For over 200 years, slow sand filtration (SSF) has been an effective means of treating water for the control of microbiological contaminants in both small and large community water supplies. However, such systems lost popularity to rapid sand filters mainly due to smaller land requirements and less sensitivity to water quality variations. SSF is still a particularly attractive process because its operation does not require chemicals or electricity. It can achieve a high level of treatment, which is mainly attributed to naturally-occurring, biochemical processes in the filter. Several microbiologically-mediated purification mechanisms (e.g. predation, scavenging, adsorption and bio-oxidation) have been hypothesised or assumed to occur in the biofilm that forms in the filter but these have not yet been comprehensively verified. Thus, SSFs are operated as ‘black boxes’ and knowledge gaps pertaining to the underlying ecology and ecophysiology limit the design and optimisation of the technology. The objective of this review is to outline the biological aspects of SSF in to the context of recent developments in molecular microbial ecology.
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Research Article|
September 01 2011
Biological aspects of slow sand filtration: past, present and future Available to Purchase
S. J. Haig;
1School of Engineering, Rankine Building, University of Glasgow, G12 8LT, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
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G. Collins;
G. Collins
2School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland, University Road, Galway, Ireland
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R. L. Davies;
R. L. Davies
3School of Infection, and Immunity, Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre, University of Glasgow, G12 8TA, UK
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C. C. Dorea;
C. C. Dorea
4Département génie civil et génie des eaux/Civil and Water Engineering, Université Laval, Québec (QC), G1V 0A6, Canada
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C. Quince
C. Quince
1School of Engineering, Rankine Building, University of Glasgow, G12 8LT, UK
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Water Supply (2011) 11 (4): 468–472.
Article history
Received:
May 26 2011
Accepted:
July 28 2011
Citation
S. J. Haig, G. Collins, R. L. Davies, C. C. Dorea, C. Quince; Biological aspects of slow sand filtration: past, present and future. Water Supply 1 September 2011; 11 (4): 468–472. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2011.076
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