28 | May/June 2011 | ME 28 | May/June 2013 | ME

Large Scale
Media Filter
Refurbishment
INTRODUCTION
A
ny large scale industrial and manufacturing plant
will have a substantial number of media lters to
service and maintain which, for a multitude of rea-
sons, may need extensive refurbishment in order
to bring them back to optimum performance.
Recently, water ltration engineering specialist
Industrial Purication Systems (IPS) was called upon to
evaluate the media lters installed in a large scale steel
works - which were inexplicably void of lter media - and to
instigate a planned schedule of refurbishment works. The
following case study describes the refurbishment process
and explains why particular works were carried out.
THE PROJECT
The project was to refurbish the steel works ve
existing sand lters, which were located outside and
comprised ve steel fabricated vessels, each approximately
three metres in diameter. They were equipped with 600mm
(approximately) inspection manholes located at the
uppermost and lowermost levels to enable maintenance
work to be carried out. The system was last refurbished
approximately eight years ago when the control valves, lter
bed nozzles (560 per vessel) and sand were replaced.
Following an inspection, three of the ve vessels were
found to be void of lter media and two vessels had very
little media remaining (approximately 500mm). Therefore a
total overhaul of the sand lters was required.
The refurbishment also included the conversion of the
operation of the lters to lter glass to improve water quality,
and it was decided that the conversion process should
entail removing all the lters from service so that this work
could be undertaken.
SCOPE
The following works were initially scheduled for each
vessel:
It was anticipated that industrial cleaners would be in
attendance to remove the existing media and clean
out the flter vessels prior to inspection.
Replacement of any damaged plastic nozzles and their
close inspection.
Redesign of the flter bed to incorporate flter glass.
Approximately one day to remove existing spades in
one of the vessels (named vessel 4).
One day to fll each vessel with water (for cushioning)
and load the flter glass (three layers) and seal the
hatches.
Carry out fabrication repairs to one of the vessels
(named vessel 4) where the air discharge pipe had
failed and dropped from its location damaging the
backwash inlet valve
F I LT E R MA I NT E NA NCE
Continued on page 30
Figure 1 Following nal installation of all the cleaned or
replacement nozzles
Figure 2 the media loading process commenced
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Continued from page 28
F I LT E R MA I NT E NA NCE
ADDITIONAL WORKS
It was believed the existing media was
missing due to a number of reasons, one being that
the backwash water ow was too high. To address
this issue the following was carried out
1. Installation of a line sized valve to control the
backwash fow from the backwash pump. The
valve was installed in a location to serve all the
pumps associated with the backwash fow and
was of the type suitable for this application
(not butterfy) The valve was installed in a
location adjacent to the existing platform next
to the backwash discharge pit
2. The line was installed in a straight run of pipe
with approximately 1 metre of pipe either side,
with the valve used being suitable for setting
and lo cking off at a mid-set point.
3. It was agreed that, due to the flter system
having been removed from service and
continuous works being viable, that the
work required to repair vessel 4 would be
considered part of the refurbishment program.
DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE SWITCH
This had ceased to function on the existing
system and was replaced by a custom made
controller (manufactured by IPS) utilising the latest
in electronic components. Feed lines and isolation
valves were also replaced.

REFURBISHMENT WORKS
On inspection of the empty vessels a
number of undamaged nozzles were removed and
destroyed to test for aging and brittleness. The
nozzles integral strength was discovered to be
acceptable however it was found that they were
extremely contaminated with a scale like material
and nozzle slots predominately blocked. Later
analysis identied the material as Calcium Fluoride.
Identication of other nozzles in a similar
condition resulted in a decision to remove all the
nozzles (totalling 2800) for manual cleaning. This
meant additional working hours so the project could
be delivered on time.
In total, 830 new nozzles were needed to
replace the damaged or broken nozzles resulting
from the removal and cleaning process.
The air release pipework in vessel 4 was
repaired by rstly removing the backwash in valve,
jacking the pipework back into place and xing
Figure 3 Vessel internal showing installed nozzles and pea
gravel prior to levelling
Figure 4 The second stage comprised 9 m2
of a 6-3mm grade
Figure 5 Final layer of 7 m2 was loaded
with a grade of 3-1mm plus a smaller added
fraction specied by IPS to match the original
media blend. A 20% freeboard was left to
allow for expansion of the lter glass during
backwash
Figure 6 A ow control valve was added
to the backwash line so the backwash ow
could be metered to prevent wash out of the
top glass layer.
including the manufacture of additional
support brackets.
COMMISSIONING
The ve vessels were individually
commissioned with the upper lids off so the
backwash and air scour process could be
observed. The backwash control valves were
set at ve complete turns from fully open to
achieve the required ow rate.
When the air scour was checked it was
found to be far too vigorous so blower volume
was adjusted on the ow valves located on
the blower outlets so a more controlled scour
was achieved.
The vessels were nally brought
back into service with the following system
settings:
differential pressure clean 0.4 barge :
Trigger 0.8 barg,
backwash valve setting fve complete
turns form fully open,
blower setting locked on outlet
valves and relating to individual blower
performance.
And it was also recommended that the
following service and maintenance
procedures be carried out at six monthly
intervals:
check levels of upper media (media
supplied ready),
recheck backwash fow rate,
recheck blower settings.
t: +44 (0)1744 811652 industrial-purifcation.co.uk