filtration

filtration
• For removal of very fine suspended particles, colloidal particles, bacteria,
odor and taste by means of filtering the water through the bed of granular
materials that is filter media and the process is known as filtration.
• Screening and Sedimentation – Removes Large percentage of the
suspended solids and organic matter.
• Coagulation sedimentation – Removes fine colloidal matter.
• Water contain very fine suspended particles (Discrete) and bacteria present
in it.
• The water is filtered through the beds of fine granular material such as
sand etc.
• The process of passing the water through the beds of such granular
materials(called filter) is known as filtration.
• It may help to remove color, odor, turbidity and some pathogenic bacteria
from the water.
Mechanism of filtration
• Mechanical straining
• Sedimentation and adsorption
• Biological metabolism
• Electrolytic changes
Mechanism of filtration
Mechanical Straining

• Size of particle bigger than the size of voids in the sands layer

Flocculation and Sedimentation

• Size of particle smaller than the size of voids present in the filter.
• The filter voids are act like tiny coagulation – sedimentation tank.

Biological Metabolism

• Micro organism and bacteria present in the voids of the filters.

• Organism utilize the organic impurities and convert them into the harmless compound by the process of
Biological metabolism.
• Schmutzdecke or dirty skin.

Electrolytic Changes

• Based on the theory of ionization.

• Filter helps in purifying the water by changing the chemical characteristics of water.
Filter materials
• Sand either fine or coarse is generally used as a filter media.
Sand:
• It should free from dirt and other impurities.
• It should be uniform in nature and size.
• It should be hard and Resistant.
• It should be such as not to loose more than 5% of its weight after being placed in hydrochloric
acid for 24 hours.
• The size of the sand measured and expressed by the term called effective size.
• The effective size(D10): the size of the sieve in mm through which ten percent of the
sample of sand will pass.
Too small : frequent clogging of filter and very low rate of filtration.
Too large : it will permit the suspended particle and bacteria .
The value of D10 used
Slow sand filters – 0.2 to 0.4 mm
Rapid sand filters - 0.35 to 0.55 mm
• The uniformity in size or degree of variations in size of particle is measured and
expressed by the term called uniformity coefficient.
Filter materials
• Uniformity coefficient
Cu = D60 / D10
The value of Cu for
Rapid sand filters = 1.3-1.7
Slow sand filters = 1.8-2.5

Gravel
• Should be hard, durable
• Properly rounded with free from impurities
• Should have density of 1600 kg/m3
• Placed in 3-4 layers , each of 15-20cm depth
• with coarsest size(20-60mm) - bottom most layer
• Finest size(3-6mm) placed in top most layer.
Other materials
• Anthraflit – instead of sand it will be used as filter media.
• It is made from anthracite.
• Use of anthraflit as filtermedia for two or multiple layers have proved very
successful in foreign countries.
• It is very cheaper
• High rate of filtration.
Types of filters
• Based on Rate of Filtration

Filters

Slow sand Filters Rapid sand Filters

Rapid Gravity Filters Pressure Filters

Types of filters
• Based on Considerations of Gravity and Pressure

Filters

Gravity Filters Pressure Filters

Slow sand Filters Rapid sand Filters

Slow sand filter

Construction of Slow sand filters

Various parts of slow sand filters,
• Enclosure tank
• Filter media
• Base material
• Under drainage system
• Inlet and Outlet arrangements
• Other appurtenances
Slow sand filter
Enclosure tank

• Open water tight rectangular tank, made of masonry or concrete.

• Bed slope 1 in 100 towards the central drain.
• Depth of tank 2.5 – 3.5 m
• Plan area of the tank 100-2000 sq.m, depending upon the quantity of water to be
treated.
filter media

• Filter media consists of sand layers about 90-110cm in depth placed over a gravel
support.
• Effective size D10 of the sand is 0.2-0.4mm and the uniformity coefficient Cu is
1.8-2.5mm
• Top 15 cm layer of this sand is generally kept of finer variety.
• The coarsest layer is placed near the bottom where, the finest towards the top.
Base material

• Base material is gravel, which supports sand.

