Start-Up of a Biofilter in a Full-Scale Groundwater Treatment Plant for Iron and Manganese Removal

Abstract

In recent years, biological purification technology has been widely developed in the process of iron and manganese removal from groundwater. The cultivation and maturation of the biological filter layer are key for biological iron and manganese removal processes. The time needed for maturation varies significantly with the water quality, filter and filter media conditions and operation parameters; sometimes it takes only one or two months, sometime more than half a year. In this paper, the feasibility of adopting an intermittent operation for the cultivation of biofilter was investigated with productive filters in a groundwater treatment plant, and the comparative test of the filter column was conducted. The results showed that the intermittent operation had little effect on the cultivation of the biofilter because dissolved oxygen would be gradually exhausted during the filter-suspension process, making the filter layer anaerobic, thus possibly inhibiting the growth and reproduction of IMOB (Iron and Manganese Oxidizing Bacteria). At the same time, the test shows that when the mature biological filter needs the suspension operation, the emptying method should be considered to avoid the destruction of the biological layer.

Heavy Metals in Wastewater and Sewage Sludge from Selected Municipal Treatment Plants in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

“…Precipitation is usually followed by sedimentation in the secondary clarifier (for activated sludge), dredging (for oxidation pond) and filtration (for biofilter), respectively. The precipitates are then collected as part of the sewage sludge, depending on their particle density [116][117][118]. This shows that, in spite of the fact that the sewage treatment plants were not designed at inception for the removal of such pollutants, they can function efficiently in the removal of some organic micro pollutants compared to heavy metals.…”

Autochthonous tropical groundwater bacteria involved in manganese(ii) oxidation and removal

“…9,10 For this reason, many studies have focused on Mn removal methods that include the use of microorganisms (biofiltration) at the pilot [11][12][13][14] and large scale. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Biological treatments are more environmentally friendly and less expensive than conventional systems, since they reduce the use of chemical products, the production of sludge, and the associated costs. 8,9,15,16,19 Most of the studies involve the oxidation capacity for Mn(II) of microorganisms, [24][25][26] and their biofilm formation capacity related to extracellular polymeric substances (EPS).…”

Preparation and Characterization of Sludge-Based Magnetic Biochar by Pyrolysis for Methylene Blue Removal

“…In the past twenty years, a large number of iron and manganese removal water plants have been established in Northeast China to treat groundwater with excessive iron and nganese content [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. However, along the operation of the water plants, a large amount of iron mud would be produced, and the subsequent treatment of iron mud costs a lot [ 32 , 33 ].…”