ANALYSIS OF FILTRATION SOLIDS LOADING CAPACITY USING CLOTH MEDIA FABRICS

For advanced solids removal from water and wastewater, cloth-filters are a viable technological alternative to the classic deep-bed porous media filters on one hand and micro-strainers on the other hand. Like micro-strainers, cloth-filters offer the advantages of continuous operation, lower head-loss, more compact design and lower investment costs in comparison to conventional sand filtration systems, while also giving a better retention efficiency than with micro-strainers. The use of pile fabrics for cloth-filtration instead of conventional needle-felt, or the woven monofilaments used for micro-strainers, solves the crucial problem faced by all filtration technologies using textile filter media: the significant increase in filter media resistance due to irreversible fouling. Cloth-filtration plants equipped with this material can permit considerably higher hydraulic and surface solids loading while achieving a separation performance on the same level reached by conventional deep-bed porous media filters. As the problem of clogging is solved, it becomes possible to use pile fabrics with even finer microfiber filament piles, which can further increase the effluent quality.