Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

Fiber filter as an alternative to the process of

flocculationsedimentation for water treatment
J.J. Leea, J.H. Chab, R. Ben Aimc, K.B. Hand, C.W. Kimb*
a

Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology, Sydney, P.O. Box 123 Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
b
Department of Environmental Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 609-735, Korea
Tel. +82 (51) 510-2769; Fax +82 (51) 515-5347; email: cwkim@pusan.ac.kr
c
LIPE/INSA, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31078 Toulouse Cedex 04, France
d
NanoEntech, 7F Seogeon B/D, 1480 Gwanyang-dong, Dongan-gu, Anyang, Gyeonggi, Korea

Received 10 June 2007; accepted revised 1 November 2007

Abstract
The conventional treatment for production of drinking water from surface water generally consists of coagulation,
flocculation, sedimentation and sand filtration. One of the main disadvantages of the conventional process combining
sedimentation and filtration is the rather long residence time. This is mostly due to the flocculation and sedimentation
phases (typically 2 h). The fiber filter recently developed has been very successful for the tertiary treatment of
biologically treated sewage effluents (more than 2 millions m3/d treated by this technology in Korea). In this paper,
a different application of this filter to drinking water production was tested. In this case, the fiber filter (with in-line
coagulation) was used as an alternative to the process of flocculation and sedimentation. Even though the first
design of the fiber filter showed good removal efficiency, the filter was modified in order to improve its performance
commensurate with the tightening of regulation on the water quality regulation. In this study, the filtration efficiency
of the newly designed filter was estimated using a range of filtration velocities from 60 to 100 m/h and a small
dosage of coagulant (13 mg/L) injected in-line. The polymeric coagulant (PAC: 11% as Al2O3) was used during
this experiment. The optimal operation conditions were determined based on the performance and filtration time.
Through these experiments, it was shown that the new fiber filter design was very efficient for particle removal at
a filtration velocity of 60 m/h (1500 m3/d) and 1 mg/L coagulant dosage, and these were considered as the optimal
operating conditions. Through the direct suspended solids (SS) measurement it was verified that backwash efficiencies
were also very good.
Keywords: Deep bed fiber filtration; Fiber filter; In-line coagulation; Surface water treatment; Alternative to the
process of flocculationsedimentation for water treatment
*Corresponding author.
Presented atInternational Workshop on Membranes and SolidLiquid Separation Processes, INSA-Toulouse, France
11 July 2007
0011-9164/08/$ See front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2007.11.051

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J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

1. Introduction
When producing drinking water from surface
water, coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation processes are generally applied [1]. This is
the case not only for removing most of the suspended solids which could clog the filter and
shorten the filtration period, but also for removing undesired organic and inorganic pollutants and
particles causing the color of potential sources of
organic-chlorinated compounds [2,3]. In place of
coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation, direct filtration (in-line coagulation ahead of a dual
media filter) has already been proposed [4,5].
However, due to rather small porosity of sand filters, this was limited to the treatment of raw water with low turbidity (dams, for instance).
The fiber filter has been developed recently,
and its efficacy for the tertiary treatment of wastewater has been proved during the last few years.
Several wastewater treatment plants (more than
2 million m3/d) in Korea are now equipped with
the fiber filter for obtaining treated water of high
quality (turbidity less than 2 NTU, COD less than
10 ppm) [6]. More recent results have shown that
this fiber filter could be used for drinking water
production [7]: not as an alternative to the sand
filter, but as an alternative to the coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation process).
Even though the results obtained were quite
good, the design of the filter was modified in order to improve the performance for complying
with the stricter water quality regulation.
In this paper, a field-scale version of the modified filter was operated with an in-line injection
of a coagulant for the treatment of natural surface
water (Nak-dong River). Polymeric aluminum
chloride (PAC) (11% as Al2O3) was selected as
coagulant on the basis of a previous study [7].
The filtration efficiency was measured in a range
of filtration velocities, from 60 (1500 m3/d) to
100 m/h (2400 m3/d) and PAC dosages (from 1 to
3 mg/L). Through these experiments, it was expected that the optimal operation conditions would
be determined. A mass balance of SS could be

