Sewage Filtration And Water Treatment

There are many reasons why people decide to install a home drinking water purification system. Their water might taste odd, have a strange color or smell, or perhaps their water is what is called “hard water” (water that has high mineral content) which often causes problems with laundry.  Mostly water purifiers are installed at residences that have their own wells, if you’re connected to the city water line, the water usually has already been treated in a water treatment plant and if there’s something wrong with it, you should contact the water company or state department of health. Rusty pipes can also be the reason for your bad water and should be replaced instead of adding a water filter.

A good first step would be to get your water tested to find out what kind of purifier is required, because different kinds of purifiers remove different types of bacteria and minerals. You can take a water sample to a laboratory, either a private one or your county / state department of health. This is something you should always do regularly if you have your own well.

An activated carbon water filter

An activated carbon filter can remove many organic chemicals and pesticides, hydrogen sulfide, mercury and radon gas and is good for reducing taste, odor and color problems in water. Activated carbon filters usually have replaceable activated carbon cartridges and always require regular maintenance or bacteria will start to breed in the filter.

A reverse osmosis water filter system

Reverse osmosis systems, while being more expensive, can in addition remove calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, nitrate, boron, potassium, sulfate, radium and salts.

Oxidizing greensand or zeolite filters require that you regularly regenerate the system by adding potassium which is dangerous if it gets into your eyes and gloves are required to protect your skin.

An ion exchange water filter

Ion exchange water filters work by running the water through small resin beads. It can remove barium and small amounts of iron and manganese . The resulting water includes added sodium, which might not be good for you if you have blood pressure issues or hypertension.

Chlorinating the water is also an option, but I’d advice against that, because if the system isn’t working properly, the water might in fact become poisonous. Likewise, killing bacteria using a UV filter is not very good either because there’s no way to know (without constantly testing the water) if the system is actually working.

Ozone water treatment is another quite expensive solution. When compared to chlorination, it’s better at killing bacteria and viruses. Ozone is formed by using electricity like in lightning strikes. The ozone gas is then forced through the water, oxidizing iron, manganese, sulfur and some other particles. These particles will then be removed by using a secondary filter. There are still some suspicions that byproducts from the ozonation process might cause cancer.

Waste water treatment systems can be divided into biological, physical and chemical processes. The microbiological processes can be separated into aerobic and anaerobic processes.

The purification of waste water produces large amounts of organic sludge, which has to be thickened, treated and disposed of. This is one of the most expensive parts of waste water treatment. This sludge is usually a inconvenient product as it will rot in the air, causing odor problems. Anaerobic processes rely on microbiological processes where organic material is degraded and biogas (composed of mainly methane and carbon dioxide) is pro­duced. Anaerobic processes take place in the absence of oxygen and produce much less excess sludge in a more stable (non-rotting) condition.

Conven­tional, aerobic waste water treatment has been exten­sively applied in industrialized countries, but has the reputation of being expensive and requiring specialist supervision. Aerobic waste water treatment is characterized by a high conversion ratio of soluble BOD into biomass, and thus sludge. Sludge is produced in large quantities, it is composed of mostly water, requiring relatively expensive de-watering, and it may contain pollutants, notably patho­gens and heavy metals, that render the use as fertilizer impossible or difficult. The excess sludge from aerobic treatment however, can be easily digested, yielding sufficient amounts of biogas to make the plant energetically autonomous and lowering operational costs.

Anaerobic waste water treatment has been introduced on full scale on various types of in­dustrial waste water for three decades, both in cold and warm climates. Results have been in most cases successful. Anaerobic processes, carried out in specially designed concrete or steel reactors, result in high quality and short retention times which generally equals reduced con­struction costs. An additional advantage of anaerobic treatment is that it produces a well-digested and stable sludge, which will not rot when exposed to air. It has favorable dewatering characteristics when compared to the “fresh” sludge from aerobic plants.