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Numerous techniques of water filtration are in use today, most of which involve the use of sand as the porous media. After preliminary research revealed a lack of information on foam filtration, our team has decided to focus on investigating the actual filtering capacity of a polyurethane foam material as opposed to the traditional method of sand filtration. With proper implementation, a foam filter could reduce the amount of water that is wasted during the backwash cycle of a traditional sand filter. A foam filter could also potentially require less area, and be less expensive to build than a traditional sand filter. However, a foam filtration unit will also require a tight seal with all of the edges of the tank, in order to avoid preferential flow paths which will result in unfiltered water. In addition, a foam filter will likely require manual maintenance by the plant operator.
With these advantages and cautions in mind, we have considered a number of different designs which could provide the desired standard of 1 NTU effluent water turbidity.
(Include your disadvantages here too or include a separate section in your wiki to compare and contrast sand filter and filter foam including cleaning)
Foam Filtration Current Research
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Currently, we are testing the filtering capacity of foam under the worst case lab conditions, which consists of filtering water containing unflocculated clay particles. This represents the worst case senarioscenario, because the particles are small and uncoagulated. We would like to test the filtering capacity of the foam under conditions that are more reflective of conditions in an AguaClara plant. This involves adding alum and a rapid mix tube to our system, in order to produce larger particles, which will then lead to, hopefully, higher levels of colloid removal.
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