FILTER CLEAR LTD.

About Us

A specialist water treatment company based in Scotland and staffed by highly experienced professionals, Filter Clear owns the Spruce Filter™ system, an internationally patented and improved system and process for the removal of suspended solids and the elimination of pathogenic micro-organisms from water and wastewater on a commercially viable scale.

Filterclear are taking multi-layer deep-bed filtration to levels previously not thought possible and are actively looking to recruit a network of partners, distributors & agents throughout the UK & Europe; to licence other international territories and contract manufacture within key strategic territories.

Key advantages 

The Spruce Filter™ has many advantages over competing technologies:

• High flow rates (5 times faster than Rapid Sand)
• Natural media greater than 15 years life span
• High filter quality (>99.954% of particles down to 0.2 micron)
• Low pressure, simple to use
• Low tech for easy maintenance
• Integral low volume high speed backwashing
• Small footprint with high flow rates
• Fast return on investment
• Vastly reduced chemical use
• Excellent whole of life costs
• Systems can be mobile or fixed
• Filtered waste water will meet  EEC consent levels
• The media has DWI approval
• Is totally scalable and can operate by way of hand pumps for the smaller systems through to fully automated and sophisticated skid or in line systems

The SMF can also be used for pre-treatments (desalination, membrane filtration and reverse osmosis) and for specialist operations (precious metal recoveries, oil/water separation plants and iron/manganese removal). There are also many other industries where the technology could be applied e.g. fish farming, food processing, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, military, shipping.

Spruce Multi Layer Filter

The Spruce Multi-layer Filter (“SMF”) provides an improved system and process for the elimination of pathogenic microorganisms. The Spruce Multi-layer Filter (“SMF”) has been independently tested and shown to extract and retain over 99.954% of particle counts down to 0.2 micron without addition of polyelectrolyte or coagulant aid. The SMF can be provided in a range of sizes with flow rates of up to 180,000 liters per hour.

The SMF is the only product capable of being effective across the range of commercial requirements.

The filter operates as a dual method filter, removing solid matter by both mechanical retention and surface adsorption. The filter bed is made up of 4 layers of inert natural media that have an increasing density and a decreasing particle size.

As the media has a naturally high ‘Zeta Potential’ negatively charged microorganisms such as cryptosporidium and legionella are initially removed by the highly effective mechanical filtration layers and then supported by the surface adsorptive layer. The filter is cleaned by way of its unique self leveling, low volume backwashing system that uses 0.5 - 1.0% of the forward flow for 15 minutes. The filter deals with contaminate concentrations of up to 500 mg/litre – filtering to less than 0.5 NTU (officially classified as “ultra-clear”).

Cryptosporidium

The need for filtering water and waste in order to eliminate contaminates and pollution, including disease-causing pathogens such as Cryptosporidium oocysts, is becoming an increasing issue for many industries. Since its discovery in the early 1980’s, Cryptosporidium continues to pose challenges for the water and health sectors.

The parasite remains difficult to eradicate from water supplies despite many years of research. The number of fatal outbreaks of cryptosporidium in hospitals is well documented, and undermines public confidence.

Similarly, many water companies are unable to fully comply with the prescribed complete removal of oocysts from filtered water, and have the additional recent threats to address of terrorists attempting to contaminate the water supply deliberately.
Standards for some of the drinking water supplies in the UK remain doubtful “as safe to drink”, particularly for vulnerable groups.

Filter Vessels

Vessels & Flow rates

Full range of filter vessels: Our Filter Vessels are manufactured in 304, 316 Stainless Steel or GRP, depending upon the application. Maximum flow rates of 20 gallons per metre per foot squared; maximum figures calibrated at h20 temperature of 30 degrees centigrade:

Vessel Sizes (Dia)	Flow Rates (M3/h)
100mm	0.5
153mm	1.0
229mm	2.4
305mm	4.3
460mm	9.6
610mm	17.0
1m	46.0
1.2m	50.0
2.0m	180.0

Issues with Existing Filtration Technology

Membrane filters currently on the market are very effective for the removal of small particles from liquid but tend to clog easily and are therefore unsuitable for the removal of small contaminants from large volumes of liquid.

On the other side Depth Filters (e.g. rapid sand filters) are more suitable for the filtration of large volumes of water but are not sufficiently capable of eliminating oocysts such as cryptosporidium (which is between 4 and 10 microns in size).

Flow rates (volume) vs. Effectiveness of filter

The larger the volume, the less filtering technology is available to address the smaller contaminants. In environments such as hospitals, disaster zones and for the general water supply, volume is a key requirement.

New Filters

Each system can clarify suspensions up to contaminate concentrations of 500mg/litre while giving a final filtrate quality of less than 0.5NTU and remove will extract and retain over 99.954% of particle counts down to 0.2 micron without addition of polyelectrolyte or coagulant aid

Power options include:

• 240 V ac
• 24V dc
• 12V dc
• Manual – hand-pump

Typical Applications:

• Trade effluent, waste water
• Developing world, disaster zones
• Tertiary waste water treatment
• Surface & ground waters
• Bore hole water
• Public water supplies
• Pre-treatments (RO, desalination, industrial processes)
• Rain & grey water recycling
• Process water
• Process liquors and brine

Maintenance & Technical support

Filter Clear provides parts and maintenance support with new filters. We also have a design and technical support team to assist customers to understand the appropriate units and solutions for their requirements.