Sand Filter for Rainfall Water with Reverse Flow

The use of drinking water in activities that require no potable water is a waste of resources that could be avoided by using clean water, as the rainfall water. This procedure saves the amount spend on toilet discharges in washing cars, sidewalks, clothes and general irrigation as well as on the reduction of floods, helping to minimize environmental impacts on urban areas. This work aims to design, develop and test a sand filter to retain solid waste material from the rain water, allowing the improvement of their quality. The experimental work was developed in the laboratory of Environmental Engineering at the “Centro Universitário Franciscano”, using sand as a filter for a water reservoir of 250 liters, with filter materials such as gravel, sand, and geotextil and a electrical water-pump to test the system of reverse flow. By the results obtained the maximum flow filtration rate estimated is 11,800 L h-1. The filter controls 100% of particles larger than 0.15 mm. Filtered water in 75% of particles not removed by the filter has diameter less than 0.075 mm. The filter also provides efficiency of 79.12% in the removal of turbidity, 77.04% of color, electrical conductivity and 55.86% in 85.96% of total solids.