Commercial and Industrial Sediment Filters (Media Filtration) for Turbidity Removal

industrial sediment filters are the most cost effective solution for turbidity removal from water

50% more effective than standard Anthracite and Sand filters

Need some advice? We’re here to help.

Industrial sediment filters (media filters) are an effective filtration method for reducing turbidity caused by suspended particles.
Industrial sediment filters are typically designed to treat waters with quality problems such as high turbidity (>20 NTU), or high TOC (>4 mg/L). A typical turbidity removal filter will include coagulation, flocculation and granular media filtration

1. Industrial sediment filters: the most cost effective turbidity removal

Watercore industrial sediment filters for turbidity removal are specially designed for the removal of suspended solids in the 5 to 50 mg/L range where an effluent of less than 1 NTU is required and can double the performance of a sand filter, up to 100 times better at removing sub-5 micron particles.

Many water sources are turbid, containing suspended particles varying in concentration from a trace in deep wells to thousands of mg/L in some rivers. Suspended solids include fine sand, silt, clay, decomposed vegetation, bacteria, algae, and other microbiological organisms.

Most commercial, industrial and farm/irrigation applications require 0.5 to 1 NTU water quality to prevent turbidity-based fouling of membranes, heat transfer surfaces, ion exchange resins and irrigation nozzles. Turbidity removal is critical in these environments.

Sediment filters are often used in combination with other processes such as activated carbon filtration, or water disinfection. Selecting the correct sediment filter should be based on water analysis and assessment by a Watercore expert.

Watercore has extensive experience designing, manufacturing and servicing industrial water filters. We can offer a wide range of industrial water filtration systems including media filters, bag filters, disk filters and any other specialised industrial water filter.

2. Benefits of using Watercore sediment filters for turbidity removal

Watercore use activated alumino-silicate glass filtering media in all the sediment filters for turbidity removal. This media filters surface and ground water form rivers and bores providing drinking water quality with the following additional benefits:

Doubles the capacity of any existing sediment filter with a very little investment.
Lowers backwash water demand by an average of 50%.
Product water with at least 50% lower chlorine oxidation demand than an equivalent sand filter.
No-biofouling of the filtering media.
Minimal pressure differential across the filter (300 mbar @ 30 m/h).
Lasts for the life of the filtration system and doesn't need to be replaced.
Guarantees a quick return on investment.

3. Typical industries where water turbidity represents a problem

Watercore sediment filters for turbidity removal are the perfect solution for new industrial filtering units or when sand in any type of sand filter needs to be replaced. The alumino-silicate glass filtering media provides excellent results for:

Drinking water from all sources: surface water and bore water.
As a pre-treatment for any membrane process (reverse osmosis or ultrafiltration)
Industrial process water
Tertiary treatment of waste water
Cooling tower side-stream filtration

4. Water contaminants not removed by sediment filters

All water treatment methods have limitations and often a combination of different treatment are required for an effective outcome. Sediment filters or turbidity filters cannot remove dissolved organic or inorganic compounds, as they are only effective against particles in suspension. Hence sediment filters are not effective removing dissolves metals, nitrates, pesticides or disinfection by-products.

Colloidal matter, or suspended particles smaller in size than 1 micron, are too small to be filtered and will require coagulation and flocculation to form conglomerates large enough to be filtered by standard sediment filters.

In general, membrane microfilters are more effective than standard sediment filters for the removal of particles smaller than 2 microns, however membrane filtration is not appropriate for water with a high particulate load and a combination of different filtration methods is often required.

When the pore size of the filter medium is too small or the concentration of particles in suspension is too high, the sediment filter will soon be clogged and backwashing will be too frequent to achieve an acceptable filter performance. Watercore can help your business finding the appropriate sediment filter for your commercial or industrial application.