made thus allowing a direct estimation of the effectiveness of the backwashing process.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Field-scale fiber filter plant
A field-scale fiber filter with an inside diameter of 650 mm and a height of 1500 mm was
installed as shown in Fig. 1.
Polyamide (nylon) fibers of 30 m were used
as filter media. The packing density of the fiber
was 80 kg/m3 and the porosity was 93%. The filter media was packed parallel to the vertical axis
of the fiber filter and the U-shaped bundles of fibers were fixed to a perforated plate at the bottom
of the filter. The filtration direction was partly
radial from the periphery of the filter in its lower
part to the axial perforated tube collecting the
treated water. Coagulants were directly injected
by a peristaltic pump to the feed pipe through a
static mixer. Coagulation began inside the inlet
pipe and the two phenomena of floc growth and
retention occurred inside the filter.
2.2. Materials
Nak-dong River water was used as influent
water without pre-treatment. The turbidity of the
water ranged from 6.5 to 11.5 NTU, and the chlorophyll-a (characteristics of algae) concentration
was between 11.5 and 41.2 g/L during the study
period. The pH was not controlled as it varied in
a proper range for coagulation with an average
value of 7.2.
PAC (11% as Al2O3) (poly aluminum chloride,
[Al2(OH)nCl6n]m) was selected as the coagulant
based on a previous study [7].
2.3. Operating conditions
To determine the proper coagulant dosage, an
initial experiment was conducted at a filtration
velocity of 80 m/h, which has been previously
identified in the mid-range of velocity suited for
drinking water production [7]. The coagulant dos-

J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

325

Backwashing Water

Valve-3

Filtrate Water

Valve-2

On- line
turbidity meter
In- line
injection
Coagulant

Static inline
mixer

Compressor

Raw water
Air
receive
tank

Air

Nak- dong
river

Valve-1

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the field-scale fiber filter.

age was increased gradually from 1 to 3 mg/L

(Table 1).
Next, each coagulant dosage was used to evaluate the effect of raw water turbidity on the filtration run time until turbidity breakthrough (1 NTU).
During these experiments, the results were compared with a blank test (without a coagulant).
After the proper PAC dosage was determined,
a set of experiments with various filtration velocities was performed to confirm the optimal filtration velocity. Three filtration velocities namely
60 m/h (the minimum economic filtration velocity), 80 m/h (the established filtration velocity),

and 100 m/h (the maximum filtration velocity allowed by the influent pump) were used in this
experiment. Each filtration velocity was tested to
evaluate its effect on the effluent turbidity and
filtration run time until turbidity breakthrough.
2.4. Backwashing conditions
General filtration processes are divided into
filtration and backwashing processes. Backwash
process is used to recover the retention capacity
of the filter. Filter backwashing, based on the collapse-pulsing phenomenon studied by A. Amirtha-

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J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

Table 1
The values of the coagulants dosages during this study

Filtration velocity

Coagulants
PAC (mg/L)( 11% as Al2O3)

80 m/h

0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3

ventional coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation system. The second advantage is the smaller
dosage of coagulant compared to the actual dosage in the existing plants. For a turbidity of the
raw water of about 10 NTU, the present coagulant dosage (PAC: 11% as Al2O3) is in the range
1020 mg/L.
3.1. Determination of the optimal coagulant dosage
3.1.1. Filtration duration time and effluent
turbidity

Table 2
Backwashing conditions with air and water injection times
Total backwashing time: 5 min 43 s (343 s)
Numbers of backwashing stages:
14 times

Rinsing

Air

Water

Water

7s

15 s

35 s

rajah [8,9], was performed using water and air

intermittent injection.
In our study, water and air backwash were
operated sequentially (7 s of air injection followed
by about 15 s of water injection). This sequence
was repeated up to 14 times (total backwashing
time 5 min 43 s). Finally, rinsing for 35 s was
conducted following air and water injection.
Table 2 shows the backwashing conditions which
were applied in this study.

