The Influence of Fibers from Domestic Laundry Wastewater on the Clogging Process of a Filter

Abstract

This study presents the impact of the size and shape of particles in laundry wastewater on the clogging process of a porous material. Clogging can be defined as a mechanical limitation of flow through porous media. The process of mechanical clogging was investigated in this study. The research was conducted in laboratory conditions in a filter column filled with glass beads whose diameter corresponded to coarse sand. The results reveal the influence of graywater quality on filter hydraulic conductivity and bed clogging, showing the impact of fiber particles in wastewater (sewage from home laundry) on the clogging process in soil. The results confirm that fiber particles significantly reduce filter permeability, particularly due to the formation of a filter cake. As analyzed in this paper, the distribution of quantitative data on particles of different sizes found in laundry wastewater indicates that they mainly accumulate in the upper layer, where particles with fiber lengths ranging from 0 to 1600 µm can be found. The average length of the fibers decreased with increasing depth. At a depth of approximately 10 cm, fibers with dimensions in the range of 0 to 100 μm were predominantly observed.