This work consisted of study of operation of organic filters utilizing sugarcane bagasse and sawdust as filtering material. An experiment was carried out at the Experimental Area of Hydraulics, Irrigation and Drainage of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa. Columns with 1.0, 1.3, 1.6, 1.9 and 2.0 m of height were filled with the organic material for the swine wastewater filtering, with three replicates. Piezometers were installed for the head loss monitoring. The filters were operated during 100 to 150 min until the filtering rate was less than 0.2 L m-2 s-1. Removal rates between 90 to 99% for suspended solids (SS) and 43 to 53% for total solids (TS) were reached, using sawdust filters, and 81 to 96% for SS and 55 to 56% for TS, using canetrash filters. The filtration efficiency increased with time, due to gradual obstruction of the pores in the filter columns. The height of filter column did not alter significantly filter efficiency in removing SS.
filtering; filtering materials; residue treatment
