Self-Regenerating Biofilter
Maintenance-Free Water Treatment System
This technology is a compact, self-regenerating biofiltration system designed to produce non-potable water using a novel approach that does not require removal or replacement of the filters and media. This invention performs two primary cycling functions: treatment of untreated wastewater via filtration and adsorption onto the GAC filtration media, followed by an automated regeneration step in which filtration is halted to drain the filter and facilitate aerobic biodegradation of adsorbed contaminants. The filter is periodically backwashed to remove biosolids formed during regeneration. This cyclic method reduces filtration media replacement expenses, promotes aerobic conditions in the filtration system, and allows for rapid startup of a biological wastewater treatment process. The compact footprint allows use as a deployable system and may be replicated to create a continuous water treatment system with higher water volume capacity.
The filter can be used to treat cold wastewater while maintaining biodegradation of contaminants by including a ‘thermal swing’ effect. The filter media is first loaded with contaminants during the treatment step. During the bioregeneration step, a small amount of heat is added into the drained filter, thereby restoring biodegradation kinetics without having to heat the water.
Benefits:
- Maintenance free: This self-cleaning system requires no external maintenance via human intervention.
- Rapid startup: Compared to conventional wastewater reactor systems, the self-cleaning biofilter starts up within 24 hours rather than days to weeks.
- Biological treatment of cold wastewater: The process can be used to biologically treat cold wastewater due to its heterogenous contaminant removal and biodegradation process. The biodegradation kinetics are restored by simply heating only the filter bed (media) during the bioregeneration phase, without having to heat the bulk water.
- Less expensive: Self-regenerating biofilters do not necessitate costly cleaning processes and have a shorter downtime leading to lower operational costs. They are estimated to cost 10 times less than existing, comparable systems.
- Scalable: This system is assembled in a compact footprint that may be replicated to achieve continuous water treatment and higher daily flow-through volumes. Additionally, it may have value as a deployable system.
- Efficient: A lack of maintenance requirements and shorter cleaning downtime create a more efficient filtration system.
- Adaptable: Various ion exchange materials can be interchanged in the non-gravel layer to target specific contaminants in the wastewater stream.
- Environmentally-friendly: This unique biofiltration system eliminates the need for chemicals in its filtration process creating a more environmentally-conscious technology.
Applications:
- Industrial wastewater treatment
- Agricultural wastewater treatment
- Buildings
- Deployable systems
- Environmental remediation