• It consist of 30 to 75 cm thick gravel of different sizes, placed in layers.
• Placed in 3-4 layers each of 15-20cm depth are used.
• Size of gravel placed
Bottom most layer = 40-65mm
Intermediate layer = 20-40mm ,6-20mm
(When two intermediate layers are used)
Top most layer = 3-6mm
Under drainage system

• Under drainage system consists of central drain and lateral drains

• Laterals are open jointed pipe drains or porous drains placed 3-5m apart on the
bottom floor to covered a central drain.
• Laterals collect the filtered water and discharge it into main drain.
• Sometimes the main drain is placed along one side of the tank, and the lateral
slope towards it.
Under drainage system
Inlet and outlet arrangements

• Inlet chamber collect the effluent from the plain sedimentation tank without
disturbing the filter media.
• Filtered water well is constructed to collect the cleaned water at the outlet.
• In order to maintain the constant discharge through the filter an adjustable
telescopic tube is generally used.
• Inlets and outlets are generally governed by automatic valves
Other appurtenances
• Vertical air pipe – proper functioning of the filtering layers.
• Gauge and meter – measurement of filter head and rate of flow.
• The loss of head caused by the resistance offered by the sand grains to the
flow of water through it. It is called Filter Head or Filtering Head.
• Filter head – loss of head which is difference in water levels between the filter
tank and filtered water well
• The freshly cleaned filter the filter head will be small. It goes on increasing
when the filter layers get clogged.
operation

• Effluent from plain sedimentation tank

• Enter into Inlet chamber
• Distributed over the filter bed
• Gets purified by process of filtration
• water enter into gravel layers
• Filtered water collected by laterals
• Finally discharge into filtered water .
cleaning

• Scrapping and removing the 1.5 – 3 cm of top sand layer.

• Top surface is raked, roughened, cleaned and washed with good water.
• Amount of wash water required is 0.2-0.6 % of the total filtered water.
• Cleaning is repeated until the sand depth is reduced to about 40cm.
Rate of filtration

• Rate of filtration is very small

• It varies from 100-200 liters/hour/m2 of filter area.
efficiency

• Highly efficient in removing bacteria and other suspended solids.

• Bacteria removal is up to 98-99 %
• It is not suitable for water having turbidities greater than 50-60 mg/l.
Uses :
• Slow sand filter best suited for smaller plants and for purifying water
with low colors, low turbidities and low bacterial content.
Slow sand filter
Slow sand filter
Slow sand filter
Rapid sand filters

Construction of Rapid sand filters

• Enclosure tank
• Filter media
• Base material
• Under drainage system
• Other appurtenances.

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Rapid sand filter
Enclosure tank
• Open water tight rectangular tank, made of masonry or concrete.
• Bed slope 1 in 100
• Depth of tank 2.5 – 3.5 m
• Plan area of the tank 10-80 sq.m for each unit.
Number of filter units,
N=1.22
where Q = plant capacity in MLD
Filter media