5. Our range of industrial sediment filters for turbidity removal from water

Model	Filtration Flow (m3/h)	Backwash Flow (m3/h)	Tank Dimensions D x H (inches)	Pipe Size
HR-SF22	0.9 (22 m3/day)	0.9 (22 m3/day)	8×44	3/4″
HR-SF30	1.2 (30 m3/day)	1.2 (30 m3/day)	9×48	3/4″
HR-SF36	1.5 (36 m3/day)	1.5 (36 m3/day)	10×54	3/4″
HR-SF44	1.8 (44 m3/day)	1.8 (44 m3/day)	12×52	1″
HR-SF65	2.6 (65 m3/day)	2.6 (65 m3/day)	13×54	1″
HR-SF75	3.2 (75 m3/day)	3.2 (75 m3/day)	14×65	1-1/2″
HR-SF88	3.6 (88 m3/day)	3.6 (88 m3/day)	16×65	1-1/2″
HR-SF115	4.75 (115 m3/day)	4.75 (115 m3/day)	18×65	1-1/2″
HR-SF145	6 (145 m3/day)	6 (145 m3/day)	21×62	1-1/2″
HR-SF200	8.2 (200 m3/day)	8.2 (200 m3/day)	24×72	1-1/2″
HR-SF256	10.7 (256 m3/day)	10.7 (256 m3/day)	30×72	2″
HR-SF400	16.5 (400 m3/day)	16.5 (400 m3/day)	36×72	2″
HR-SF580	24 (580 m3/day)	24 (580 m3/day)	42×72	2″
HR-SF630	26.5 (630 m3/day)	26.5 (630 m3/day)	48×72	2″
HR-SF1000	42 (1000 m3/day)	42 (1000 m3/day)	63×86	3″

6. Watercore : here to help removing turbidity from water

Filtering media, media depth, flow linear velocity, filter operational control and backwash method are essential parts in the design of commercial and industrial turbidity filters.

When deciding the right water treatment for your sediment filter, Watercore can help with a range of solutions that will improve the operational efficiency based on your particular needs.

7. FAQ: commercial and industrial turbidity filters in water treatment:

Automatic top-mount multiport control Valves

Our commercial and industrial High Rate Sediment Filters up to 55 m3/h come with an integrated top-mount multiport automatic valve with microprocessor and methods to initiate the backwash:

meter delayed
meter immediate
time clock delayed
pressure differential

Systems designed for capacities higher than 55 m3/h come with water feed and drain manifolds with independent PLC controlled valves.

Filtration Operating Cycles

The standard operation cycles in Watercore High Rate sediment filters are:

Filter: Normal filtering operation. Unfiltered water enters the sediment filter through the inlet port where suspended solids are filtered by the media bed. The filtered water exits the filter through the outlet port.
Backwash: Water flow is reversed across the filter bed to facilitate that suspended solids blocked by the filter bed during the normal filtration process be released and discharged to waste. In general we recommend backwashing to be initiated after an increase in pressure of 0.5 bar using the clean filter pressure as a reference. We recommend a backwash time of 4 to 5 minutes.
Rinse: Normal water flow with the drain valve open to settle down the filtering media after the backwash and remove last traces of foreign matter. Typical rinse times are 10 to 20 secs.
Hold (service): no flow across the filter.

Twin Alternating Filters for Continuos (no down-time) Operation

Critical systems and most industrial equipment require continuos operation which have no allowance for down-time periods for maintenance or fixing.

This is typical in industrial environments like water feeds for medium pressure boilers or reverse osmosis systems and is resolved with an automatic twin system where one unit always in service.

Watercore twin alternating sediment filters have been designed to provide a continuos water supply alternating the filters during backwash or whenever a maintenance task is required.

what is ntu and why is it used to measure turbidity

The most common measure of the amount of suspended solids in water is turbidity, which is a measure of the clarity of the water. Turbidity can be measured in many different ways but the most widely used is the nephelometric turbidity unit (NTU) which measures how much light is scattered by a water sample when placed in front of a light beam.

NTU cannot be used for colloids and particles smaller than 1 μm as they do not scatter light and are thus, not detected using turbidity measurements.