Opportunities for the use of geotextiles for greywater treatment

Abstract

The use of water in homes generates wastewater from two types of effluents; the first associated with fecal matter and the second with gray water product of organic matter, sediments and detergents. This study aims to present three filter prototypes for the treatment of domestic gray water, each filter with a different composition of non- woven geotextiles. Which work with a direct filtration through a gravity system. Specifically, the efficiency in the removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids was evaluated. In addition, the hydrogen potential (PH) and total and fecal coliforms were measured, in order to analyze their behavior. The results of total suspended solids reflected an average removal of 40% filter A, 34% in filter B and 28% in filter C. As for the COD removal percentages, they were 16% in filter A, 13 % on filter B and 10% on filter C. The removal percentages obtained in BOD₅ were 17% in filter A, 15% in filter B and 17% in filter C. While in the parameters of total and fecal coliforms whose result showed high levels of contamination, the filters did not present a favorable result since they failed to remove any percentage of these parameters. And the hydrogen potential remained between 7.20 and 7.80.