• Filter media consists of sand layers about 60-90cm in depth placed

over a gravel support.
• Effective size D10 of the sand is 0.35-0.55mm and the uniformity
coefficient Cu is 1.3-1.7mm
• Coarsest layer of sand placed near bottom, where finest layer placed
near top.
Base material
• Base material is gravel, which supports sand, it distribute the wash
water.
• It consist of 60-90 cm thick gravel of different sizes.
• Placed in 5-6 layers each of 10-15cm depth are used.
• Size of gravel placed
Bottom most layer = 20-40mm
Intermediate layer = 12-20mm ,6-12mm
(When two intermediate layers are used)
Top most layer = 3-6mm
• In a rapid gravity filter the distribution of the wash water is the critical
function of the gravel layer and hence careful grading and equally
careful placing of the materials is important.
Under drainage system
Purpose of under drainage system
• To receive and collect the filtered water
• To allow the back washing for cleaning of filters
• The bed usually washed when the head loss through the filter reaches 2 to 3 m.
• The wash water should usually move up at a high rate of about 300 – 900
ltr/minute/m2 of filter area or more.
• The rate of application of wash water is higher than the rate of filtration (i.e: 6 to
18 times the rate of filtration which is of the order of 50 to 100 ltr/minute/sq.m)
Under drainage system
Various forms of under drainage system
• Manifold and lateral system
a) perforated pipe type
b) pipe and strainer type
• The wheeler bottom.
• Porous plate bottom.
(Manifold and lateral system are most widely used in India)
Manifold and lateral system
• It consist of 40 cm diameter manifold pipe running length wise along the centre
of the filter bottom.
• Laterals are 10 cm dia.
• The laterals are placed at about 15 to 30 cm
Pipe and strainer type
• When no strainer – the agitation of sand particle is done by water jet and
back wash is required at high velocity. The rate of water application – 600 –
800 ltr/minute/sq.m
• When strainer is used the wash water required low velocity 250 to 300
ltr/minute/sq.m
• The total c/s area of perforations should be about 0.2% total filter area.
• The c/s area of each lateral should be about 2-4times the total c/s area of
perforation in it for dia of perforation 10mm and 5mm.
• The c/s area of the manifold should be about twice the c/s area of the
lateral drains.
• Length of each lateral/ dia of lateral should not greater than 60
• Maximum permissible velocity in the manifold to provide the required
amount of wash water is 1.8 to 2.4 m/sec
Under drainage system
Other appurtenances
• Wash water troughs
• Air compressor
• Rate controller
• Miscellaneous accessories.
Wash water troughs
•Filtered water is collected by wash water trough.
•It may be square, v-shaped or semi circular in section.
•Height of wash water trough is 0.4-0.6m

Air compressor
•Sand grains are agitated either by water jet or compressed air during
back washing.
•The compressed air is supplied through laterals or through separate
pipe system.

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Rate controller
• A uniform rate of flow or filtration is obtained by rate controller.
• The most commonly used type of controller is ‘venture rate
controller’ which works on principle of venturimeter.
Miscellaneous accessories
• Head loss indicators – measurement of filtered head.

• Rate of filtration is very high,

3000-6000 liters/hr/sq.m of filter area
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter

Qww==0.093 m3/s

Qww=0.04 * 4 MLD = 0.16

MLD
Qww=0.16 *1000
/(30*60) =0.093 m3/s
Rapid sand filter
Rapid sand filter
Pressure filters
• water to be treated is passed under pressure.
• In this filter, the pressure is greater than the atmospheric pressure.
• These filters are located in air tight vessels.
• The pressure is developed normally varied between 30-70m head of
water.(300-700kN/m2 )
Construction of Pressure filters
• Filter vessel may be installed either in a horizontal or in a vertical
position.
• Steel cylinders are used as a pressure vessel.
• Cylinder diameters vary between 1.5-3m
• Lengths or heights may vary from 3.5-8m
• Rate of filtration varies from 6000-15000 liters/hour/sq.m
Pressure filter - advantages
• Pressure filter is a compact machine and can be handled easily.
• Rate of filtration is high.(2-5times of rapid gravity filters)
• Sedimentation and coagulation tanks are avoided.
• More flexible and rate of filtration can be changed by changing the
pumping pressure.
• It requires lesser space and lesser filtering material for treating the
quantity of water.
Pressure filters - disadvantages
• Rate of filtration is high, the filter unit being smaller, the overall capacity of
the plant is small.
• It is costlier.
• Inspection, cleaning and replacement of sand , gravel and under drainage
system is very difficult.
• Less efficient in removing bacteria and turbidities.
• Proper backwashing, proper inspection and quality control is not possible.
• These filters are operated under pressure, the normal tendency is to pump
the water at higher rates , and thus obtaining still poorer quality of
effluents.
Filter troubles
• Formation of mud balls
• Cracking and clogging of filter bed
• Air binding
• Sand incrustation
• Jetting and sand boils
• Sand leakage
Disinfection
Disinfection
• Filtered water normally contain some harmful disease producing
bacteria in it.
• These bacteria must be killed in order to make the water safe for
drinking.
• It is the process of killing micro organisms or pathogenic bacteria
present in the water.
• It is also known sterlisation
• Chlorine as a form of bleaching powder (calcium hypochlorite) is most
commonly used disinfectant for public water supply schemes
Method of Disinfection
Chlorination methods Other methods
Plain chlorination Boiling of water
Pre-chlorination Treatment with Excess lime
Post-chlorination Treatment with ozone
Double chlorination Treatment with Iodine and Bromine

