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There is hardly a human activity, industrial, commercial or domestic, that is not affected by filtration. It is a very widely used process, from the kitchen counter top water filter to the enormous wastewater treatment plants, or from the delicate membrane ultrafilter to the rugged tipping pan filter of a mineral processing works. It has a major processing role in many industries, and all service applications, such as hydraulic control systems, would literally come to a halt without it.

It is estimated that the total world market for filtration and sedimentation equipment in 2007 will be in the region of US$38 billions, expanding at a rate comfortably in excess of that of the global economy. The business is dominated by liquid processing, which makes up about 84% of the world market, and similarly by clarification duties, which are close to 70% of the market – so that the contamination removal process, the prime topic of this book, represents more than two-thirds of
the business of filtration and sedimentation.

The usage of filtration and similar separation equipment is quite evenly spread throughout the economy, with the two largest end-use sectors being those in which the largest number of individual filters are found. The domestic and commercial sector with its many water filters (and coffee filters, and suction cleaner filters) is one; and the transport system sector with its huge number of engine filters for intake air, fuels and coolants, is the other. The sector shares of the 10 largest enduser sectors are given in Table 1.2, from which it can be seen that the total of the bulk chemicals and fine chemicals sectors (16.4%) would make a total chemicals sector into the second largest of the identified end-user groups.

The fastest growing of these sectors is expected to be that for fresh and wastewater treatment (the third largest sector), followed quite closely by the fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals groups.

The separations business is becoming increasingly more technical, with more stringent demands being continuously placed upon its products; in parallel with

this, there is the obvious need for equipment suppliers to ensure that they have on hand the highly knowledgeable engineers able to analyse and solve the consequent problems.

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