Filtration characteristics of threaded microfiber water filters

describes a filtering method using a “thead cassete” in which fine theads( 10μm in diameter) were wound over a rigid grooved base plate. Textile fibers are widely used for fine filtration in the disposable cartridge filter market. In this work the filtration mechanism of threaded microfiber water filters was characterized by testing the effect of filtration velocity, slurry concentration, particles size distribution (PSD) and filter pore size and porosity, on the filter performance. The filters exhibited high potential for treating water containing very fine particles. Repetitive cycles of efficient micronized CaCO3 slurry filtration followed by effective automatic filter cleaning were obtained. The high separation capability of the filter as well as its multiple reuse point out to the potential of recovering the filtered substance. Evaluation of the consumed filtration energy at various filtration conditions and filters characteristics indicated that the slurry concentration, filtration velocity, and filtration duration are the most energy consumed parameters. Optimization of the filtration process is required, taking into account the specific consumed energy per unit filtrate volume, the cleaning energy and downtime, filters footprint, and cost of the product water.