Break point chlorination Treatment with UV rays

Super chlorination Treatment with potassium
permanganate
Dechlorination Electro-Katadyn Process
chlorination
• Chlorination is the universally adopted method for public water
supplies because its capable of providing residual disinfecting effects
for long periods.
• It satisfies all the requirements of an ideal disinfectant
• It also takes care of any possible future contamination
• The addition of chlorine does not produce any significant changes in
pH.
• Chlorination is not effective if the water is alkaline.
• The only disadvantage is that it imparts bad taste to drinking.
chlorination
Various forms of chlorine can be applied
• Liquid chlorine or chlorine gas.
• Hypochlorites or bleaching powder.
• Chlorine tablets
• Chloramines.
• Chlorine dioxide
Plain chlorination
• Only the chlorine treatment is enough for raw water.
• It is used when water having turbidity is less than 20-30ppm.
• The required dosage of chlorine for plain chlorination is about 0.5mg/l
Pre chlorination
• Applying chlorine to the water before filtration or before
sedimentation-coagulation.
• The chlorine dosage is about 0.1-0.5mg/l
• It reduces the taste, odor, algae and other organisms and improving
coagulation.
Post chlorination
• Applying chlorine in the end of the treatment.
• Chlorine dosage should be leave a residual chlorine of about 0.1-0.2
mg/l.
• Post chlorination is adopted after filtration and before the water
enters in the distribution system.
Double chlorination
• It denotes that the water has been chlorinated twice.
• Double chlorination
= pre chlorination + post chlorination
• It is adopted when the water is highly turbid and contaminated.
Break point chlorination
• It is extent of chlorine added to the water.
• After dosage of chlorine, beyond which any further addition of
chlorine will equally appear as free residual chlorine.
• The addition of chlorine beyond the break point is called break point
chlorination.
• The residual chlorine is 0.2-0.3mg/l
Super chlorination
• Addition of excessive amount of chlorine to the water.
• Chlorine dosage 5-15ppm
• This is adopted for highly polluted waters or epidemics of water
borne diseases.
De chlorination
• De chlorination means removing chlorine from water.
• The Dechlorination may be carried out adding some chemicals to
water or by aerating the water.
• This is called Dechlorinating agents
• Sufficient residual chlorine remains in water after Dechlorination.(0.1-
0.2mg/l)
Other methods of Disinfection
• Boiling of water
• Treatment with excess lime.
• Treatment with ozone.
• Treatment with Iodine and Bromine.
• Treatment with UV rays.
• Treatment with potassium permanganate.
• Electro ketadyn process.
Boiling of water
• Boiling of water for a long time.
• It is not practically applicable for treating huge amount of water.
• During water borne epidemics public is advised to drink water only
after boiling it in their houses.
Treatment with excess lime
• Lime is generally used for water softening.
• Excess lime addition to the water (14-43ppm) kill the bacteria.
• The removal efficiency is 99.3%
• Addition of lime also causes alkaline water (pH 9.5)
• After disinfection, recarbonation is adopted for excess lime removal.
AOPs
• AOPs generate insitu HO• radical

