Exclusive Agreement to Distribute Disk Filter System for Tertiary Wastewater Treatment in the US and Canada

The Ultrascreen disk filter will be distributed by Xylem under the company’s Leopold brand bringing another option from Xylem to customers who have a particular need for tertiary treatment to meet stringent requirements for both discharge and reuse applications. With tertiary treatment growing at a rate of six percent (BBC Market Research Report Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies: Global Markets) and water reuse increasing at seven percent (Global Water Intelligence, California State Water Resources Control Board and Texas Water Development Board) annually in North America, the agreement provides further opportunity for Xylem to expand into these markets and offers complete North-American channels to market.

Robert Wiley, Xylem’s product manager for the Leopold Ultrascreen disk filter, said, “The Leopold Ultrascreen disk filter provides ease of operation at the lowest life cycle costs in the industry. The system uses all stainless steel components, including the filtering mesh, which can last for over ten years, dramatically lowering the life cycle cost compared to other disk filters in the industry which rely on woven plastic mesh or felt material.”

The precision woven AISI 316L stainless steel screens are capable of handling high hydrostatic heads for increased hydraulic loadings and can be easily chemically treated to remove colloidal materials that permanently foul other disk media.

The patented ‘dynamic tangential filtration’ operating principle combined with stainless steel mesh construction, delivers exceptional performance at higher loading rates with unprecedented durability.

“The dynamic tangential filtration is due to the continuous screen rotation which causes the water and particles to approach the screens at an acute angle. This angle effectively decreases the screens’ opening size, trapping smaller particles while allowing higher hydraulic and solids loading rates than other disk filtration systems. The continuous disk rotation also produces a very stable forward flow rate, even during backwashing, enabling maximum ultraviolet (UV) efficiency. In addition, the Ultrascreen disk filter improves water transmittance, further enhancing UV disinfection performance. It also lowers chlorine or ozone demand, reducing costs,” continued Mr. Wiley.

The filter is validated by Title 22 California Code of Regulations to treat flows up to 16 gallons per minute/square foot (gpm/ft²) of filter area which is up to 2.5 times higher than the flow rates tolerated by other media disk filter systems, and is capable of handling spikes in total suspended solids (TSS) loading rates of up to 150 milligram/liter (mg/L) without clogging, as compared to 50-70 mg/L for cloth disk filters.

Being compact and modular, the filter system is simple to install and requires a minimum amount of space. The filter can be easily incorporated into a treatment system including upstream biological treatment and downstream disinfection to provide a most efficient and reliable multiple barrier solution. With multiple adjustable parameters including disk rotational speed, wash cycle timing and influent level in the feed zone, the Leopold Ultrascreen disk filter enables operators to meet a variety of operating conditions with maximum effectiveness.