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Filtration 101
Making the Right Filtration Choice
There's no doubt that making the right filter choice for your plant can be a challenge. The right one can save you thousands in ROI, improve operational efficiencies, help protect the environment and decrease maintenance costs. The wrong choice can keep you from achieving optimum results.
In addition to removing the undesirable material from a liquid stream, the filter you select also needs to meet other criteria. Here are a few points to help you to achieve your filtration goals...
1) Installed costs must be weighed against operating costs.
2) Waste disposal costs must be considered.
3) Is continuous flow a requirement of the application, or can the filtration equipment be operated intermittently?
4) Is working exposure to the process liquid during filter cleaning or replacement a problem?
The particles being removed from a liquid process stream are as widely variable as the types of filters designed to remove them.
Contaminants being removed in potable water treatment applications are often molecular in size. However, many other filtration applications are concerned with the removal of specific trace solids from a liquid process stream. Surface-type filters using fibrous cartridges of mesh screens made of woven wire or fabric are often used in these
applications.
Filtration Methods:
When it comes to filtration methods, there are three basic filter types to consider in liquid processing:
1) Self-Cleaning Filters
2) Bag Filters
3) Cartridge Filters
Each category has advantages and disadvantages when compared with the others. And, each one addresses filtration challenges for different applications.
Self-Cleaning filters are typically most appropriate for applications where:
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Flow rates are high
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Filter media replacement costs are high, or
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Exposure of the process liquid to workers or the environment is undesirable.
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They can be used to remove suspended solids of approximately one micron and larger from all types of liquid process streams.
Bag and Cartridge filters can both remove suspended solids for applications with lower flow rates, where:
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Exposure to the process liquid is not a problem.
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Lower volumes of solids must be removed.
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Bag and Cartridge filters are roughly equivalent in price, although self-cleaning systems tend to cost more initially.
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Users should also consider the total operating costs of the filtration system, not merely the initial purchase price.
Overall, media replacement, disposal costs, labor costs, and downtime should all be included when evaluating filtration systems.
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