Zhuhai Water Project: Fully Automatic Self-Cleaning Filtration Equipment
Project Background: Strengthening Raw Water Pre-Treatment for a Coastal City
Zhuhai Water is responsible for maintaining water-supply security and supporting comprehensive water-environment management across the coastal city of Zhuhai. As part of the upgrade and modernization of a large water treatment plant and pumping station, the customer needed a pre-filtration system that was efficient, stable, and highly automated.
The system had to handle changing levels of sediment, algae, and suspended solids in raw reservoir and river water. At the same time, it needed to protect downstream treatment assets—including ultrafiltration membrane modules and high-pressure pumps—from abrasion, fouling, and clogging.
This application is closely aligned with UNITE’s eco water treatment solutions, which use automatic filtration and backwashing to intercept larger impurities before advanced treatment stages, reduce turbidity, and help improve the performance of downstream purification equipment.
Core Challenges
1. High Flow Rates and Continuous Water Supply
Municipal water systems operate at significant scale and cannot tolerate extended filtration downtime. The filtration equipment needed to clean and discharge retained impurities without interrupting the main flow or adversely affecting pressure in the urban water-supply network.
2. Rapid Raw Water Quality Fluctuations
As a coastal city, Zhuhai is regularly affected by typhoons and heavy monsoon rainfall. These events can cause sudden increases in raw-water turbidity and suspended-solid loading, potentially overwhelming conventional static screens and increasing the risk of downstream equipment blockage.
3. Smart Interconnection and Remote Operation
Zhuhai Water is advancing the development of smart water plants with unattended or minimally attended operation. The filtration system therefore needed a high level of automatic control, multiple cleaning-trigger modes, real-time status monitoring, fault alarms, and remote data transmission to the central SCADA platform.
Customized Solution: Automatic Suction/Brush Self-Cleaning Filtration
1. High-Strength Screen with Automatic Mechanical Cleaning
The system uses high-strength stainless-steel wedge-wire screens to capture sediment, algae, suspended solids, and other particulate impurities. A motor-driven cleaning mechanism automatically removes accumulated contaminants from the screen surface when the differential pressure reaches its preset value.
Depending on the process configuration, UNITE’s self-cleaning filtration technology can use a rotating brush or suction-scanning mechanism. The Automatic Brush Self-Cleaning Filter continuously removes retained solids with a motor-driven brush, while the Automatic Suction-Type Filter uses a moving suction scanner to clean the screen with low water consumption and minimal process interruption.
For the Zhuhai project, the selected configuration was designed to provide effective impurity removal while limiting cleaning-water consumption and maintaining stable filtration performance under changing raw-water conditions.
2. Uninterrupted Filtration During Cleaning
The automatic cleaning and blowdown sequence is completed within seconds. During the cleaning cycle, the main pipeline continues to deliver water normally, allowing the pre-treatment process to remain online and avoiding disruption to municipal water supply.
This operating principle is consistent with the UNITE Self-Cleaning Filter Series, which is designed for online cleaning and continuous filtration in high-load and complex operating conditions. By removing solids without shutting down the system, the equipment reduces maintenance-related downtime and supports stable downstream operation.
3. Smart Water Integration through PLC and SCADA
The system is equipped with a PLC-based intelligent control cabinet supporting three cleaning-trigger modes:
•Differential-pressure trigger: Cleaning starts when the pressure differential across the screen reaches the configured value;
•Timer trigger: Cleaning is initiated at a preset time interval to accommodate scheduled operation;
•Manual trigger: Operators can start a cleaning cycle when required for inspection or process management.
Operating status, differential-pressure data, and fault alarms are transmitted in real time to the Water Group’s SCADA central-control screen through industrial communication protocols. This enables remote supervision, faster fault response, and more efficient operation of a minimally attended water-treatment facility.
Customer Value and Project Results
Following implementation, the system provided Zhuhai Water with measurable operational and management benefits:
•Resilient performance during typhoons: The system successfully handled high-turbidity raw-water surges caused by multiple typhoons and heavy rainstorms, while outlet-water quality remained within the required standards;
•Improved downstream equipment protection: By continuously intercepting suspended solids and other contaminants, the pre-filtration system helped protect ultrafiltration membranes, high-pressure pumps, and other core treatment equipment from fouling, clogging, and wear;
•More than 70% lower labor and maintenance costs: Automatic self-cleaning significantly reduced the need for manual inspection and filter maintenance, cutting related labor and maintenance costs by over 70% according to the project results;
•Uninterrupted operation: The system maintained continuous filtration while cleaning and discharging impurities, supporting reliable municipal water-supply operation;
•Smart Water benchmark: The combination of automatic cleaning, low manual intervention, real-time monitoring, and SCADA connectivity provided key equipment support for Zhuhai Water’s modern Smart Water management initiative.
The reported cost reduction and operating results are specific to this Zhuhai Water project. Actual performance depends on raw-water quality, flow rate, suspended-solid loading, filtration precision, cleaning frequency, system configuration, and site operating conditions.
Conclusion
Municipal water-treatment systems require more than nominal filtration performance. They must remain stable under changing raw-water conditions, protect downstream equipment, minimize maintenance intervention, and maintain continuous water supply during cleaning.
The Zhuhai Water project demonstrates how automatic self-cleaning filtration can support these requirements in a high-flow municipal application. By combining robust stainless-steel screen filtration, rapid automatic cleaning, flexible trigger modes, and SCADA connectivity, the system helps transform raw-water pre-treatment from a manually intensive operation into a more reliable and intelligent process.
If your water-treatment application involves high flow rates, fluctuating turbidity, algae, sediment, suspended solids, or continuous-operation requirements, contact the UNITE engineering team to discuss a filtration solution based on your process data.
Related Pages
•Eco Water Treatment Solutions
•Automatic Brush Self-Cleaning Filter
