In the 1960s, the steel production industry sought a way to filter the cooling water used to cool steel production. During production, both free solid material from the line, and residual oils from previous formation steps, would be on the materials being cooled. 

The efficiency of cooling towers and their related processes can be improved in many ways. One important way is to filter the cooling water, ensuring that any particulate capable of contaminating the process is removed. Two often used filtration technologies are bag filters and walnut-shell filters.

When choosing filtration equipment for recirculating contact and noncontact process cooling water loops, filtration effectiveness can be diminished if the water is fouled with oil, grease or suspended solids. A filter designed to handle such contaminants offers an alternative.