Filtration Is Key To Efficient Wastewater Management

Wastewater can be defined and handled in any number of ways, from industrial process water slated for return to the environment, to reclaimed irrigation tailwater used to water crops downstream, to state-of-the-art toilet-to-tap projects. But no matter what the source and what the use of the water, 21st century filtration technology will play a vital role in ensuring efficient wastewater management – and it will be increasingly important as water scarcity and regulatory pressure increase demands on wastewater managers.

As with any source water, there are two key questions to ask when it comes to filtering wastewater. What’s upstream? What’s downstream?

From upstream, of course, come the particles that must be removed. Municipal and livestock waste are likely to primarily contain organic particles, which tend to be deformable and thus may be difficult to capture with screens and very expensive to filter with cartridges or bags. In those cases, settling tanks and coagulants tend to be both effective and cost-efficient methods of removal. Industrial wastewater could contain a host of solids, both suspended and dissolved. In all cases, a particle size distribution (PSD) test is a very useful tool in determining the degree of filtration required and the filtration technology that could be most effective.