How does Ultrafiltration Work?

In comparison to conventional water treatment processes, the advantage of ultrafiltration as a filter technology is its outstanding ability to remove germs and microorganisms from water. At around 20 nm, the pores of the membrane are small enough to prevent even viruses from passing through them. The process itself is simple and safe to perform and does not require the addition of any further chemical disinfectants. One of the most critical requirements is that the membrane fibers do not break, since otherwise viruses and bacteria could escape and re-enter the water. It was precisely this issue of fiber breakage that was frequently seen as a problem when employing ultrafiltration technology in the past, since it led to corresponding downtimes in the operation of the water treatment plants and high operating costs. Now, however, the company inge watertechnologies AG has managed to successfully develop and produce its own membrane, which is capable of stabilizing the fibers to an extent that practically rules out the possibility of fiber breakage.

Ultrafiltration systems are designed for fully automatic operation. A control mechanism is used to control the various operating modes of the ultrafiltration process: filtration, cleaning and backwashing.