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Mixed Bed Filters for Effluent Treatment

(October 2019)
Siddhant Dhuri Jason D'souza Hemant Dudhani Kunal Gaikwad
Department of Department of Department of Department of
Chemical Engineering Chemical Engineering Chemical Engineering Chemical
Thadomal Shahani Thadomal Shahani Thadomal Shahani Engineering
Engineering College Engineering College Engineering College Thadomal Shahani
Bandra, India Bandra, India Bandra, India Engineering College
Bandra, India
Sanket Gawde Arushi Gupta
Department of Department of
Chemical Engineering Chemical Engineering
Thadomal Shahani Thadomal Shahani
Engineering College Engineering College
Bandra, India Bandra, India

Abstract—Mixed Bed Filters form an important part of physical
treatment of effluents from various kinds of industries. Various
adsorbents are used in the system and one peculiar one is rice Husk. It
can be used as a cheaper and better option as an adsorbent.
Index Terms—Adsorbents , Filtration,Filter medium
I. INTRODUCTION
Mixed Bed Filter is used for treatment over a range of flow
rates. This is due to large surface area and ability to be
backwashed. The dirt holding and handling capabilities of a
mixed bed filter is better compared to others. The beds are
made up of different filtering media. Mixed bed filters work on
the principle of ion exchange filtration along with physical
filtration. Various layers present remove impurities, both
physical and chemical from the effluent. By adsorbents, ions
such as Na+ , K+ and Mg2+ are removed from water along
with physical impurities.
A.RAPID SAND FILTERS
Rapid sand filters have filter rates 40 times that of slow sand
filters. Its major parts include a filter tank/box, the sand, a
supported bed, an underdrain system, wash water troughs and
filter bed agitators.
The filter media used depends on the raw water quality, raw
water variations and chemical treatments used.
C. PRESSURE FILTERS
Pressure filters fall into two categories; Pressure Sand and
Diatomaceous Earth Filters. These are used in mixed bed
filters extensively for the removal of Iron and Manganese.
Operated individually, these various types of filtration
methods are effective upto a point but in the case of drinking
water and industrial effluents, a higher standard of filtration is
required.
D. EFFLUENT TREATMENT
Effluent treatment refers to its purification, i.e the removal
of undesirable physical contaminants, chemicals, biological
organisms, and suspended gases from the effluent.
Water may be simply disinfected for human consumption
but water purification is also done for various other
applications such as medical, pharmaceutical, chemical and
industrial requirements.
The methods used for this include filtration, sedimentation
and distillation. Biological and Chemical processes such as
floculation, chlorination and slow sand filters are also widely
used.
Purifying the effluent reduces the concentration of particulate
matter including suspended particles, parasites, bacteria, algae,
viruses, fungi as well as reducing the concentrat

B.HIGH RATE FILTERS II . ADSORBENTS

These filters operate at three to four times the rate of rapid sand
filters.
High rate filters are a combination of filter media, such as
garnet, sand and anthracite coal, very similar to the operation
of mixed bed filters.
The use of solids for removing substances from either
gaseous or liquid solutions has been widely used since biblical
times. This process, known as adsorption, involves nothing
more than the preferential partitioning of substances from the
gaseous or liquid phase onto the surface of a solid
substrate.The process of adsorption involves separation of a
substance from one phase accompanied by its accumulation or

