Trickling Filters: Introduction: Trickling Filter (Otherwise Known As Percolating

Class Lecture by Biswajit Thakur, Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering,
Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology
Trickling Filters
1.0 Introduction: Trickling filter (otherwise known as percolating

filters or sprinkling filters) is a well adopted secondary biological
treatment technique based on the attached growth principle,
consisting of tanks of coarser filtering media, over which the sewage is
allowed to sprinkle or trickle down, by means of spray nozzles or
rotary distributors. The percolating sewage is collected at the bottom
of the tank through a well designed under drainage system. The
sewage is purified by aerobic bacteria forming a bacterial film around
he particles of the filtering media. Trickling filters can be classified
into Conventional Trickling Filters and their improved forms, known
as High Rate Trickling Filters. Trickling filters are shown in Figure-1
and Figure-2.
2.0 Construction and Operation of Trickling Filters: Trickling

filter tanks are generally constructed above ground. They may either
be of rectangular shapes provided with network of pipes with spray
nozzles or of circular shapes with rotary distributors with a number
of distributing arms rotating around a central column (@ 2RPM for
small distributors and @ less than ½ RPM for large distributors
remaining 15cm to 20cm above the top surface of the filtering
media). The purpose of spray nozzles or the rotary distributors is to
sprinkle the sewage over the filtering media. Now a days tanks with
self-propelled reaction type rotary distributors (driven by the force of
reaction of the sprays) are most popular and accepted.
The sewage is supplied to the sprinkling system with the aid of dosing
tanks with siphons receiving sewage from the primary clarifier. For
tanks with rotary distributors the dosing tanks are of 1 minute to 3
minutes detention capacity and for tanks with spray nozzles the
detention capacity of dosing tanks is kept between 5 minutes to 10
minutes.
The filtering media consists of coarser materials like cubically broken

stones or slag, free from dust and small pieces with sizes varying
between 25 mm to 75 mm and with sufficient hardness (about 12 on
Brinels Hardness Machine).
The depth of filtering media is between 2m to 3m. The filtering

media is placed in layers with coarser stone placed at the bottom.
To keep the bacterial colony alive necessary oxygen is provided by

proper ventilation with honey combed supporting walls or mechanical
devices. Suitably designed under drains are most effective in this
respect.
1
Vitrified clay blocks as shown in Figure-3 are used to construct under

drains which, besides providing proper drainage of the treated
effluent, ensures good ventilation. These blocks are laid on a RCC
floor (about 10cm to 15cm thick sloped @ about 1 in 300 to wards
the main effluent channel).
The effluent channel may either be provided adjoining the central

column or along the circular periphery of the filter. The slope of the
channel should be sufficient to ensure a flow velocity of about 0.9
m/sec.
3.0 The Advantages of Trickling Filter Technique: The

advantages are,
• Rate of filter loading is high, requiring lesser land areas and

smaller filter media.
• Effluent is sufficiently nitrified and stabilized. The BOD removal
is about 75% and suspended solids removal is about 80%
making possible to dispose the effluent in smaller quantity of
dilution water.
• Simple operation not requiring skilled supervision.
• Trickling filters can withstand application of variety of sewages
and even overloading making it extremely flexible.
• Trickling filters are self-cleaning.
• Mechanical wear and tears are small , as trickling filters contain
less mechanical equipments.
• Sludge moisture content is as high as 99% or so.
• Trickling filters are found to work more efficiently in warmer
weather making the technique more suitable for countries like
India.
4.0 The Disadvantages of Trickling Filter Techniques: The

disadvantages are,
• The head loss is huge (head loss trough the circular distributor:
about 45cm to 58cm and other extra losses including loss in
feed piping, siphon and the entrance loss: at least 15cm)
making the automatic dosing a necessity.
• Cost of construction of trickling filters is high.
• Trickling filters can not treat raw sewage and primary
sedimentation is a must
• Operational troubles such as Fly Nuisance, Odour Nuisance and
Ponding Trouble.
5.0 Design of Trickling Filters: Primarily the design involves the

size of the filter tank and then the sprinkling system and the under
drainage system.
2
The size design involves the filter loadings expressed in two different
ways described as follows:
• The Hydraulic Loading Rate: It is the quantity of sewage
applied per unit surface area of the filter per day and generally
expressed in million litres per hectare per day. The value
ranges between 22 to 44 (normally 28) M.L./ha/day and
between 110 to 330 (normally 220) M.L./ha/day in
conventional and high rate trickling filters respectively.
• The Organic Loading Rate: It is the mass of BOD per unit

volume of the filter media per day and expressed in kilogram
BOD5 per hectare metre of the filter media per day. The
value ranges between 900 to 2200 kg BOD5/ha-m/day and
between 6000 to 18000 kg BOD5/ha-m/day in conventional
and high rate trickling filters respectively.
Knowing the mass of BOD5 and the quantity of sewage entering the
filter per day, the filter volume and required surface area can be easily
found out using the Organic Loading Rate and Hydraulic Loading Rate
respectively. The depth of the filter can then be calculated by dividing
filter volume by the required surface area.
The filter diameter and depth is designed for the average value of
sewage flow. However the rotary distributors and the under drainage
system and other connected pipe lines etc. are designed for peak flow
and checked for average flow.
6.0 Performance of Conventional Trickling Filters and Their

Efficiencies: The effluent from a conventional trickling filter plant is
highly nitrified and stabilized. BOD removal obtained is as high as
80% to 90%. The effluent BOD is less than 20 ppm or so and the
sludge moisture content is as high as 92%. This treatment technique
is extremely flexible and ready even to withstand intermittent shock
loads and is very suitable for medium towns and industrial cities
requiring full treatment of sewage.
The efficiency of a conventional trickling filter plant is expressed by

NRC (National Research Council of United States of America) equation
as,
100
η (% ) = (1)
1 + 0.0044 µ
Where,
η = Efficiency of the filter and its secondary clarifier, in terms of
percentage of applied BOD removal
µ = Organic loading in kg/ha-m/day applied to the filter called
unit organic loading
3
Comparison between conventional and high rate trickling filters is

summarized in Table-1.

Trickling Filters: Introduction: Trickling Filter (Otherwise Known As Percolating

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Trickling Filters: Introduction: Trickling Filter (Otherwise Known As Percolating

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Trickling Filters: Introduction: Trickling Filter (Otherwise Known As Percolating

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Class Lecture by Biswajit Thakur, Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering,

Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology

1.0 Introduction: Trickling filter (otherwise known as percolating

2.0 Construction and Operation of Trickling Filters: Trickling

The filtering media consists of coarser materials like cubically broken

The depth of filtering media is between 2m to 3m. The filtering

To keep the bacterial colony alive necessary oxygen is provided by

Vitrified clay blocks as shown in Figure-3 are used to construct under

The effluent channel may either be provided adjoining the central

3.0 The Advantages of Trickling Filter Technique: The

• Rate of filter loading is high, requiring lesser land areas and

4.0 The Disadvantages of Trickling Filter Techniques: The

5.0 Design of Trickling Filters: Primarily the design involves the

• The Organic Loading Rate: It is the mass of BOD per unit

6.0 Performance of Conventional Trickling Filters and Their

The efficiency of a conventional trickling filter plant is expressed by

Comparison between conventional and high rate trickling filters is

You might also like