Abstract
The feasibility of the high-hydrophilic biofilter was examined for application in rural wastewater treatment in Korea. The intermittent trickling biofiter was developed for wastewater treatment of media and examined instantaneous wetting water and immersional wetting water. Melamin foam absorbed 120 times it's weight in water and maintained wetting status than other materials. These characteristics are improvement for application in rural areas showing large variance of amount of influent. The biofilter process was effective in treating organic pollutants; mean removal efficiencies of $BOD_5$ and TSS were above 80%. The average SS concentrations of effluent was showed below $10mg/L^{-1}$ and meet guidelines in special regions, however, the average concentration of $BOD_5$ was about $20mg/L^{-1}$. The removals of T-N and T-P were relatively less effective and removal efficiencies were below 40%. It might meet the guidelines for T-P because of low levels of influent T-P concentration. However, the T-N concentration were too high and further treatment is required. The effluent concentration of $NH_4-N$ showed a significant reduction rate about 43.8%, but part of $NH_4-N$ was transformed to $NO_2-N$ and $NO_3-N$ inside the biofilter through nitrification process. The effluent concentration of org-P was removed about 78.8% of influent concentration by filtration. Considering stable performance and effective removal of pollutant in wastewater, low maintenance, and cost-effectiveness, the hydrophilic biofilter system was thought to be an effective and feasible alternative for decentralized rural areas.
