Heavy Metals Removal in a Rapid Infiltration Sand Column

Sand filtration has been used as a cost-effective tertiary treatment process for sewage and wastewaters. However, little information is available on the performance of the process for heavy metals removal. In this project, the effect of a rapid infiltration sand filtration system on the removal of total organic carbon (TOC) phosphorus, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn from a mixed industrial and domestic wastewater was evaluated. To facilitate observation of the system behavior under varied conditions, the influent samples were also subjected to extreme pH values. Further studies were conducted to determine the effects of calcium carbonate addition for heavy metals precipitation prior to application onto the sand column. The results revealed that sand filtration was remarkably successful in removing phosphorus from wastewater under all conditions. The data further confirmed that in a sand filtration process, the mechanism of phosphorus removal was mainly due to chemical precipitation. Under neutral pH conditions, TOC, Cd, and Cu, were removed in the order of 20%, and Pb, and Zn were about 35–40% removed. Addition of a chemical precipitant such as calcium carbonate increased the pollutant removal to about 50%. At pH values below 2.4 and above 11.0, the TOC and all the metals showed an increase in concentration in passing through the sand column.