Assessment of sludge particle removal from wastewater by disc filtration

To meet stricter effluent discharge limits of total phosphorus, microscreens can be applied for tertiary effluent treatment. The Rya WWTP has recently been upgraded with microscreens in the form of disc filters. Extensive characterisation of the wastewater from different locations in the plant (influent, after primary settling) and secondary settler effluent, was performed to increase the understanding of the potential of removing different components from the wastewater. The wastewater was fractionated by filtration through filter cloths with pore sizes 40, 20, 15, and 10 μm and through finer filters with pore size 1.2, 0.45, 0.2 and 0.1 μm. Particle size analysis (PSA) was used to assess the removal efficiency of the filter cloths. High removal degrees were achieved were particles larger or equal in size to the pore size were strained. Some floc break-up took place leading to an increased number of small particles (1–5 μm) after filtration. The suspended solids concentration could be reduced to 1 mg/l with total phosphorus concentrations of <0.2 mg/l. Some removal of metals could be observed when filtering wastewater with higher concentrations (influent and secondary settler effluent) whereas no effect could be seen for the effluent wastewater, probably due to the low concentrations present. The results from this study indicate a poor removal efficiency of pathogens measured as indicator microorganisms.