Abstract

OLIVEIRA BATISTA, RAFAEL et al. EFFICIENCY OF CHEMICAL TREATMENTS IN PREVENTING THE CLOGGING OF DRIPPERS BY APPLYING TREATED SANITARY SEWARAGE. Dyna rev.fac.nac.minas [online]. 2009, vol.76, n.160, pp. 149-157. ISSN 0012-7353.

The present work aimed to verify the efficiency of the chemical treatment on preventing drippers clogging, by applying treated sanitary sewarage. A platform for tests was built for this experiment, in order to supply four units of drip irrigation with treated sanitary sewarage, which was filtered in 120 mesh disc filter. Three different models of drippers were tested (M1, M2 e M3) for a period of 560 hours. In the chemical treatment, the concentrations of free residual chlorine of 0; 0.4; 1.0 and 1.9 mg L^-1 were tested. The results obtained led to the following conclusions: the treated sanitary sewarage applied via the drip irrigation system produced a biofilm, which resulted from the interaction between the colonies of bacteria and algae in the drippers. The application of chlorine in the treated sanitary sewarage hindered the development of the biofilm inside the drippers and the lateral lines; and drippers with a longer labyrinth and more than one secondary filter (M2 e M3) are more likely to face obstruction when they receive treated sanitary sewarage. The concentration of free residual chlorine of 0.4 mg L^-1 was more maintainable in the clogging prevention for biofilm in drip irrigation system operate with treated sanitary sewerage.

Keywords : chlorination; acidification; biofilm; emitters; uniform application of water.