developed herein. During experimentation, the imposed head and the turbidity of the initial feed water are kept constant. The degree to which the one dimensional compression and decompression of a flexible filter is controlled thereby affecting filtration and flushing performance. The results indicate the compression of the filter bed increases filtration performance, and decompression of the filter increases flushing performance. A salient novel feature of this technology is the simplicity of the filter: a single unit rubber sponge. Future applications of this technology may include secondary wastewater treatment, water treatment and many other domestic applications such as pool and fish tank filters.