Novel Fluidic Control System for Stacked Rapid Sand Filters

Abstract

Infrastructure for water treatment faces numerous challenges around the world, including the high failure rate of digital, electronic, pneumatic, and mechanical control systems due to their large number of components and their dependency on proprietary parts for repair. The development of more efficient, reliable, easily repaired water treatment controls that rely on simple fluidics rather than on complex systems has the potential to significantly improve the reliability of drinking water treatment plants, particularly for cities and towns in developing countries. A stacked rapid sand filter (SRSF) has been proposed as a more robust and sustainable alternative to conventional rapid sand filters because each filter can backwash at the same flow rate used for filtration without requiring pumps or storage tanks. While the concept of this filter has been demonstrated in previous studies, this paper presents a novel control system for the SRSF based on fluidics that eliminates the need for mechanized controls. The water level in the filter is regulated by a siphon pipe, which conveys flow during backwash and which contains an air trap to block flow during filtration. The state of the siphon pipe and the ensuing state of the filter are controlled by one small-diameter air valve. This fluidic control system was tested in pilot-scale experiments, which demonstrated its ability to set the mode of operation of the filter and served as the basis for the derivation of design equations. In addition, the first full-size SRSF was built at a municipal water plant in Honduras using this fluidic control system, which provided a full-scale demonstration of its effectiveness. This simple and robust control system shows promise as part of a sustainable rapid sand filtration process.