Filtration

Filtration occurs both in nature and in engineered systems; there are biological, geological, and industrial forms.

It is also used as a general term for macrophage in which organisms use a variety of means to filter small food particles from their environment.

Examples range from the microscopic Vorticella up to the basking shark, one of the largest fishes, and the baleen whales, all of which are described as filter feeders.

Methods of filtration vary depending on the location of the targeted material, i.e. whether it is dissolved in the fluid phase or suspended as a solid.

As a result, the apparatus and the solution used are heated to prevent the rapid decrease in temperature which in turn, would lead to the crystallisation of the solids in the funnel and hinder the filtration process.

[5] Gravity filtration is in widespread everyday use, for example for straining cooking water from food, or removing contaminants from a liquid.

In both straightforward laboratory filtrations and massive sand-bed filters, gravitational force alone may be utilized.

However, the depth filter is less prone to clogging due to the greater surface area where the particles can be trapped.

Alternatively, in engineering applications, such as swimming pool water treatment plants, they may be cleaned by backwashing.

Alternatively, the liquid may flow through the filter by the force exerted by a pump, a method commonly used in industry when a reduced filtration time is important.

Activated carbon is often used in industrial applications that require changes in the filtrate's properties, such as altering colour or odour.

This will prevent gelatinous-type solids from plugging the filter medium and also give a clearer filtrate.

Removal of solids, emulsified components, organic chemicals and ions may be achieved by ingestion and digestion, adsorption or absorption.

Because of the complexity of biological interactions, especially in multi-organism communities, it is often not possible to determine which processes are achieving the filtration result.

The use of biofilms in the biofiltration process allows for the attachment of desirable biomass and critical nutrients to immobilized support.

So that water may be reused for various processes, advances in biofiltration methods assist in removing significant volumes of effluents from wastewater.

[8] Systems for biologically treating wastewater are crucial for enhancing both human health and water quality.

To conduct a thorough investigation of the composition, diversity, and dynamics of biofilms, it also takes on a variety of traditional and contemporary molecular approaches.

Many of the protozoa are filter feeders using a range of adaptations including rigid spikes of protoplasm held in the water flow as in the suctoria to various arrangements of beating cillia to direct particles to the mouth including organisms such as Vorticella which have a complex ring of cilia which create a vortex in the flow drafting particles into the oral cavity.

Some use rhythmical beating of abdominal limbs to create a water current to the mouth whilst the hairs on the legs trap any particle.