concentration at the surface of another. The adsorbing phase is
the adsorbent, and the material concentrated or adsorbed at the
surface of that phase is the adsorbate.
A. SAND FILTER
Sand filters are used as a step in the water treatment process
of water purification. There are three main types; rapid (gravity)
sand filters, upward flow sand filters and slow sand filters. All
three methods are used extensively in the water
industry throughout the world. The first two require the use
of flocculent chemicals to work effectively while slow sand
filters can produce very high quality water
with pathogens removal from 90% to >99% (depending on the
strains), taste and odour without the need for chemical
aids. Sand filters can, apart from being used in water treatment
plants, be used for water purification in singular households as
they use materials which are available for most people.
B.. ACTIVATED CARBON
Activated carbon is a form of carbon processed to
have small, low-volume pores that increase
the surface area available for adsorption or chemical
reactions. The high adsorptive capacity of activated
carbon enables it to remove taste and odour-causing
compounds, as well as other trace organics from the
water. Activated carbon can be added to existing
filters provided there is sufficient depth available or
can be incorporated as a separate process. Provision
should be made for regeneration or reactivation of
"spent" carbon (carbon which has lost its adsorptive
capacity) either on or off-site.
III SETUP
Generally in Industry primary treatment is done by
sand filter and activated carbon filter. For this each
media separate vessel are for deep filter for used.
Due to which, a lot of space/volume gets occupied
and space problems may get created. On top of that,
even the costing of design each vessel and drafting
it and its set up cost more money. Even because of
limit of space/volume cost only few media can be
used in such a setup which won’t give complete
purification of water. So in such case the solution is
Mixed (multi) Bed filter.
Mixed Bed Filters directly affected the problem of
space or a area or volume issue. It give same
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purification or even more in half as space or area as
that of conventional approach discussed above.
Another problem that get solved by mixed bed filter
is that you can use quite a few media’s in same
volume. Liked in mixed bed single unit you can
place 3 to 4 media’s where conventional approach
one media in each vessel.
The heart of the technique in choosing right filter
media based on the properties of effluent and also
the arrangement of the media. This two factor will
affect the performance of the setup.
The media we have selected are sand, rice husk,
activated carbon and graphene. Each media removes
a different impurities get purified from water by
entire unit as a whole.
Sand – removes suspended solid.
Rice husk – remove metal impurities
Activated carbon – remove the chemical
impurities and reduce BOD / COD
Graphene – reduce BOD / COD improves
odour and colour
A.ARRANGEMENT OF MEDIA
Arrangement will have sand as it will remove all the
suspended and macro scopic impurities from water. Then we
will place rice husk it will remove all the metal impurities from
water easily as water will free from macro scopic impurities
because of sand. Activated carbon will be place below rice
husk as now water will be free from all physical impurity, the
media can now work more effectively. Chemical impurities
will be removed by activated carbon. Final at the bottom we
will place graphene it will work on reducing the BOD / COD
of the water. And hence at the end we will get complete water
purification.
B.PREPARATION OF THREE BED
Sand media for the filtration:
Activated Carbon
Rice husk
Wash all these filter media separately.
In the designed bottle, first prepare the sand bed, then
activated carbon bed and on top, rice husk bed
After the procedure preparation of this multi bed filter we
can start our filtration.
C. PROCEDURE

Add the effluent water in the designed bottle.
As the effluent water passes through the rice husk, the
suspended solids in the effluents get reduced. Rice husk i
s use to filter metals from the effluent water.
Activated carbon helps to reduce the COD (Chemical
Oxygen Demand) and BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) of
the effluent.
Sand helps to remove the remaining suspended solids in
the effluent.
Rise husk helps to purify metals from the wastewater.
D. ANALYSIS METHOD
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The rotary-kiln incinerator is used by municipalities and by
large industrial plants. This design of incinerator has two
chambers: a primary chamber and secondary chamber. The
primary chamber in a rotary kiln incinerator consists of an
inclined refractory lined cylindrical tube. The inner refractory
lining serves as sacrificial layer to protect the kiln structure. This
refractory layer needs to be replaced from time to time.
Movement of the cylinder on its axis facilitates movement of
waste. In the primary chamber, there is conversion of solid
fraction to gases, through volatilization, destructive distillation
and partial combustion reactions. The secondary chamber is
necessary to complete gas phase combustion reactions.

Weight the dry filter paper on weighing machine

Arrange filter paper on funnel.
After that the put the funnel on an empty 1 liter bottle, to
collect the filtered water from filter paper
To add the complete 1 liter water from the filter paper.
Now remove the wet filter paper from the funnel. Take care
that it doesn't get tore, so allow it to get little bit naturally dry
on funnel only so it won't get tore.
Dry the filter paper on the pan with heat. Take care it doesn't
burn.
Weight the dried filter paper.
Subtract the initial weight from final weight.

Fig. 3. Diagrammatic representation ofa rotary kiln incinerator

(Source: eSuppliers India.com)
IV. INCINERATOR PLANT DESIGN

D. Fluidized bed design

There are various types of incinerator plant design: Moving
grate, Fixed grate, Rotary-kiln, and Fluidized bed.
A. Moving grate design
The typical incineration plant for municipal solid waste is a
moving grate incinerator. The moving grate enables the
movement of waste through the combustion chamber to be
optimized to allow a more efficient and complete combustion. A
single moving grate boiler can handle up to 35 metric tons (39
short tons) of waste per hour, and can operate 8,000 hours per
year with only one scheduled stop for inspection and
maintenance of about one month's duration.
A strong airflow is forced through a sand bed. The air seeps
through the sand until a point is reached where the sand
particles separate to let the air through and mixing and
churning occurs, thus a fluidized bed is created and fuel and
waste can now be introduced. The sand with the pre-treated
waste and/or fuel is kept suspended on pumped air currents and
takes on a fluid-like character. The bed is thereby violently
mixed and agitated keeping small inert particles and air in a
fluid-like state. This allows all of the mass of waste, fuel and
sand to be fully circulated through the furnace.

B. Fixed grate design

The older and simpler kind of incinerator was a brick-lined cell

with a fixed metal grate over a lower ash pit, with one opening
in the top or side for loading and another opening in the side to
remove combustible solids called clinkers.

