The Effect of Substrate and Surface Load Change of Pressurized Sand Filters on Removal Improvement of Water Quality Parameters in Moallemkola-Sari Water Treatment Plant

The lack of water for humans and the environment is one of the serious problems of today's world. Drinking water in Sari city and its dependent villages are provided with groundwater. The poor quality of the outlet water after the pressurized sand filters in the Moallemkola water treatment plant led to investigate the effective factors on the efficiency of the above filters. The pressurized sand filters substrate was composed of three types of silica granulation. This research investigated the physical and chemical parameters of pressurized sand filters by choosing the type of granulation and the use of a single layer and double layer in the pressurized sand filters bed (silica, silica-anthracite, and leca-anthracite), as well as changing their surface load in seven steps. Samples were taken in all steps and from five points in the water treatment plant (inlet water, after aeration, at the beginning of the filter operation, at the end of filter function and after chlorination). The results showed that the best option is the simultaneous use of silica and anthracite in the filter bed, employing 1.5 times of surface load in the water treatment plant, along with the use of aeration and sedimentation units. The removal efficiency of turbidity, TDS, TSS, calcium, magnesium and iron parameters was obtained 85.41, 23.54, 56.94, 21.08, 32.28 and 89.47%, respectively. Therefore, the use of double layer of silica and anthracite will increase the quality of water, and it is recommended for areas with high turbidity.