The primary treatment of swine wastewater can be done by filtration. To this end, the study of alternative materials as a filter media is necessary. With this objective, rice husk, coffee straw, sugar-cane trash, triturated corncob, wood sawdust and fine vegetable coal were used as media, conditioned in PVC tubes of 100 mm in diameter and 500 mm in height. The filtering system was maintained under saturated flow conditions. Little or no change was detected in the concentration of N-total, Ca, Mg and Zn in the effluent of the filter, although the concentration of P-total and K increased in the effluents of the filters of rice husk, coffee straw, triturate corncob, reaching a maximum removal efficiency of 43.6%. Removal efficiencies of sedimentable solids higher than 90.0% were obtained in all materials employed as a filtration media, although total solids removal efficiency was less than 33.0%.
pig wastewater; organic filters; residue treatment
