After extensive trials in Europe, with very successful results, air and liquid filtration solutions provider Freudenberg Filtration Technologies’ HydroMaxx reverse pocket filter will become available in South Africa next month.

“In the current tough economic climate, price is often the determining factor for companies when buying filters, with product performance not always taken into account. However, with regulations stipulating a maximum emission content of 30 mg/m3 of gas, industry is also forced to monitor what is being pumped into the air and to take measures to comply,” says Freudenberg MD Andrew Hersey.

To help industries achieve this, the HydroMaxx reverse pocket filter is ideally suited to gas turbines in the power generation and oil and gas industries, as well as compressors and diesel and gas engines.

Hersey highlights that the product is a coalescing filter, making it well suited to intake air prefiltration at coastal, offshore and other high-humidity locations. He explains that filter saturation from moisture in intake air is one of the biggest challenges in the filtration industry, causing a rapid pressure differential increase, gas turbine shutdowns and high levels of fouling, owing to breakthroughs of submicrometre moisture droplets containing salt particles and hydrocarbons.

He notes that the HydroMaxx offers four distinct benefits in terms of managing this challenge.

Firstly, the reverse media’s hydrophobic, progressive nonwoven composition enables water droplets to combine and drain down from the vertical pockets, thereby reducing salt and hydrocarbon ingress. Secondly, a self-supporting, integrated cage system improves performance and ensures stability while reducing dust storage.

Thirdly, the leakproof welded-edge configuration of the filter pockets ensures functional reliability. Lastly, the unique modular clip-on design allows for close coupling to either the intermediate or final filter without any structural modifications being necessary.

In addition, the filters are free of glass fibres, are noncorroding, self-extinguishing and microbiologically inactive.

“The design of the HydroMaxx is reliable and cost effective, and moisture is prevented from passing through the filter, which enhances the operating life of the system. The unit is, moreover, maintenance friendly, as filter change-out can be carried out while the machine is running. Its compact, space-saving, multistage filtration configuration makes it ideal for applications with space constraints.”

The product was developed at Freudenberg’s headquarters in Weinheim, Germany, and will be the first of its kind available on the South African filtration market.