Types Wastewater Filtration System

Wastewater Treatment Plant Filtration System generally can be classified based on different designs, purposes and principal of operations. Throughout the years, quite a number of ideas on various setups were proposed in order to get the best efficiency and smooth running of the plant with minimal interruptions related to maintenance. Let’s look at some of the most common factors used to classify different types filtration unit.

Direction of Wastewater flow during Process Stage
Although downflow filter is one of the typical setup you can come across, these conventional type of filter has since been replaced with upflow type so that gravitational pull can act as a force to increase the filtration effectiveness. Generally, the upflow method is of better use especially when it comes to fine solid particles, which you intend to remove from the wastewater.

Types of Operation
Granular Media Filter can be grouped as either semi-continuous or continuous. The difference between those two units is that semi-continuous operation needs a servicing period that includes a backwash operation when the system loses its filtration capability due to blockage resulting from buildup of solid waste. In continuous mode, backwashing will occur during normal operation and as such, the system does not need to be stopped and thus can continue running without interruption.

Filter Media and Filter Bed Configuration
Wastewater Filtration System can also be segregated and identified based on different bed configurations and type of materials used for the bed itself. Most commonly used setup usually has the filter media consist of multiple types of mixed bed material, which were selected and combined together to take advantage of each type of material effectiveness to increase overall efficiency. With mixed grain size, generally this will help towards allowing more available storage capacity to be used to achieve maximum filtration. In terms of configurations, there are pros and cons if one were to have different combination either by using small grain layer first going to large size or working backwards the other way round with large going to small.

Driving Force
Driving force used for the filtration process is also another consideration. Usually it can either be gravitational force or either using pump force to achieve a desired pressure rating. However, attention has to be given to size the pump accordingly or else, you might risk damaging the system and allowing solids to penetrate through the media going to the next stage of the treatment process. For more in-depth explanation related to the topic, let’s look at some of the design factor for trickling filter.



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