projects for example, or in leachate collection systems. They can
also be used in canals and channels that are downstream from
dredging operations, such as for the dewatering of sediments in
geotubes (Moo-Young and Tucker, 2002) and other geotextile containers
in one- (Kutay and Aydilek, 2004) and two-layer systems
(Kutay and Aydilek, 2005) Porosities are typically in the order of
90% and thus the rate of blocking should be decreased substantially,
reducing operational costs. Although recently, Korkut et al.
(2006) have investigated the use of geotextiles in wastewater as
baffles for biomass hosts and Yaman et al. (2006) investigated geotextiles
as biofilters. In this study, non-woven geotextiles were
used as filtration media in a filtration column to determine the
capability of using this kind of product for removal of suspended
solids in surface water.
Three different types of filters of different hydraulic permeability
were compared to sand filtration which had been previously
used in the floating vessel tests. Use of the geotextiles would facilitate
the operation of an in situ filtration. The objective of the work
was to evaluate the filtration efficiency of three types of geotextiles,
to compare them with sand filtration for removal of suspended solids
from surface water and to establish the design parameters. To
accomplish this, laboratory experiments using a floating filter and
water recirculation were conducted. River samples were used as
surface water and three fabric filters and a sand filter were compared.
Reduction of turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD)
and heavy metals were determined. The ultimate goal of the work
is to develop an in situ water treatment system for the rehabilitation
of contaminated surface waters such as rivers, lakes and ponds.