Driven by growth in Asia, the market for macro liquid filtration equipment and media will rise to $4 billion in 2005 from $3.8 billion this year.
This revised forecast has just been published in the McIlvaine online report, Liquid Filtration and Media: World Markets. This market segment is the heavy-duty end of liquid filtration. It includes belt filter presses which dewater sewage sludge. It includes filter presses which separate chemical products from slurries. It includes granular media filters which purify drinking water. Also included are drum filters, leaf filters, automatic back wash filters, and bag filters.
The municipal water and municipal wastewater segments are the largest purchasers. China with its large program of expansion has forged ahead, and by 2006 will be the leading purchaser of granular media filters.
One of the fastest growing categories is the automatic backwashing filter. This category was limited by the metal elements which could only remove particles larger than 50 microns. The development of sintered metal elements allows these filters to be used for capture of particles as small as 5 microns. With this increased efficiency, they are finding use in drinking water purification and food processing. One promising new application is treatment of ship ballast water.
Source: SGC
