Design and evaluate a drum screen filter driven by undershot waterwheel for aquaculture recirculating systems

Micro-screen rotating drum filters are an alternative to sand filtration especially when excessive waste water is a concern. The filtering process of drum screen filters is very simple, yet very efficient and reliable due to their overall design and operation. Drum filters are designed with few moving parts to ensure a long life with low operating/maintenance costs.Micro-screening essentially captures particles on a screen fabric while letting the water pass. This paper describes a design of two an industrial-scale drum screen filters driven by undershot wheel and its performance installed in recirculating aquaculture system culturing tilapia at El-Nenaeia fish farm. These filters are consisted of a woven metal mesh of 100 μm. The design criteria for solids loading rate in the influent water is 10 kg m−2 min−1.The results indicate that the design parameters of the filter such as surface are and rotation speed were affected by the water flow rate, where the surface area and drum speed ranged from 1.58 to 27.87 m2, and 1.05 to 8.40, respectively. The results also indicated that the efficiency of filter decreased during the first two months compared to the last two months of fish growth period, with an average 34.22 ± 8.85% during the first 60 days and an average 52.41 ± 16.77% during the last period. Using water wheels for driving the screen filter is very important in saving energy, where the filter with such dimensions needs 1.0 hp for driving it, which represents 18.0 kW daily.

► Design and evaluate a microscreen rotating drum filter driven by undershot waterwheel for aquaculture recirculating systems to remove solids with less power consumption.