• Second to fluorine ( E 0 = 3.03 V) , the hydroxyl radical is strongest known oxidant

with a potential of 2.8 V

• Versatility of AOPs are increased by the fact that there are different ways of
producing HO•

Options :
• Photolysis under UV or solar radiation
• UV/H2O2, UV/TiO2
• O3 , H2O2 / O3, UV/ O3, UV/H2O2 / O3,
 Established Photo reactor Setup
HEBER IMMERSION TYPE PHOTO REACTOR
Established Photo reactor Setup
Treatment with ozone
• Ozone is a faintly blue gas and is an excellent disinfectant
• It is an unstable allotropic form of oxygen with each molecule
contains three oxygen atoms.
• It can be produced by high tension electric current through a stream
of air in a closed chamber.

3O2 2O3
O3 O2 + O (nascent oxygen)
advantages
• Generally 2-3ppm of ozone is consumed.
• Ozone is being unstable, so nothing remains in water.
• Ozone removes the color, taste and odor from water.
• The ozonized water become tasty and pleasant and crystal clear.
disadvantages
• It is much costlier than chlorination.
• Ozoniser must be installed at treatment plants for manufacturing.
• Ozone needs electricity to manufacture, and hence it can be used
only when electricity is available easily and cheaply.
Treatment with iodine and bromine
• The addition of iodine and bromine to water remove the pathogenic
bacteria.
• Quantity – 8 ppm with the contact period of 5 minutes.
• It is not suitable for large scale supplies.
• Suitable for army troops, swimming pools etc.
Treatment with uv rays
• Ultra violet rays are the invisible light rays having wave lengths of 100-
400 nm.
• It is present in sun light
• It can be produced by passing electric current through mercury
enclosed in quartz bulb
• Highly effective to killing bacteria.
• Yield truly sterilized water.
Treatment with potassium permanganate

• Disinfecting well water supplies in villages.

• Dosage of KMnO4 is 0.05- 0.1 mg/l.
• Contact period is 4-6 hours.
• The addition of KMnO4 to water produce pink color. If pink color
disappears, organic matter is present in water.
• If pink color stands, the well should not be used for at least 48 hours
after the addition of KMnO4
Electro ketadyn process
• Metallic silver ions are introduced into the water.
• A tube containing solid silver electrode which are connected to a D.C
supply of about 1.5 volts.
• The recommended silver dose is 0.05-0.1 mg/l.
• The required contact period is 15 minutes to 3 hours.
• Suspended organic matter and hydrogen sulphide should be removed
by this disinfectant.
Testing of chlorine residuals
• Orthotolidine test
• Chlorotex test
• Starch iodide test
Orthotolidine test
• 10 ml of chlorinated sample of water is taken after required contact
period, 0.1 ml Orthotolidine solution is added.
• Formation of yellow color indicates the presence of chlorine.
• If it is more yellow, the greater in the chloride residuals.
Chlorotex test
• It is done in BDH (British Drug House Comparator) so as to easily
compared with developed colors using Chlorotex reagent which is
provided with standard color matching card.
• 50ml sample of water with 5ml chlorotex reagent. The immediate
development of a color will indicate the presence of chlorine.
Color Developed With Chlorotex Reagent Chlorine Concentration In Mg/L
White Milky Fluorescence Nil
Faintly Pink And Milky 0.1
Pink 0.2
Red 0.5
Purple 0.6
Violet 0.8
Blue 1.0 Or More
Starch iodide test
• 1 liter of water sample with 10 ml off potassium iodide solution is
added.
• It is thoroughly mixed and 5ml of starch solution is added which
produces blue color.
• The blue color is removed b titrating the sample against sodium
thiosulphate solution.
• The amount of chlorine in mg/l in the original sample of water is in
proportion to the volume of sodium thiosulphate required to remove
blue color.