C. Rotary kiln design


Fig. 4. Schematic representation of a fluidized bed incinerator
(Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo,
Japan)
IV. REGENERATION
Regeneration basically means cleaning or washing of the
filter medium to make it suitable for use again. There are
various ways of regeneration, the most commonly use done is
backwashing. Backwashing is described in detail below.
Figure 5.1 Flow of water during backwashing
Figure 5.2 Dependency of bed height and head loss with
the water velocity
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5.1 Backwashing
It involves removal of clogging deposits and maintain
efficient operation. Backwashing of a gravity filter involves
flow reversal to dislodge the deposits. This usually gives
significant expansion and fluidization of the bed. Once
expansion occurs the grains are mobile and deposits can be
detached and flushed out.
The various techniques include:
A.BACKWASHING WITH WATER
When a filter is being backwashed, the mechanisms that
detach deposits and get the filter grains clean are : fluid shear
forces,grain collisions,abrasion between grains,forces
associated with the air/water interface.Research has shown
that water-only backwash is a weak cleaning process as grain
collisions are minimal. It is more effective to include air
flow in the cleaning process.
B.USE OF AIR SCOUR
When air scour precedes the water wash, it is intended to
break up and detach deposits ready to be flushed out.
Research has shown that while air scour causes a lot
of agitation to grains in the top few centimeters of the bed,
there is very little agitation deep down. The agitation is
caused by bubbles erupting at the surface of the media. If a
filter bed retains most of its deposits at the surface then air
scour alone is adequate. If, however, it acts as a deep bed
filter, as intended, then deeper deposits may not be dislodged.
C.AIR AND WATER COMBINED WASH
A combined wash means that the air and the water flow
simultaneously up through the bed. At particular
combinations of air and water flow rates for a given medium
a phenomenon known as collapse-pulsing (Amirtharajah,
1993) is observed. This corresponds to the onset of three-
phase fluidization.
What this means in practice is that fluidized bed conditions
are achieved for a much lower water rate – typically less than
0.5 vmf. Flow rates when a water only wash is used are
greater than vmf. In addition, during collapse-pulsing there is
a very high degree of bed agitation, as pockets of air form and
collapse within the media. This ensures that deposits are
detached from the grain surfaces and can be particularly good
for removal of biofilms.
V. ADVANTAGES
A.SAND
Mechanical and biological action, Slow gravity sand filters removes
bacteria and small particles.

B.ACTIVATED CARBON
Low cost and easy maintenance. It enhances taste and odour of tap
water.Filters carbon based chemicals, disinfectants and
microorganisms.
-k
1.Its an agricultural waste, costs negligible.Adsorption capacity to
remove metals increases with Increase in pH of solution.Longer
duration gives high values of adsorption.
-Graphene
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[3] :"Incineration Processes and Environmental Releases." National
Research Council. 2000. Waste Incineration and Public Health.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5803.
[4] Knox, Andrew (February 2005). "An Overview of Incineration and EFW
Technology as Applied to the Management of Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW)"(PDF). University of Western Ontario. Archived from the
original(PDF) on 5 December 2008.
[5] ^ abcd"Waste to Energy in Denmark". Ramboll. 2006.
[6] ^Kleis, Heron; Dalager, Søren (2004). 100 Years of Waste Incineration
[7] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250029951_Study_on_Proper
t
ies_of_Rice_Husk_Ash_and_Its_Use_as_Cement_Replacement_Mater
i al

Low cost. It helps in desalination. It can withstand high pressure due to

unique structure.

Limitations

-Sand

Maintenance isn’t easy since backwashing is required. Requires

large land, large quantity of filter media and manual cleaning. High
turbidity water can clog fine sand in filters.
-Activated carbon
Not good at removing chemicals that are not attracted to carbon. Short
service life. Effectiveness decreases if water contact is increased.

-Rice husk
Adsorption capacity decreases in order Pb>Zn>Cu.
-Graphene
Though good graphene is available at low cost, it excludes graphene
created by CVD process. (recognized as highest level of graphene of
quality available for bulk graphene).

Future improvements
Rice husk is available at a low cost but Activated rice husk needs
processes which can’t be done at a low scale level. Activated rice husk
removes Mn(II). Removal efficiency of activated rice husk for Pb, Cu,
Zn is 96.45%, 96.31%, 96.64% respectively. Cartridge Filters can
screen out twice as much Dirt and debris as a Sand Filter. Maintenance
is easy, no backwashing required.

Conclusion
Mixed bed filtration is very promising and cheap technology. It can be
used by industry to reduce the suspended solids and reduce the toxicity
of the effluent water before discharging it from the industry. Activated
rice husk can be used as an adsorbent instead of rice husk. It is
successful for removal of Mn(II)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Vrushali V. Maste would like to thank Dr. Rita Sharma for
encouraging this project to better understand the process of
incineration. Her guidance allowed us to satisfactorily
complete this paper.

REFERENCES
[1] Joseph W. Lenehan (1962) Air Pollution Control in Municipal
Incineration, Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 12:9, 414-
430, DOI: 10.1080/00022470.1962.10468108
[2] https://www.nap.edu/read/5803/chapter/5#43