Evaluation of Detergent Removal Using Gravel Biobed-Pool Filtering System

Abstract

Detergent discharged in wastewater without any treatments into natural water bodies will lead to environmental damage and health risk. Orthophosphate is a side product found alongside detergent in many household detergents, which also poses a threat to the environment. These pollutants could be removed biologically using a biobed filtering system. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of the Biobed filtering system in removing detergent and orthophosphate. For this purpose, a Biobed-Pool Filtering system was designed with gravel as the biobed material. The filtering system consisted of two parts: biobed zone (290L) and a pool zone (1287). The system was placed in an open space on the rooftop of the campus building. The experiment was divided into a control experiment using tap water and wastewater experiment that uses synthetic wastewater with added detergent at a concentration of 63 μg/L. Both experiments were run for 12 days and was monitored. The result showed a 72.7% and 30 % orthophosphate removal in the control and the wastewater experiment, respectively. In addition, the biobed could also reduce 33% of the detergent content in the wastewater experiment. The results indicate that the Biobed-Pool Filtering System could effectively remove detergent from wastewater.