Sales of cartridges to filter solids from liquids will rise to over $15 billion next year.
The residential point of use segment will account for 27% of the total. This is the conclusion reached by the McIlvaine Company in its continually updated Cartridge Filters: World Market report.
More than 50% of the sales will be for commercial and residential applications. The pharmaceutical industry will be the largest industrial purchaser. Cartridges are used to separate products as well as to remove contaminants. Companies such as Pall and Millipore are large suppliers of product recovery filters.
The healthcare industry uses cartridges for purifying water as well as blood and other fluids. Municipal wastewater plants use very few cartridges. The reason is that cartridges are not self-cleaning. Most municipal applications involve removal of large quantities of solids. Filter presses and sand filters are, therefore, found to be more economical.
In recent years a cleanable version of the cartridge has been developed. McIlvaine has classified this category as automatic back-wash filters. Sales of these filters are modest presently but there is a longer term threat to cartridge suppliers. Another competing product is the bag filter. Both bag filters and automatic back-wash filters are included in a separate report.
