ABSTRACT
The Camden, South Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant has been using six Envirex microscreens since 1980 for removal of algal solids and BOD5 from aerated lagoon effluent. The media in these microscreens has been 1 μm woven polyester mesh. Problems have been experienced with early breaking of the polyester filaments along the supporting medium and with limited hydraulic throughput during periods of very high algal density in the influent to the microscreens. These problems led to replacement of the 1 μm media in one microscreen with 6 μm mesh material. It was hoped that the new media would have a longer operating life and also allow greater hydraulic flux at approximately the same removal rates for algae and BOD5. A side-by-side evaluation of these two media in full scale plant operation was the object of this project.
