Why Innovative Uses For Pile Cloth Media Filters Are Multiplying

Pile cloth media (PCM) filters have a range of applications in wastewater treatment. Commonly installed as disk filters, PCM is most often used as a tertiary treatment step to remove contaminants, including total suspended solids and phosphorous, in order to help plants meet permit limits. PCM is also applied in many water reuse applications, particularly in California, Texas, and Florida, for tertiary treatment, nutrient removal, and protection of downstream equipment from solids. For operations that use UV disinfection, PCM is regularly employed to remove solids and other contaminants that could reduce the effectiveness of the UV light.

In recent years, wastewater and drinking water operations have struggled with increasingly complex or difficult contaminants, such as microplastics, micropollutants, algal blooms, and more. To address these issues, many wastewater and drinking water professionals have found new and innovative ways to apply PCM filters. This article will explain some of the increasingly popular applications for PCM, as well as how wastewater and drinking water professionals can go about testing their own ideas.