Studies on Filtration of Fermentation Wastewater Using Sand-Carbon Filter

Biofuels production from cellulosic materials as carbohydrate source is being investigated as one of the alternatives to the solution of the energy problem.One of the potential processes involves simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation.The wastewater from such process must be treated before being released to the environment.In order to make the process even more economical and environmentally friendly, the wastewater needs to be treated and recycled.This study is investigating the use of rapid sand -carbon filter in the reduction of organic materials and salt in the wastewater from a fermentation process.The filtration rate, conductivity and absorbance were monitored as wastewater was run through the system.The rate of filtration dropped as more wastewater was filtered.This suggests that clogging was taking place in the system as more wastewater was filtered.The absorbance at 570nm and 280nm of the filtrate decreased which suggests that the system was able to filter the wastewater and achieve a significant treatment level.Different filter setups and filter media will be studied in order to improve the filtration efficiency and filtrate quality.