KFM Active Filter Media Filter: Breaking Through the Bottleneck of Advanced Polymer-Bearing Wastewater Treatment
In oilfield wastewater treatment, filtration, as an important part of physical treatment, usually serves as a secondary or advanced treatment step to remove colloidal matter, suspended solids, microorganisms and other pollutants remaining in the water after coagulation and sedimentation. Relying on multiple mechanisms of granular media — inertial impaction, gravity settling, hydrodynamic effects, physical interception and intermolecular forces — the technology achieves efficient separation of dispersed oil and emulsified oil.
As oilfield waterflood development enters the medium-to-high water-cut stage, polymer flooding has been applied at scale to effectively control water cut and improve oil recovery. When wells begin to produce water, polymer that has not been fully consumed is produced along with the extracted fluid, forming polymer-bearing wastewater with special properties. The wide adoption of polymer flooding means such wastewater keeps increasing. Compared with conventional oilfield wastewater, polymer-bearing systems are more complex: viscosity rises markedly, the proportion of emulsified oil increases, the system becomes more electronegative, oil droplets become finer and stability increases greatly — all of which sharply increase treatment difficulty.
Filtration plays a key role in polymer-bearing wastewater treatment, but conventional filters face many challenges with this type of wastewater: rapid media fouling, unsatisfactory treatment efficiency and difficult backwashing. Emulsified oil and suspended solid particles are adsorbed and trapped in the filter bed; as contaminants accumulate, head loss across the bed keeps rising, while the trapped contaminants may be re-released under fluid shear, causing secondary pollution and seriously affecting effluent quality. The technical performance of the filter media is therefore the core factor determining the final treatment result and is decisive for effluent quality.
Facing the dual pressures of polymer-bearing wastewater treatment bottlenecks and clean water shortages, SINOKLE has developed the KFM active filter media filtration system. This new active media uses a silicate material as its matrix and, after 60 precision preparation steps and super-hydrophilic modification, has a melting point of 1,200 °C, a density of about 1.25, and is odorless and insoluble in water. The media surface carries a permanent charge, effectively adsorbing pollutants and providing an antibacterial function, with outstanding advantages including high filtration precision, low flow resistance, stable effluent quality, strong fouling resistance, easy regeneration and a long service life.
KFM active filter media filter
Compared with conventional filter media, KFM active media achieves significant improvements in filtration performance and dirt-holding capacity, effectively reducing the difficulty of treating polymer-bearing wastewater and ensuring an efficient, environmentally friendly and stably compliant process, providing technical support for sustainable oilfield development and economic benefits in line with the strategy of low-carbon green oilfields.
The separation mechanism of the KFM active filter media filter involves two key processes: first, migration of particles in the water toward the media surface, followed by stable adsorption of the particles on the media surface; through these two steps, suspended solids are efficiently removed and effluent turbidity effectively controlled. Filtration mainly takes place within the pore structure of the media bed, and interception of suspended particles is positively correlated with the specific surface area of the media — generally, the larger the specific surface area, the better the interception efficiency. As suspended particles continue to deposit in the media pores, the resistance from deposits inside the pores gradually increases; when this resistance balances the adhesion force, particles detach and migrate into deeper media layers. Filtration is thus not simple mechanical interception and screening, but is accomplished through the synergy of multiple physical and chemical mechanisms in the two stages of migration and adsorption.
After activation, the KFM filter media has a specific surface area 300 times that of quartz sand; a schematic of its surface nanostructure is shown below.
In summary, the KFM filtration system offers significant advantages including strong adaptability to pollutants, high purification efficiency, a small footprint and low construction cost, and can flexibly fit a wide range of engineering scenarios. The system delivers excellent performance in effluent quality, design filtration rate, filtration cycle and backwashing effect, effectively overcoming the technical defects of conventional filters and filter media.
