IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 3, Issue 01, 2015 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613 All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 1119 Domestic Wastewater Treatment using Multimedia Filter Technology Mangesh L. Gulhane 1 Anuja U. Charpe 2 1 Associate Professor 2 P.G. Student 1,2 Department of Civil Engineering 1,2 Government College of Engineering, Amravati, Maharashtra Abstract— Due to increasingly urbanized and industrialized society with a rapidly expanding population, the need for cost effective and environmentally sound technologies for wastewater treatment is required. Filtration technology is the simplest and low cost treatment technology based on the principle of attached growth process. Multimedia Filters represent a significant improvement over single media filters. A laboratory scale multimedia filter model was developed for treatment of domestic wastewater. Different packing media such as cellulose pads, brick bats and aerocon stones of varying sizes were used. The model was operated for varying detention time. The results obtained from this experimental study showed removal efficiency for BOD as 67%, COD as 69% and TS as 86% for 24 hours of detention time. Key words: Aerocon stones, Brick bats, Cellulose pads, Domestic wastewater, Filtration, Multimedia Filter I. INTRODUCTION Domestic wastewater is the water that has been used by a community and contains all the materials added to the water during its use. It is thus composed of human body wastes together with the water used for flushing toilets and sullage, which is the wastewater resulting from personal washing, laundry, food preparation and the cleaning of kitchen utensils.Fresh wastewater is a grey turbid liquid that has an earthy but inoffensive odour. It contains large floating and suspended solids, smaller suspended solids (such as partially disintegrated faeces, paper, vegetable peel) and very small solids in colloidal (i.e. non-settleable) suspension, as well as pollutants in true solution. It is objectionable in appearance and hazardous in content as it contains number of disease- causing (‘pathogenic’) organisms [1].If this wastewater discharged directly into a watercourse, serious damage might result to the many form of life and would contribute potential risks transmission of the disease. So there is need to provide cost-effective and environmentally sound technologies for wastewater treatment. Wastewater treatment systems are considered to provide effluents which fulfill the required standards related to total solids (TS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) [2]. Filtration is a process for removing pollutants from wastewater by passing through the porous medium. It is the simplest and low cost treatment technology based on the principle of attached growth process to treat wastewater by removing contaminants like COD, BOD and total solids for a wide range of applications in domestic as well as industrial applications. Multimedia filters are those ones which utilize three or more than three different types of packing media. Multimedia filters are composed of different types of packing media of varying sizes to a total depth of 0.75 m to 1 m. Filtration process works on the principle of attached growth process. In attached growth processes the microorganisms responsible for the conversion of organic material or nutrients are attached to an inner packing material. The wastewater flowing past the attached growth are also known as biofilm packing material used in attached growth processes which include rock, gravel, slag, sand, redwood and a wide range of plastic and other synthetic materials [3]. In present research efforts were made to develop the promising and cost effective technique for domestic wastewater treatment. A laboratory scale multimedia filter model was developed and performance of attached growth system using different types of filter media of varying sizes was observed. II. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to upgrade the conventional treatment processes by developing the multimedia filter for domestic wastewater treatment. To study the performance of multimedia filter with different packing media such as brick bats, aerocon stones and cellulose pads was the objective of the experimental study. The removal efficiency of parameters like BOD, COD and TS were studied. III. MATERIALS AND METHODS A. Filter Media: The selection of a suitable filter media is an important part in the design of operation and multimedia filter process in order to meet the required effluent quality. Removal efficiency increases with decreasing filter media size and increasing filter bed depth. Filter media provides large surface area to enhance the microbial growth. Therefore it plays a key role in maintaining a high amount of active biomass and a variety of microbial populations. In multimedia filter three different types of media were used such as brick bats, aerocon stones and cellulose pads. Fig. 1: Brick bats Fig. 2: Aerocon stones