INDEX

CONTENT PAGE NO.

INTRODUCTION 5

FILTER MEDIA 6

FILTERING FORCE 7

FILTER TYPES 7

SPECIAL TECHNIQUES 12

CONCLUSION 13

BIBLIOGRAPHY 14

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INTRODUCTION
Filtration, the process in which solid particles in a liquid or gaseous
fluid are removed by the use of a filter medium that permits the fluid
to pass through but retains the solid particles. Either the clarified fluid
or the solid particles removed from the fluid may be the desired
product. In some processes used in the production of chemicals, both
the fluid filtrate and the solid filter cake are recovered. Other media,
such as electricity, light, and sound, also can be filtered.

The art of filtration was known to early humans, who obtained clear
water from a muddy river by scooping a hole in the sand on a river
bank to a depth below the river water level. Clear water filtered by
the sand would trickle into the hole. The same process on a larger
scale and with refinements is commonly used to purify water for cities.

Water from inlets located in the water supply, such as a lake, is sent to be mixed, coagulated, and
flocculated and is then sent to the waterworks for purification by filtering and chemical treatment. After
being treated it is pumped into water mains for storage or distribution.

The basic requirements for filtration are:

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(1) a filter medium

(2) a fluid with suspended solids

(3) a driving force such as a pressure difference to cause fluid to flow

(4) a mechanical device (the filter) that holds the filter medium,
contains the fluid, and permits the application of force.

The filter may have special provisions for removal of the filter cake or
other solid particles, for washing the cake, and possibly for drying the
cake. The various methods used for treating and removing the cake,
for removing the clarified filtrate, and for creating the driving force
on the fluid have been combined in various ways to produce a great
variety of filter equipment.

Filter Media

Filter media may be divided into two general classes:

(1) thin barriers, exemplified by a filter cloth, filter screen, or

common laboratory filter paper

(2) thick or en masse barriers, such as sand beds, coke beds, porous
ceramics, porous metal, and the precoat of filter aid which is often
used in the industrial filtration of fluids that contain gelatinous
precipitates.

A thin filter medium offers a single barrier in which the openings are
smaller than the particles to be removed from the fluid. A single thin
filter medium usually is satisfactory if the layers of solid particles that
accumulate on the medium produce a porous cake that is permeable
to the fluid. If the filter cake is gelatinous or the particles are soft and
compressible, rather than firm, the filter cake may “blind”; that is,
the pores in the cake may close and stop filtration. If this happens, a
filter aid or a thick filter medium such as the sand bed may be used.

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Contrary to the situation with the thin medium, the pores in a thick
filter medium such as a sand bed may be appreciably larger than the
particles to be removed. The particles may travel for some distance
along the tortuous path of the fluid through the medium but sooner or
later will be entrapped in the finer interstices between the particles
that constitute the filter bed. In this way the soft particles removed are
distributed over a volume of filter medium that is sufficient to prevent
blinding and stoppage of filtration. After solids accumulate the beds
may be backwashed with clear fluid to clean the bed.

Filtering Force

The fluid to be filtered will pass through the filter medium only if

some driving force is applied. This force may be caused by gravity,

centrifugation, application of pressure on the fluid above the filter, or

application of vacuum below the filter or by a combination of such

forces. Gravitational force alone may be used in large sand-bed filters

and in simple laboratory filtrations. Centrifuges containing a bowl

with a porous filter medium may be considered as filters in which

gravitational force is replaced by centrifugal force many times greater

than gravity. If a laboratory filtration is difficult a partial vacuum is

usually applied to the container below the filter medium to increase

the rate of filtration. Most industrial filtration processes involve the

use of pressure or vacuum, depending upon the type of filter used, to

increase the rate of filtration and also to decrease the size of the

equipment required.

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Filter Types

Filters may be classed according to the nature of the driving force that

causes filtration (i.e., gravity filters, pressure filters, and vacuum

filters). They also are described according to mechanical

characteristics (i.e., plate-and-frame filters, leaf filters, rotary-drum

filters, top-feed filters, disk-type filters, sand-bed filters, and precoat

filters). Filters may operate on either a batch or continuous basis.

(Left) During the filtering step, wastewater from secondary treatment, still containing suspended
solids, pours from a trough and percolates through a filter bed made of porous media such as sand,
gravel, and anthracite. The filtered water is then piped away for disposal. (Right) In the
backwashing step, entrained solids are periodically flushed from the filter media by pumping filtered
water back through the assembly. The backwash water, carrying suspended solids, is returned to the
beginning of the wastewater treatment process.

The gravity filter is the oldest and simplest type. Gravity sand-bed

filters installed in city water plants are among the most common

filters. Such filters involve the use of tanks that usually are

constructed of concrete. At the bottom of the tank is a grating or false

bottom; above this is coarse gravel or crushed rock of graded size; at

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the very top are layers of quartz sand of uniform size. In industrial

filtrations crushed coke of graded size is used in lead-lined boxes to

filter sulfuric acid, crushed limestone of graded size is used for

alkaline liquors, and charcoal beds are used to purify organic liquids

by both filtration and adsorption.

