Tertiary treatment for wastewater reuse based on the Daphnia magna filtration - comparison with conventional tertiary treatments.

Tertiary treatments are required to permit safe reuse of wastewater. The performance of a new biological tertiary treatment based on the filtration by a population of Daphnia magna was studied and compared with the performance of other conventional tertiary treatments such as coagulation-flocculation, settling tank, disc filtration, sand filtering and ultraviolet (UV) light. The analysis was based on the efficiency in the particle removal and Escherichia coli inactivation.

Filtering capacity of Daphnia magna on sludge particles in treated wastewater.

A great challenge in water reuse is the reduction of suspended particle concentration in wastewater. In particular the reduction of the presence of small particles in suspension which cause a cloudy appearance in the water and, which also make disinfection difficult. The present study evaluates the filtering capacity of a population of Cladodera (Daphnia magna) in secondary effluents from a wastewater plant.