CE 410/610 Water and Wastewater Engineering

Lecture 12 Trickling Filter

Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

North Dakota State University
 Outline

1. Intro to trickling filters

1) Components in a tricking filter
2) Treatment conditions
3) Operational parameters
2. Types of trickling filters
3. Comparison between activated sludge and trickling filters
4. Design formulas

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 1. Intro to trickling filters

Wastewater Treatment Processes

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 1. Intro to trickling filters

Types of Secondary Treatment

Suspended growth process Attached growth process

Activated sludge processes Trickling filters
Microbes are
attached to a media

Biofilm of filter media

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Components in a tricking filter

Intro to Trickling Filter Systems

• A fixed bed with layers

of microbial biofilm

• Wastewaters flow
downward

• Aerobic conditions
• Maintain high DO in
water:
o Splashing water
o Forced-air flowing
through the bed

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Components in a tricking filter

Trickling Filter Systems

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Components in a tricking filter

Major Components

❖ Media bed
Gravel or plastic

❖ Wastewater application system

The rotating arm to uniformly
distribute water

❖ Underdrain system
Direct the treated effluent to further
treatment or discharge

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Components in a tricking filter

Rock media and plastic media

❖ Area: plastic media offers larger surface areas
for biofilm growth
▪ 90 m2/ m3 of media bulk volume
▪ 40 – 60 m2/ m3 for 75 mm rocks

❖ Weight: plastic materials are also much lighter

than rock (by a factor of about 30)
Gravels/rocks

❖ Depth:
▪ Rock filters: up to 3 m deep
▪ Plastic media filter: up to 12 m deep --------
Trickling filter with plastic media often called
biological tower
Plastic module

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Treatment conditions

Treatment Conditions

Only a support layer and

not efficient

Major process: aerobic condition to remove organic

carbon, BOD5, and ammonia (i.e., nitrification)
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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Operational parameters

Recirculation
Activated Sludge

Sludge return to
aeration tanks

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Operational parameters

Recirculation

Trickling Filters
Effluent
recycling

Direct recirculation
Sludge to
be removed

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Operational parameters

Trickling Filters

Indirect recirculation

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Operational parameters

Reasons for Effluent Recirculation

Recirculation flow rate, Qr m3/s
Recirculation ratio, R =
Wastewater flow rate, Q m3/s

R = 50% to 400%

Daily variation of wastewater flow rate

Recirculation
1. Keep microorganism alive
2. Raise the DO in the influent
3. Increase the contact efficiency
4. Dilute the shock loads
o Water flow: daily variation
and extreme case
o Organic shock loads

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 1. Intro to trickling filters
• Operational parameters

Operational Parameters

Hydraulic loading (HL)

Q + Qr (m3/d)
HL =
Surface area (m2)

Unit: m3 m-2 d-1 or m/d

range of 10 to 40 m/d

BOD surface loading

Flow rate Q (m3/d) x Initial BOD5 (kg/m3)
SSL =
Volume of filter (m3)

Unit: kg m-3 d-1

kg of BOD5 per day per cubic

meter of bulk filter volume

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 2.Types of trickling filters

Two Types of Trickling Filters

One stage

Two stage

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 2.Types of trickling filters

Types of Trickling Filters Based on Flow Rate

Types Hydraulic Sloughing Recirculation BOD5 and

loading frequency TSS removal
(gpd/ft3) rate
Standard 25-90 Seasonal fre no 80%-85%
rate filter (or
low rate
filter)
High-rate 230-900 continuous yes 65%-80%
filter
Roughing >900 continuous not normally 40%-65%
filter included

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 3. Comparison between activated sludge and trickling filters

Differences between Activated Sludge and Trickling Filter

Activated Sludge Trickling Filter

Operation and Complex Simple
maintenance
Energy cost High Low
Shock loads Hard to handle Able to handle
Recirculation Sludge Effluent
operation
Solids concentration Low High due to the
in effluent eroding solids
detached from the
biofilm

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Fargo Wastewater Treatment Plant

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 4. Design formulas

Design Formulas
BOD removal efficiency: For a single-stage filter
or the first stage of a two-stage filter

1
E1 = QC 0.5
1 + 4.12 ( in)
VF

E1 = fraction of BOD5 removal for first stage at 20°C

Q = wastewater flow rate, m3/s
Cin = influent BOD5, mg/L
V = volume of filter media, m3
F = recirculation factor The recirculation factor

1+R
F=
(1 + 0.1 R)2

R = recirculation ratio = Qr /Q
Qr = recirculation flow rate, m3/s
Q = wastewater flow rate, m3/s
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 4. Design formulas

Design Formulas
BOD removal efficiency for the second stage of a two-stage filter
1
E2 =
4.12 ( QCce) 0.5
1+
1 – E1 VF

E2 = fraction of BOD5 removal

for second stage filter at 20°C
E1 = fraction of BOD5 removed
in first stage
Ce = effluent BOD5 from first
stage, mg/L

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 4. Design formulas

Effects of Temperature

The effect of temperature on treatment efficiency

ET = E20 θ(T-20)

Here, θ = 1.035, T unit is °C

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 4. Design formulas

Example 1
Determine the BOD5 of the effluent from a single-stage, low-rate trickling
filter that has a filter volume of 1,443 m3, an initial water flow rate of 1,900
m3/d, and a recirculation ratio of 4. The influent BOD5 is 150 mg/L.

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 4. Design formulas

Example 2
A municipal wastewater having a BOD of 200
g/m3 is to be treated by a two-stage trickling
filter. The desired effluent quality is 25 g/m3 of
BOD. If both of the filters (cylinder shape) depths
are to be 1.83 m and the recirculation ratio is
2:1, find the required filter diameters, the
hydraulic loading rates, and the BOD surface
loading rates.
Assume the following assumptions.
1. Flow rate = 7570 m3/d
2. Wastewater temperature = 35 oC.
3. E1=E2

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