Vitens-Dunea NWO-TTW partnership puts sand filters in the spotlight!

By Jan Peter van der Hoek

Sand filters, widely applied technologies for drinking water treatment, have been around for centuries. These filters are well-known to effectively sieve suspended solids from surface waters, or from iron-containing groundwaters. Also, as slow filters with a fine sand fraction, these filters are known to remove pathogenic micro-organisms and organic material from the water. With over a century of experience, one might think we know everything about these filters, however surprisingly, only very little is understood regarding the biological and chemical processes that occur in them. The aim of Vitens-Dunea’s partnership with NWO-TTW is to increase our understanding of sand filters to increase operational efficiency, control and contaminant removal.

Two of the granted projects are being led by Sanitary Engineering colleagues. Prof. Jan Peter van der Hoek will investigate with Prof. Hauke Smit of Wageningen University of Technology the microbial ecology, in relation with the physical-chemical processes, in slow sand filters for identification of new design criteria. Dr. Doris van Halem will collaborate with Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht (Faculty of Applied Sciences) to investigate the interaction between iron, ammonium and manganese in groundwater filters.