Multimedia Filter

Pressure vessels with sand or other loose media are widely used in industrial filtration applications. During the cleaning cycle, called “backwash”, the bed is lifted (or “fluidized”) to loosen the filter media and release trapped dirt which is removed in the backwash flow. After the backwash cycle, the bed is allowed to settle before the filter is returned to service (i.e., normal flow). A “filter-to-waste” cycle is used following the settling to assure the filtration media has sufficiently re-stratified and that any loose dirt is removed from the underdrain / collectors.

Multimedia filtration refers to a pressure filter vessel which utilizes three or more different media as opposed to a “sand filter” that typically uses one grade of sand alone as the filtration media. In a single media filter, during the “settling” cycle, the finest or smallest media particles remain on top of the media bed while the larger, and heavier particles, stratify proportional to their mass lower in the filter. This results in very limited use of the media depth since virtually all filterable particles are trapped at the very top of the filter bed or within 1-2 inches of the top where the filter media particles have the least space between them. The filter run times are thus very short before the filter “blinds” or develops so much head pressure that it must be backwashed to avoid seriously impeding or stopping the flow.