Self-cleaning screen filtration systems are, experienced plant managers say, a familiar technology. After all, hundreds of them are installed worldwide every year. They are most appropriately used in high-flow, low-load environments and, therefore, not usually associated with being effective when filtering organic material, especially from rivers where the water quality can change on a daily basis. However, the need to conserve water, accommodate space limitations and other factors are causing industrial companies and municipalities to look anew at this technology.

New Brunswick-based Irving Tissue paper mill had been using an older carbon steel filtration technology to process raw-intake water coming from a nearby river into its plant. Faced with an obsolescence of existing parts combined with the advantages of newer filtration technologies, Irving Tissue decided it was time to replace its 18-year-old filtration system.