Inclined plate settling for emergency water treatment: towards optimisation

Previous work revealed the potential of an inclined plate settler (IPS) for water treatment in emergency relief applications. Whilst preliminary data demonstrated the tested IPS prototype’s capacity to achieve stable turbidity reductions, further optimisation was warranted. This paper reports on the optimisation and preliminary field testing of an IPS prototype. Trials revealed that after system modification, treatment objectives with regards to turbidity reductions (i.e. < 5 NTU) could be achieved. Such positive results were largely due to the addition of a hydraulic flocculation (conditioning) stage.