Pressure or vacuum filters usually are used in industry in preference

to gravity filters. The driving force that can be supplied by pressure or

vacuum is much greater than gravity, thus permitting higher filtration

rates. Sand-bed filters are operated under pressure in closed vessels to

give high-capacity service. Pressure filters are routinely used in daily

life, such as in a vacuum cleaner with a dust bag or paper filter or an

automobile engine with an oil filter cartridge. Many industrial

operations involve the filtration of slurries that contain high

concentrations of suspended solids. Pressure or vacuum filters with a

thin filter medium such as a filter cloth or woven metal screen are

preferred for such service because filter beds fill exceedingly rapidly

when used with slurries that have a high solids content.

The most common type of pressure filter with a filter cloth is known

as the filter press. This is a batch-operated filter that is used when the

filter capacities involved do not warrant investment in more expensive

continuous pressure or vacuum filters. The plate-and-frame filter

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press requires the least floor space per unit of filtering area and

usually involves the lowest capital cost per unit of area. However, since

it is batch operated and must be loaded and unloaded manually the

labour costs are high, particularly in the larger sizes. There are many

different types of filter presses. In one design, recessed plates about 1

inch (2.5 cm) thick are assembled on a supporting frame with filter

cloths between the frames. The assembly is made tight by a screw

press at the end of the frame. Slurry is piped under pressure to each

cloth and supporting plate through ports usually located in the

corners of the plates. The clear liquid is removed through the recessed

channels and additional ports in the plates. After a filter cake has been

deposited on the cloth it may be washed by pumping water through

the filter. The plates are then separated and the filter cake is removed

manually.

Leaf filters are also used for pressure filtration on a batch basis. The

leaves consist of a centre section of coarse metal mesh that supports

the filter medium and permits the filtrate to escape. This centre

section is covered on either side with the filter medium, which usually

is a woven wire screen of appropriate mesh size. The leaves may be

circular or rectangular and are assembled on a frame with ports for

removal of the filtrate. The assembly is usually enclosed in a pressure

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vessel that also contains the slurry. After sufficient filter cake is

deposited on the leaves, the pressure is removed, the vessel opened,

and the leaf assembly with filter cake taken out. The cake is removed

by water spray or by applying air pressure to the filtrate line. The leaf

filter, as compared with the filter press, costs less to operate because of

the advantageous provisions for efficient washing and cake discharge

without removing the leaves.

Vacuum operation is used for most laboratory filtrations and for most

continuous filtrations used in industry. The rubber-hose connections

and glass equipment of the laboratory are much easier and safer to

use under partial vacuum than under pressure. Standard laboratory

filters include, among the most common, the standard conical glass

funnel lined with folded or fluted filter paper, the porcelain Büchner

funnel with a perforated flat bottom to support the paper, and the

Gooch crucible with a perforated bottom that is covered with a thin

bed of asbestos fibres to provide a filter medium.

The rotary-drum vacuum filter is used extensively in industry for the

continuous filtration of large quantities of slurries containing a high

content of suspended solids. The filter consists of a cylindrical drum

with internal divisions, ports and valves for application of the vacuum

and removal of the filtrate. The drum is covered with the filter

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medium, usually a woven wire screen or cloth, and is partially

submerged in a trough of slurry. The partial vacuum inside the drum

causes the filtrate to flow into the drum and out the ports, depositing a

filter cake on the surface of the drum. As the drum rotates, the cake

may be sprayed with wash water and then removed by scrapers. In

another design for continuous vacuum filters, an assembly of leaves

similar to those in the batch-leaf pressure filter is used instead of the

drum. The leaves provide greater filter area but have less

filtrate-handling capacity. In another design of the rotary drum

vacuum filter, the drum is surrounded with a hood supplied with hot

air that dries the filter cake. In this design the slurry usually is fed to

the top of the drum and is scraped off the bottom into a hopper.

Special Techniques

Filtration involves such a variety of fluids and solids that special

techniques are required in many cases. If the filter cake is extremely

compressible, gelatinous, or slimy and tends to blind the filter, a filter

aid of porous, easily filtered solids such as diatomaceous earth or bone

black may be added to the slurry to improve filtration.

In another technique used with very slimy precipitate, a layer or

precoat of filter aid, usually one to two inches thick, is deposited first

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on the drum of a rotary vacuum filter. Successive layers of the precoat

and slimy solids are then cut from the precoat bed as the filter rotates

to provide a new nonblinded surface to the slurry continuously. Highly

corrosive slurries used in some chemical industries and in the

processing of nuclear reactor fuels are difficult to handle. Special filter

media such as porous ceramics and porous stainless steels have been

used to handle these materials both in the laboratory and in industry.

Air and other gases are usually filtered continuously by causing the

gas to pass through a thick filter medium by application of pressure or

vacuum. In household air filters pressure is used and the medium in

the filter units may be several inches of glass fibres impregnated with

oil to retain the removed dust particles. These filter units are replaced

when they become plugged with dust.

CONCLUSION

Filtration plays an important role in water treatment process. It is the

process of separating solid particles from liquid particles. It may be

done through a complicated process with various machines or

equipment, but it may also be done in simple ways with the same

bottom line. Through the experiment conducted, we learned how

important filtration is. Filtration is not only done to remove solid

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particles but also it contributes to the overall efficiency of water

treatment process because it prevent clogging due to solid particles.

Without filtration, solid particles could clog the other treatment

process therefore stopping the operation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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