Removal of Mn and simultaneous removal of NH3, Fe and Mn from potable water using a trickling filter

Manganese removal using a biological trickling filter was investigated. Manganese removal was found to be caused by both biological and chemical manganese oxidation. The extent of each oxidation type was assessed. The performance of the trickling filter was tested under both continuous and sequencing batch reactor operation. The effectiveness and throughput for each operational mode were determined as a function of retention time and the advantages of each operational mode were investigated. It was found that the continuous operational mode leads to higher percentage of manganese removal but lower throughput rates when compared with a sequencing batch reactor operation with the same feed concentration and retention time. A series of experiments was also performed in order to investigate the interactions between ammonia, iron and manganese removal when simultaneously present in a biological filter. For low ammonia concentrations there is no serious inhibition of manganese removal. For higher ammonia concentrations inhibition of manganese removal becomes substantial. The presence of iron affects both ammonia and manganese removal negatively, while ammonia and manganese do not significantly affect iron removal.