Water filtration using nonwoven cartridge filter system

Abstract

A cartridge based fibrous filtration system has been designed and investigated. For the fibrous medium, needle-punch nonwoven structure has been selected and different nonwoven samples are analysed for the water purification. A series of different needle-punched nonwovens made of polypropylene have been produced by changing mass per unit area, needling density and fibre linear density. A chemical oxygen demand test has been employed to obtain the filtration efficiency (FE). The FE obtained for these samples ranges from 8.84% to 78.04% in purifying the reference water (mud water). It has been found that the FE increases with increase in mass per unit area and needling density (p < 0.01). Also, the filter media made of finer fibres displays higher FE than coarser fibre (p < 0.01). On examining the filter performance in multiple filtration cycles, it is found that the FE increases initially and finally reaches to a saturation value. A good correlation (<em>r</em>² > 0.95) has been found for the FE of each cycle with the air permeability, thickness and weight density of the loaded filter. The FE of the bare nonwoven (maximum FE) further improves (95%) by incorporating activated particles.