A filtration velocity of 80 m/h was selected to

determine the optimal coagulant dosage. First, filtration was conducted without coagulant. The lowest value of the turbidity during the experiment
of 80 min duration was 2.5 NTU. This proves that
without a coagulant the filter was unable, in that
condition, to reach the requirement of 1 NTU.
Thus, it is necessary to use a coagulant.
Different experiments using increasing coagulant dosage (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 mg/L) were performed
with on-line monitoring of the turbidity of the filtered water (Fig. 2). As in the case of sand filtration, there is an initial period during which the
turbidity decreases (filter ripening). Then, the turbidity starts increasing. The duration of the filtration before reaching the critical value of 1 NTU
was measured and is reported in Table 3.
It can be concluded that the best dosage of
coagulant is the smallest tested (1 mg/L). An increase of the coagulant dosage above the optimal
value increases the SS content at the inlet of the

3. Results and discussion

In conventional water treatment process, the
turbidity of the settled water before sand filtration is about 1 NTU. The purpose of this study is
to examine the feasibility of using a fiber filter as
a first step in place of coagulationsedimentation.
One of the main advantages is the compactness
of the new process. The residence time in the fiber filter is at least 100 times less than in the con-

Table 3
Filtration time till reaching the turbidity of 1 NTU in the
treated water
Coagulant dosage (mg/L)

1.5

Filtration time (min)

(till reaching the turbidity
of1 NTU in the treated
water)

100 80

2.5 3

60

50

50

J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

327

Fig. 2. Effluent turbidity with various coagulant dosages.

3.1.2. Removal of particles

The particle size distributions (PSD) with coagulant dosages are shown in Fig. 3. It can be
seen that the raw water has a well-defined peak in
the distribution at about 8 m. Without coagulant
injection, the retention of particles is small. The
removal efficiencies are improved by coagulant
injection for all particle sizes. These results confirm the coagulation capacity of PAC even at low
dosage.
It should be noted that this comparison is made
between the PSD of raw and treated water. In fact,
at the inlet of the filter the PSD is different from
the raw water due to in-line coagulation. However, we did not characterize the water just ahead
of the filter.

filter due to the precipitation of aluminum hydroxide. This explains the decrease of filtration time.
A filtration time of 100 min corresponds to
about 130 times the hydraulic residence time
(HRT) in the filter. This value is similar to the
value observed in conventional sand filters for
which the residence time is about 10 min.

Fig. 3. Particle size distributions with various dosages of

coagulants.

3.1.3. Suspended solids (SS) removal

Fig. 4 shows SS removal with various dosages
of coagulants. Without a coagulant the retention
efficiency is about 65%. If a coagulant is injected,
we can get more than 90% removal efficiency
regardless of the coagulant dosages. The best result is obtained for a coagulant dosage of 2 mg/L
of PAC but is little different from the result with a

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J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

100

14

12
90

70

80

Removal efficiency(%)

SS(mg/L)

10

60
2
0

50
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

Coagulant dosage(mg/L)

IN

OUT

Efficiency

Fig. 4. Suspended solids removal with various dosages

of coagulants.

dosage of 1 mg/L (previously identified as the

optimal value for the duration of the filtration
period before breakthrough).

The fiber filter (with in-line coagulation) was

evaluated to be used as an alternative to the conventional process of flocculationsettling for water treatment plants. This is why a comparison was
made with the treated water of a plant (water treatment plant D in Y city) using conventional flocculation-settling operation. The results of total
particle counts (TPC) and suspended solids (SS)
are shown in Fig. 5. They prove the greater efficiency of the fiber filter. Furthermore, the dosage
of the coagulant is lower with the fiber filter thus
resulting in a lower operation cost and smaller
sludge production.
3.3. Influence of the filtration velocity on the removal efficiency
From the above experiments, the coagulant
dosage was chosen at 1 mg/L. With this dosage,

3.2. Comparison of the effluent quality between

the fiber filter and the conventional process of
flocculationsedimentation

Fig. 5. Comparison of TPC and SS in the treated water

between fiber filter conventional treatment process.

the influence of filtration velocity (in the range

60100 m/h) on the removal efficiency and the
filtration duration time was studied.

