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Side Stream Filters

Side stream filters are used to reduce the turbidity of cooling tower water in our plant. In order to avoid
any scale forming / fouling in exchangers, it becomes necessary to keep the turbidity in cooling tower low:
 Cooling water turbidity increases because of evaporation of water.
 Also because of entrapment of particles from atmosphere which come in contact with water.
So in order to keep the turbidity low either we have to blow down large quantity of water or to take a part of
cooling water, filter it and send back to the cooling tower.
Later method is cheap. Large blow down is not possible because of blow down water will contain chemicals
which cannot be discharged as such because of pollution problem has to be treated which in turn is very costly. So large
blow down leads wastage of costly chemicals along with pollution problem.
There are 11 Nos. of side stream filters for cooling towers in total. Each of 150 M3/hr capacity.
 Three filters for each Ammonia plant.
 Two for each Urea Plant.
 One for Power House cooling tower.

Operation: -
Before taking it in line for the first time Give the filter back: wash to take out the very fine particles of
dust. As the bed is already loose air scouring is not necessary.
 Open the back wash drain & back wash inlet valve
 Start the Back wash pump and adjust the discharge flow to 800 M3 / hr
 Back wash till clear water comes out of drain line.
 Close the drain line and open the vent to take off all air from the: filter
 Close the vent & back wash inlet valve.
 Stop the back wash pump.
 Open main inlet and outlet valves
 Adjust the flow to 150 M3/hr.

Back washing: -
 Close the outlet and inlet valve of the filter.
 Open the vent & back wash outlet valve and let the water drain when draining of water ceases closed the backwash
drain valve
 Start the blower & stop it after 3 minutes
 Again open back wash drain valve
 Start the back wash pump & open the back wash inlet valve.
 Adjust the discharge flow to 800 M3/hr.(Note: 150 M3/Hr air flow can also be maintained along with back wash
water .It will help in easily dislodging the mud out) and run it for 20 minutes
 Close the drain valve & then vent valve after taking out all air from filter.
 Open the main inlet and outlet valve and adjust the flow 150 M3/hr.
Note: keep on noting differential pressure across the filter and back wash it differential pressure reaches prefixed value.

Technical data: -
At 2% side streaming the flow through filters is
 1 Power Plant 150 M3/hr
2,3,4,5,6, For Ammonia 440 M3/hr for each 4
7 Plant phase.
8,9,10,11 Urea Plant: 290 M3/hr for each
phase
(Circulation flow ammonia 22,000 M3 / hr each, Urea 16,800 M3 / hr. each & Power 7,500 M3 / hr.)

Filter Specification: -

1. Type Horizontal dual media filters.

2. Total No. 11 ( 6 for & ammonia 4 for urea & 1 for Power Plant)
3. Inlet water rate 150 M3 / hr. for each filter max 300 M3 / hr.
4. Inlet water quality: Turbidity 60 ppm at 4.5 Kg/cm2
5. Outlet water quality: Turbidity 90-95 % removal
6. Filtration velocity: 8 m / hr max 16 m / hr.
7. Area 19 M3 / filter
8. Air scouring
a) Rate: 950 M3 / hr
b) Duration: 1-2 minutes
9. Back washing
a) Source service water / CT blow down
b) Rate 1000 M3 / hr
c) Duration 10 minutes
d) Velocity of backwash 30-35 m / hr
e) Water requirement 167 M3

Technical Data: -

Diameter of filter 2750 mm

Length: 7000 mm
Area 19 M2
Total area for filtration 209 M2
Sand bed size 0.5 to 1.0 mm
Anthracite 0.8 to 1.5 mm
Material of construction ASTM-SA –515 Gr.70
Design pressure 8 kg/cm2 g
Operating pressure 5 kg/Cm2 g
Hydro test pressure 12 Kg/cm2
Operating temperature 36°C
Design temp 60 0C
Filter BED Sand & Anthracite,

Filtering bed height in mm

Anthracite 520 mm
Sand: 380 mm

Back wash blower type Roof type

Capacity 1200 NM3/hr
Discharge pressure 1.5 kg/cm
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Anthracite permit a deeper bed filtration then sand owing to higher pore size after settling and length of filter run
therefore is considerably longer (However the outlet turbidity increases as suspended solids less than 0.3 micron size
escape from this bed.
Volume of sand / anthracite/ Filter 12.7 M3
Air velocity 50 m/hr.
Air velocity during back washing 5 – 7 m/hr.
Air flow during back washing 150 M3 / hr