Water Tretment: Precoat Filtration

WATER TRETMENT: PRECOAT FILTRATION

Precoat filtration is used to remove very small particulate matter, oil particles, and even bacteria from water. This method is practical only for relatively small quantities of water which contain low concentrations of contaminants.

Precoat filtration may be used following conventional clarification processes to produce water of very low suspended solids content for specific application requirements. For example, precoat filters are often used to remove oil from contaminated condensate.

In precoat filtration, the precoat media, typically diatomaceous earth, acts as the filter media and forms a cake on a permeable base or septum. The base must prevent passage of the precoat media without restricting the flow of filtered water and must be capable of withstanding high pressure differentials. Filter cloths, porous stone tubes, porous paper, wire screens, and wire-wound tubes are used as base materials.

The supporting base material is first precoated with a slurry of precoat media. Additional slurry (body feed) is usually added during the filter run. When the accumulation of matter removed by filtration generates a high pressure drop across the filter, the filter coating is sloughed off by backwashing. The filter bed is then precoated and returned to service. Chemical coagulants are not usually needed but have been used where an ultrapure effluent is required.

Softening

Precipitation softening processes are used to reduce raw water hardness, alkalinity, silica, and other constituents. This helps prepare water for direct use as cooling tower makeup or as a first-stage treatment followed by ion exchange for boiler makeup or process use. The water is treated with lime or a combination of lime and soda ash (carbonate ion). These chemicals react with the hardness and natural alkalinity in the water to form insoluble compounds. The compounds precipitate and are removed from the water by sedimentation and, usually, filtration. Waters with moderate to high hardness and alkalinity concentrations (150-500 ppm as CaCO₃) are often treated in this fashion.