Secondary Treatment –
Trickling Filter
Dr. Izharul Haq Farooqi
Professor and Incharge
Environmental Engineering Section
Department of Civil Engineering
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
Trickling Filter
Recycle
Final
clarifier
Final
Influent effluent
Primary Waste
clarifier sludge
Trickling
filter
Flow Diagram
General
• It is an attached growth biological treatment system wherein
wastewater is sprinkled uniformly over a bed of packing
material.
• The packing material may include rock, gravel, slag, sand,
redwood, and a wide range of plastic and other synthetic
materials having high surface area to volume ratio
• Aerobic conditions are maintained by splashing, diffusion,
and either by forced air flowing through the bed or natural
convection of air if the filter medium is porous.
• Settled sewage flows into a dosing device (arm) and
discharged through a series of holes pointing downwards
which propels the arms around distributing the liquid
evenly over the surface of the filter media.
BOD Removal Mechanism
• During the course of operation, the organic material
present in the wastewater is metabolized by the
microorganisms attached to the surface of the
medium. The biological slime grows in thickness as
the organic matter abstracted from the flowing
wastewater is synthesized into new cellular material.
• The bio-film that develops in a trickling filter may
become several millimetres thick and is typically a
gelatinous matrix that contains many species of
bacteria, cilliates and amoeboid protozoa and many
other micro fauna. This is very different from many
other biofilms which may be less than 1 mm thick.
Sloughing
• As the microbial thickness becomes thick, the microorganisms near the surface of
the media do not get substrate and oxygen and go under endogenous phase.
• As a result they become inactive and looses adherence to the media surface.
• This coupled with increase in velocity due to narrowing of pore space between two
adjacent media surface results in sloughing off microbial film into the liquid flow
which is collected by an underdrainage system.
• A new film develops and the process continues.
• Trickling filter is generally followed by a clarifier for the separation and removal of
the sloughed film.
Types of Trickling Filter
• Recirculation is generally practiced in High Rate Trickling filters and not adopted in
low/standard rate trickling filters.
• A well operated low/standard rate trickling filter may remove 75 to 90% BOD and
produce a highly nitrified effluent. It is suitable for treatment of low to medium
strength domestic wastewaters.
• The high rate trickling filter, single stage or two stage are recommended for medium
to relatively high strength domestic and industrial wastewater. The BOD removal
efficiency is around 75 to 90% but the effluent is only partially nitrified.
• Two stage trickling filters consist of two trickling filters in series with clarifiers.
Design Criteria for Trickling Filters
Table 10.5
Typical Design Criteria for Trickling Filters
Item Low-rate filter High-rate filter Super-rate filter
Hydraulic loading (m3/m2-d) 1-4 10 - 40 40 - 200
Organic loading (kg BOD5/m3-d) 0.08 - 0.32 0.32 - 1.0 0.8 - 6.0
Depth (m) 1.5 - 3.0 1.0 - 2.0 4.5 - 12.0
Recirculation ratio 0 1-3 1-4
Filter media Rock, slag, etc. Rock, slag,
synthetics
Filter flies Many Few, larvae are Few or none
washed away
Sloughing Intermittent Continuous Continuous
Dosing intervals < 5 m in < 15 s Continuous
Effluent Usually fully Nitrified at low Nitrified at low
nitrified loadings loadings
Design
• Generally empirical equations are used for the design of trickling filters. They are
formulated on the basis of the performance of the working trickling filters.
Following equations are generally used for the design.
• NRC Equation (National Research Council of USA)
• Rankins Equation
• Eckenfelder Equation
• NRC Equation is the most preferred equation whereas Rankins equation is generally
used for high rate filters.
NRC Equation
• Efficiency of BOD Removal (E) is given by
• E= . where QSo is the total incoming BOD to filter in
.
• V = Volume of filter in m3 and
• F is a factor depends upon recirculation and is given by
• F= .
R is the recirculation ratio
NRC Equation Two Stage High Rate Trickling
Filter
• E1 = Efficiency of BOD removal from first Filter
• E2 = Efficiency of BOD removal from second Filter
• S1 = Inlet BOD to first filter; S2 = Inlet BOD to second filter
• V1 = Volume of first filter ; V2 = Volume of second filter
• E1 = . and E2 = . .
.
Design a two stage high rate trickling filter for the treatment of 10 MLD of municipal
wastewater having BOD5 of 250 mg/L. It is desired that the BOD of the treated effluent from
second filter should not exceed 30 mg/L. Assume R = 1
• Inlet BOD to first filter = 0.7 x 250 = 175 mg/L (30% removed in primary
treatment).
• F= .
= 1.65
• For equal BOD removal efficiency from both the filters the effluent BOD from first
filter (S2) is the geometrical mean of inlet BOD to first filter (S1) and effluent BOD
from second filter (S)
• S2 = = = 72.45 mg/L
. .
• = x 100 = 58.59 % and =
.
x 100 = 58.59 %
• 58.59 = . ; QS1 = 10000 x 175 x =1750
.
• 58.59 = . ; V1 = 411.05 m3
. .
• Assume depth as 2.0 m ; Area = 205.52 m2
• x = 205.52 ; D1 =16.18 m ; Provide 16.5 m diameter
• E2 = . . ; QS2 = 10000 x 72.45 x =724.5
• 58.59 = . . . ; V2 =1012.34 m3
. .
• Assume depth as 2.0 m ;
• Area = 506.17 m2
• x = 506.17 ; D2 = 25.38 m Provide 25.5 m
Sludge Digestion
• Sludges from wastewater treatment plants pose serious environment threat and
must be rendered inert before disposal.
• Sludge treatment and disposal costs accounts nearly 50% of the total cost of
sewage treatment plant
• Biodegradation is one of the most common methods of sludge digestion as it
converts sludge to non cellular end products.
• Sludge digestion reduces the volume of thickened sludge and it render it relatively
pathogen free.
• Aerobic or Anaerobic digestion may be used. However, anaerobic digestion of
sludge is preferred as it produces considerably less biomass and produces methane
which may be used as a fuel.
Anaerobic Treatment
• Anaerobic treatment of wastewater has gained popularity because of its number of
advantages over aerobic treatment.
• Initially it was only used for sludge digestion. However, now it is a major process
used for the treatment of both municipal as we as industrial wastewaters. It has
following advantages over aerobic treatment.
• No Power Requirement
• Less Sludge yield and hence less nutrient requirement
• Less sludge disposal problems
• Less space requirement
• Energy recovery in the form of methane gas
• High Degree of Waste Stabilization.
• Disadvantages:
• Long start up, alkalinity requirement, greater toxicity, cannot meet surface
water discharge limits. Generally followed by aerobic treatment
Single Stage Digester (Standard Rate Anaerobic
Digester)
• Reactors for anaerobic digesters consists of
closed tanks with floating covers to accommodate
volume change due to sudden addition and
withdrawal of sludge. Conical bottom facilitates
sludge withdrawal.
• Sludge is fed to the digester on intermittent basis
and the supernatant is withdrawn and sent to
secondary treatment system. The digested sludge
is stored in the bottom and is disposed to sludge
drying beds.
High Rate Anaerobic Digester
• High rate anaerobic digesters are more
efficient and often require less volume than
single stage digesters. In the first stage the
sludge is mechanically mixed to ensure better
contact between the organics and the
bacteria.
• The unit is heated to increase the metabolic
rate of the microorganisms, thus speeding up
the digestion process.
• In the second stage the sludge is allowed to
stratify and separate into layers. Little gas is
generated in the second stage. The second
stage has a floating cap and is equipped for
gas recovery.