Treatment of secondary effluents by infiltration-percolation process using sand fortified with activated charcoal

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of sand/granular activated charcoal mixture medium to treat urban wastewater effluents. Several laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the best combination ratio of sand/activated charcoal which would allow the optimum water purification. A comparative study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of the addition of activated charcoal on infiltration-percolation efficiency. Experiments demonstrated that fortifying sand medium with granular activated charcoal improved the pollutants removal efficiencies. Results showed that a combination ratio of 3:1 (by volume) of sand and granular activated charcoal gave the best depuration efficiency regarding organic matter, nitrogen and orthophosphorous. The mean removal rates of COD, NH4-N and PO4-P were 83.29, 95.85 and 65.21%, respectively. Furthermore, experiments demonstrated that a mixture of sand/activated charcoal in a 3:1 ratio resulted in the optimum oxidation capacity.