Biological plants are indicated for the purification of domestic and/or industrial waste, if assimilable to the domestic ones. Biological depurative typologies, for the treatment of civil waste, can be schematized as follows:
- Active sludge plants, based on the purification carried out by a suspended bacterial mass. They have been successful for a long time for their great running elasticity, the relatively reduced room they need and its sufficiently reasonable expenses.
- Percolator filter plants, based on the purification carried out by a bacterial mass and other organisms developing on a fixed support.
- Biodisk plants, based on the essential scheme typical of percolator filters, they use, as a support for the bacterial mass, suitable disks in plastic material, put in rotation and partially immersed in the effluent to be treated.
- Diaphragm plants come from the combination of the active sludge traditional process and filtration on partially impermeable membranes process.