J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

0.30

0.25

6
0.20

5
4

0.15

0.10

P re s s u re (k g f/c m 2 )

Backwashing period

T u rb id ity (N T U )

As expected based on previous study [10], the

filtration duration time before breakthrough (turbidity less than 1 NTU) decreases when the filtration velocity increases as shown in Fig. 6.
Despite that, the productivity increases with
faster filtration velocity as shown in Table 4.

329

145 min.

0.05

set 1

0
0

160min.

60

120

set 2

180

240

300

0.00
360

Sampling time(min)
Influent

Effluent

Pressure

Fig. 7. Variations of turbidity and inlet pressure during

two successive filtration cycles.

Fig. 6. Variation of filtration duration time and turbidity

with filtration velocity.

Table 4
Variation of productivity with filtration velocity
Filtration velocity
(m/h)

Productivity
(m3/h)

Productivity
(m3/m2d)

60
80
100

18.2
24.2
30.2

1320
1750
2200

3.4. Backwashing efficiency

The variations of pressure and turbidity increase with time during two successive filtration
cycles are plotted in Fig. 7. It can be seen on Fig. 7

that the initial values of the pressure are nearly

the same.
Looking at the duration of the filtration periods, it can be seen that it is nearly the same or
even longer after backwash. This proves the effectiveness of the backwash operation between
two successive filtration cycles.
3.5. Continuous operation
To estimate the stability of filter operation, a
continuous operation was performed for 10 h.
Fig. 8 shows the variations of turbidity and inlet
pressure during this continuous operation. It can
be observed that backwashing was efficient
enough for getting the same initial value of pressure and similar duration time of filtration.
The mass of SS contained in the backwashed
water has been measured and the results are reported in Table 5. This is an additional proof of
the effectiveness of backwashing operation.

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J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

Table 5
Calculation of the detached suspended solids after backwashing at each set for the continuous operation

Filtration duration time (below 1 NTU)

Mass of the SS in influent
Mass of the SS in effluent
Mass of the retained SS in filter (+ previous
retention mass in filter after backwash)
Mass of the SS in backwashed water
Remaining mass of SS in filter after backwash

Set 1
(First filtration)

Set 2
(Second filtration
after first backwash)

Set 3
(Third filtration after
second backwash)

160 min
412 g
47 g
365 g

180 min
444 g
56 g
388 g + 1 g= 389 g

175 min
440 g
60 g
380 g + 3 g = 383 g

364 g
1g
(0.3% of mass of
SS in filter)

386 g
3g
(0.7% of mass of
SS in filter)

381 g
2g
(0.5% of mass of SS in
filter)

Backw ashing period

0.35

T u rb id ity (N T U )

0.25
0.20

4
0.15
0.10

160 min

180 min

P re s s u re (k g f/c m )

0.30

175 min
0.05

0
0

110

220

330

440

0.00
550

Sampling time(min)
Influent

Effluent

Pressure

Fig. 8. Variations of turbidity and input pressure for the

continuous operations.

4. Conclusion
The following conclusions were drawn for a
better adaptation of the filter to the production of

drinking water from this study on the potential

use of the fiber filter as an alternative to the conventional process of flocculationsedimentation:
1) With an in-line addition of 1 mg/L PAC,
the fiber filter could meet the standard of coagulation, flocculationsedimentation of 1 NTU. The
filtration operation could be maintained for about
100 min and 180 min at filtration velocities of
80 m/h and 60 m/h, respectively. The coagulant
dosage of 1 mg/L represents very economical efficient conditions of filtration.
2) Although particles are efficiently removed
by fiber filter (mostly particles larger than 5 microns), the head loss is small compared with conventional sand filtration.
3) The fiber filter with in-line injection of polymeric coagulant is able to replace the conventional
step of flocculationcoagulation in drinking water production of surface water. Its main advantages are the small dosage of coagulant and the
very short residence time (about 1 min).
4) Despite more frequent backwashing than
conventional rapid sand filter, the productivity is
high and the production of backwash water is
small (about 3%).
These conclusions are valid for treatment of
surface water where the turbidity is less than

J.J. Lee et al. / Desalination 231 (2008) 323331

10 NTU. The behavior of the filter during peaks

of turbidity or periods with higher turbidity will
be tested in the future.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean
Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2007-357D00145).
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