A STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL FILTRATION USING FLOW-THROUGH TRACER TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Investigations were performed to determine substrate removal in biological filters with the aid of dispersion theory and first order reaction kinetics. Flow-through tracer experiments were conducted to study the hydrodynamic dispersion. Dispersion numbers were then obtained by equating variances of the experimental and the theoretical C curves. An equation was derived to calculate dispersion numbers as a function of specific surface area and the mean velocity of the laminar film flow over the filter medium.