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Advanced Treatment

The changing landscape of compounds of emerging concern, microbials and pathogens, and disinfection byproducts in drinking water, as well as increasingly restrictive discharge limits for receiving waters and the need to diversify water supplies through potable reuse, have necessitated a shift beyond conventional treatment for both drinking water and wastewater utilities. 

Advanced treatment strategies are used by drinking water treatment plants and water resource recovery facilities to provide treatment to a higher level than conventional treatment. Drinking water plants may employ advanced treatment processes such as activated carbon adsorption, membrane treatment, ozone, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, and biofiltration, ​​ or a combination thereof. Many similar advanced treatment strategies have also been added to water resource recovery facilities to further remove solids, organic materials, nutrients, and toxic materials—often with the goal of producing potable water through indirect or direct reuse.

Topic Overview (PDF)
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240 Projects 15 Web Tools 2 Case Studies 18 Webcasts
Advanced Treatment
Biofiltration
Reuse, Direct Potable
Reuse, Membrane Technology
Project #4719

Biofiltration Guidance Manual for Drinking Water Facilities

$374,328
2020
Completed

Project Highlights

This project looked at biofilter design and operating experiences across the water industry to develop a consolidated set of guidelines for the design, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of biologically active rapid-rate gravity filters. The resulting biofiltration guidance manual is the...

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Principal Investigator
Jess
Brown
Research Manager
Dr. Hyunyoung Jang

Trinity River Authority & Biofiltration

In 2012, Trinity River Authority (TRA) undertook a WRF research project to investigate whether enhanced biofiltration could enable a utility to retain previously removed manganese on the filter media and provide long-term water quality improvements, including taste and odor control and prevention of manganese breakthroughs.

Recent Updates

Project #4906
Evaluation of Fouling Characteristics and Cleaning Efficacy of...

The pilot began running in October of 2018 with the first set of three membranes: Toray...

Project Update
06/09/2019
Project #4731
Optimizing Biofiltration and Integrating Biofiltration into...

Reporting Period: April 1, 2019 – September 30, 2019. During this period, Subtask 3.3, Biofiltration Performance...

Project Update
12/27/2019
Project #4984
Impact of Intermittent Operation on Biofilter ...

The main focus of the project to-date has been monitoring the biological acclimation of pilotscale filters...

Project Update
06/09/2019
Project #4904
Full Scale Validation of Cryptosporidium and Giardia Log Reduction in...

Reporting Period: March 1, 2020 – May 31, 2020. The project team spent the first six...

Project Update
06/25/2020
Project #4984
Impact of Intermittent Operation on Biofilter ...

Reporting Period: April 2019 to October 2019. In addition to a continuously operated control and an...

Project Update
04/13/2020
Project #4906
Evaluation of Fouling Characteristics and Cleaning Efficacy of...

Reporting Period: March 2019 - May 2019. During this reporting period, the team completed testing of...

Project Update
04/08/2020
Project #3177
Occurrence, Treatment, and Evaluation of Analytical Methods for...

The overall objective of this project was to develop, improve, and apply sensitive and robust analytical...

Project Update
07/11/2019
Project #3177
Occurrence, Treatment, and Evaluation of Analytical Methods for...

In Phase I (Project 3177), quantitative real-time PCR assays were developed to detect Group F ads...

Project Update
06/26/2019

News

WRF Announces 2020 Paul L. Busch Award Winner 

Press Release
10/01/2020

$100K Research Prize Will Advance Innovative Water Separation Technologies The Water Research Foundation announced today that Dr. Shihong Lin is the recipient of the 2020 Paul L. Busch $100,000 research...

CHAR Technologies Ltd.

Technology Spotlight
Andrew White
09/11/2020

What is your technology? CHAR Technologies Ltd. (“CHAR”) (YES -TSXV) High Temperature Pyrolysis (HTP) technology heats feedstocks to temperatures as high as 900°C (1,600°F) in an oxygen-free environment, where the...

Biofiltration: Defining Benefits and Developing Utility Guidance

06/06/2019

Biofiltration is the process of allowing microorganisms to colonize water plant filters to remove biodegradable compounds from drinking water. While biofiltration technology has existed for some time, its use in...

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Resources

Subscriber

Evaluation of CEC Removal by Ozone/BAF Treatment

Scope of Work
11/22/2019
11/22/2019
Public Plus

Membrane Bioreactor Validation Protocols for Water Reuse

Executive Summary
01/06/2021
01/06/2021
Public Plus

Membrane Bioreactor Validation Protocols for Water Reuse

Report
#4997
01/06/2021
01/06/2021
View all Advanced Treatment Resources

Related Projects

Project #4763

Performance and Cost Review of Desalination Plants

Completed

The successful operation of seawater reverse osmosis (RO) plants depends on the ability of the pretreatment system to consistently produce a high quality filtered water for the RO...

View more details
Project #4719

Biofiltration Guidance Manual for Drinking Water Facilities

Completed

This project looked at biofilter design and operating experiences across the water industry to develop a consolidated set of guidelines for the design, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of...

View more details
Project #4769

RO Removal of Toxicologically Relevant Unique Organics

Completed

This Research provides insight into the removal of individual organics for potable reuse applications using reverse osmosis and includes an Excel-based tool to calculate the mass transfer coefficients...

View more details
Project #4997

Membrane Bioreactor Validation Protocols for Water Reuse

In Progress

Potable water reuse projects often use membrane bioreactors (MBRs) as part of the treatment train. MBRs offer significant footprint savings, are cost-effective, and produce high-quality effluent. However, membranes...

View more details
Project #4832

Evaluation of CEC Removal by Ozone/BAF Treatment

In Progress

Ozone/biologically active filtration (BAF)-based treatment trains in potable reuse can typically produce high-quality reclaimed water that meets drinking water standards at a significantly lower cost and environmental footprint...

View more details
Project #5092

Understanding and Improving Reuse Biofilter Performance during Transformation from GAC to BAC

In Progress

Ozone-biologically active filtration (ozone-BAF) is gaining momentum in potable reuse applications. However, few wastewater facilities currently utilize ozone-BAF, resulting in limited knowledge associated with this treatment technology. This...

View more details

Related Topics

Link

Biofiltration

Link

Reuse, Direct Potable

Link

Reuse, Membrane Technology

Link

Treatment

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