A Pilot plant study of a pebble bed flocculator

Abstract

111 smel!, ccuxiiry like t-.Rl LANKA whei-o the Jovernniunt is adopting vario'js ways and means to improve the standard of living of the masses it has become a prime importance to provide safe drinking water. In the past, when the cost of construction and operation and maintenance was cheap when compared to the present day p^ractices, conventional water treatment plants were con.-.tructed just as what was done for thu devoj oped countrier:. This has now been found to be unsatisfactory for use in local conditions in the way of its desxf^ns as well as on tho operation and maintenance aspects. Under these circumstances, it has become an urgent need to carryout research and development on our own to produce safe drinking "ot,i_^ ^. c. ; -.-^ sonable cost. Pebble bed f loccxXIation type of treatment process is one such type of study which have proved to be useful to modify the- existing plants in the island as welJ as for new installations in the future. The scope of this project studies is to understand the operiitlon of '^ebble bed flocculator uncier variable perameters such as the flow rate - turbidity , Pebble size etc. Inorder to assess the performance of the Pebble bed floccu lation pru'-uss c^ilots of log 2/T - t/t^were plotted and changes fc:' varying parameters were observed and studied. From the comparison of the results it could be clearly seen that' it is very promissing and could be losed for medium scaje plarits. The turbidity of raw water that could be treated by thi::. process range from 20 NTU to lOo WT