Granular Media Filtration Remains Popular

Despite inroads from cross-flow membrane technology, granular media filtration remains popular. Purchases of granular media filters will exceed $1.6 billion in 2014. They will constitute 25% of the $6.5 billion liquid macrofiltration market. This is the latest forecast in Liquid Filtration and Media World Market from the McIlvaine Company.

The McIlvaine Company report adds that microfiltration with cross-flow membranes is carving out market share. On the other hand, the total market is growing due to the need for wastewater reuse. One recent example is in Saudi Arabia.

As part of Saudi Arabia's continuing campaign to conserve water through reclamation and treatment, the Dhahran Utilities Department celebrated the completion of the Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWTP) expansion project. AWTP, located north of Dhahran, was expanded from 3 mgd to 10 mgd to accommodate growing demand. Twenty-four DynaSand filters supplied by Nordic Water Products were installed to provide tertiary treatment. Treated wastewater is used for irrigation.

The smaller Automatic Back Wash (ABW) filter market is growing faster than the granular media filter market. The reason is that these ABW filters are taking market share in the very large cartridge market. The ABW filters are self-cleaning. The continuous replacement of cartridges is costly and time consuming.

Belt filter presses continue to be the choice of smaller municipal wastewater treatment plants around the world. The other option is a centrifuge. The centrifuges are preferred by the larger plants due to their capability of processing large quantities of sludge in a single unit.

Bag filters are disposable as are cartridges but they can handle substantial quantities of contaminants before replacement is needed.

Drum filters remain popular in the mining industry. Filter presses are widely used in the chemical industry.