Removal Of Physicochemical Parameters Of Grey Water Using Biofiltration Techniques

Abstract

Wastewater from household use discharged to the environment without any sort of treatment, which causes harmful effects to the surroundings and surface ground water pollution. There are various treatment methods available for treating the grey waters with and without help of physical methods, chemical and biological materials. In the present study, the grey water samples were collected from the student hostel of Bharathidasan University on a daily basis around 35 days (300 liters/day). A total of 10,500 liter grey water was treated in this study through continuous (four different bio-bed) treatment tank processes with the help of natural absorbents such as sand, pea gravel, coir waste, charcoal, and Lipianodiflora and Canna indica. The combinations of these ingredients were aligned in the treatment tank with different propositions as well as different orders. The before and after treatment grey water samples were analyzed by physiochemical analysis. The range of physiochemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, total alkalinity (TA), total hardness (TH), dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in untreated and treated grey water were 8.3–8.7, 1812.0–1980.0 µS/cm, 1129.7–1220.0 mg/L, 272–330 mg/L, 384.2–455.0 mg/L, 0.2–0.6 mg/L, 137.6–157.1 mg/L, 362.9–420.0 mg/L; and 7.94–8.2, 642.3–760.0 µS/cm, 410–490.0 mg/L, 136–160 mg/L, 139.6–165.0 mg/L, 3.9–4.9 mg/L, 16.34–20.3 mg/L, and 68.2–78.0 mg/L, respectively. The 1–3-fold level of pollution was decreased in treated grey water than untreated grey water owing to the efficacy of bio-filters.