Tratamento de águas amarelas em leitos filtrantes intermitentes.

Abstract

The present work aims to study the performance of intermittent percolator beds (filters) in the treatment of yellow waters, in order to verify the potential of this technology as an integral part of decentralized ecological systems of wastewater treatment. Having been used three different types of beds, one composed by sand, one second by sand and limestone and another by granular activated charcoal. To verify the efficiency of the filters the effluent and the treated effluent were characterized by physical, chemical and microbiological parameters. The tributary showed characteristics of potential reuse in agricultural crops due to the high concentration of nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, and absence of indicators of fecal contamination. The sand and limestone filter were not effective in the physical treatment. Despite their good nitrogen recovery efficiency, these filters produced effluents where unstable ammonia nitrogen was predominant. On the other hand, the filter filled with granular activated carbon showed good performance in nitrogen recovery, producing a well nitrified effluent with excellent aesthetic quality, no indicators of fecal contamination and no risk of soil solidification. Therefore, the effluent obtained by treating yellow water in granular activated carbon bed filters seems to be an excellent natural fertilizer, providing a significant nutrient recirculation.