Did you know that only 3% of the water available on earth is fresh, of which only 0.5% is freely available for use? For generations, human beings have dug up wells, harvested rainwater, and filtered available water resources in an effort to make it fit for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use
Sediment Cartridge filtration is one such method used for eliminating suspended solids and pollutants from water. In industrial applications, it is often used as a pre-treatment to a reverse osmosis system.
What does a Cartridge Filter comprise of?
A cartridge Filter contains two units, namely the filter element and its housing. The housing is a hollow cylindrical casing, into which the filter element is inserted.
The cartridge filters itself is made from a synthetic material called polypropylene attached around a cylindrical core. Why Polypropylene? Because of its resistance to the growth of bacteria.
There are 3 types of Sediment cartridge filters based on its material and construction.
- Pleated Cartridge Filters - made from layers of pleated polypropylene media.
- String Wound Cartridge Filters - made from yarn woven in a honeycomb-shaped weave around the core
- Melt Blown Cartridge Filters - made from thermally bonded fibers around a rotating shaft
How does Cartridge Filtration work?
Cartridge filtration works on a simple principle like that of a sieve. When water passes through the filter element of the cartridge, it removes dirt, debris, and even microscopic particles from water. Filtered water, free from impurities flows out as product water, or to the next level of filtration.
The capacity of filtration depends on the pore size of the filter, which is measured in microns. The smaller the micron rating, the finer the particulate removed.
Sediment filters typically range from 1 micron to 70 microns. When cartridge filters are used in sequence, the filter with the biggest pore size is used first where larger sediments are removed, followed by the next one for finer filtration.
What are the benefits of using Sediment Cartridge Filters?
Cartridge filters are used in multiple residential, commercial, and industrial applications. Unlike multimedia filters, cartridge filters do not need to be backwashed. Some of the benefits of using cartridge filters are:
- They are compact and easy to install
- Cartridge filters are easy to maintain and replace
- They are often used as a pretreatment to an RO system.
- Cartridge filtration protects the system or membranes if used downstream
- And last but not the least, it eliminates heavy media handling and disposal
How do you maintain a sediment cartridge filtration unit?
Maintenance of sediment cartridge filters is much easier than multimedia or carbon filters as that there is no need for a back-washing step. Sediment cartridges are simply replaced if a noticeable drop in water flow or quality is noticed.
If the cartridge requires replacement too often, an alternate filtration method like multimedia filtration can be considered.
Some of the other noteworthy filtration methods use Carbon filters, Reminerlizing filter, PH neutralizer, Oil adsorption filters and ceramic filters.
String Wound Polypropylene Sediment Filter Cartridges by Advanced Watertek:
Here at Advanced Watertek, we've been winding our own string wound polypropylene sediment filter cartridges since 2017.
All Advanced™ string filters are manufactured in-house at our manufacturing facility in Dubai, using 100% USA origin, FDA approved polypropylene yarn. The machine room is specially designed to reduce levels of airborne particulates and organic foulants. This assures quality, purity, effectiveness, and consistency. Reach out to our team to know more about our cartridge filters.