Can anyone suggest a simple way of clarifying water, other than by settling?
A contact in Haiti has placed a number of pumps to bring up groundwater and is in need of a really simple approach... perhaps coagulant or flocculent... to clarify water prior to treating this for portability.
Barring imported approaches, what might work? Thanks!
Groundwater at least from a source that is really groundwater is should not need clarification. It is however fairly common for new sources to be turbid due to the disturbance of drilling etc. Has the source been pumped for a while? Coagulant and flocculants can help settlement but are not removal processes in themselves.
It's humorous that most of the answers provided meet neither criteria of being very simple and non-imported.
Anthony - I suggest you look into constructing a roughing filter. Here is a link to a good paper that discusses using them for drinking water treatment, but there is much more information readily available via Google.
i agree with Daniel. A simple sand filter with some anthracite will take care of most suspended solids. Just make sure you have a back wash system for this. This is cheap and cost effective treatment. if this doesn't accomplish your goal on turbidity you just add a polymer dosing system to this to bring NTU's down even further. Tim Shrum
Polymer dosing is simple in theory, but complex in practice. The wrong polymer can stabilize the suspension and make the problem worse. Extensive jar testing is mandatory before proceeding with full-scale. Also, you need high-quality make-up water that I'm guessing might not be available. It's probably not economically feasible in this case, either. Dry floc systems run at least $100k, plus the ongoing cost of the reagent. Let's not even mention the logistics of getting any of this stuff in Haiti.
That said, it is still a much better suggestion than microfiltration or ultrafiltration...in Haiti.
Please contact Mr. Pierre Sajous, President Aquathin d'Haiti pierresajous@yahoo.com (011 509 3701 6392).
Pierre is a longtime friend and Authorized Aquathin Dealer of 25+ years in Haiti, with immense knowledge of the various water issues, and proper treatment. Installations include commercial, residential, laboratory, municipal and industrial.
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As I am understanding you need remove suspended solids. But what kind of them?
For many particle removal process in water and wastewater treatment with our technical partners we can supply a microfiltration (MF) system that does not need any clarification and in some cases does not need any coagulation clarification to retain the solids.
Depending on your needs the system can be selected to retain particles from 25 to 0,2 um inn size, and it is really more effective than the average sand filter that can retain particles from 180 um.
This technology replace conventional coagulation-floculation, clarification and sand filtrarion in just one equipment ocuping with 10 times less area, and doesn't fail as membranes do due to it does not use membranes, and we hope it will be used in many countries in a next future.
We can supply small units to treate 1 l/s to ready to use containerized systems (plug and play), to treate from 30 to 100 l/s in just one container.
Hi, Ultrafiltration will allow a perfect clarification and removal of bacteria and viruses in a single low pressure step. It can be very simple devices. Do not hesitate to contact us www.polymem.fr
HAIT people can burn some woods and realize "wood-carbon". It can utilize ( little pieces or powder into a cloth into a funnel) for arrive to a very good quality of water ( drinking water ).
The easiest way is using a filter system. You can use a standard sand filtration or a cartridge filtration or a membran filtration such as ultrafiltration. It depends on what kind of solids and/or microbiology is in the water. Whether a coagulant or flocculent is required also depens on the ingredients in the water.
The technology is very disruptive in nature and one of its kind, that can address your solution. And the flocculant is 100% organic and extracted from plants. Therefore does away with harmful chemicals like Chlorine etc.........
The Eco Tech process is a very simple way to treat sewage, using non-toxic organic reagents extracted from plants, to return black water remarkably quickly into potable grade water.
After filtration, the water is odourless, free of harmful bacteria and is absolutely 100% safe to drink.
Perhaps you can use our solution in your unique situation.