The Importance of Media in Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The chapter reviews the importance of media in wastewater treatment. The chapter discusses the application of natural fillings (i.e. quartz sand, zeolite and clay) and plastic materials fillings (i.e. PET flakes) for domestic sewage treatment. The effectiveness of removing biogenic compounds (NH 4 + and PO 4 3− ions) and indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli and coliform bacteria) by using secondary and tertiary filters have been presented. The effectiveness of one-layer filters and multi-layer filters during the filtration of wastewater pre-treated in a septic tank has been discussed. The possibility of statistical tools (e.g. ANOVA and principal component analysis) to evaluate the filters performance has been described. The phenomena affected the removal of ammonium and phosphates ions from domestic sewage in a vertical flow filter filled with a calcined limestone-silicate rock were also presented.