Ultrafiltration
Removal of microscopic contaminants while retaining minerals in water
What is Ultrafiltration?
Remove Bacteria, Pyrogens
Removal of most bacteria, pyrogens, colloids
Retain Minerals
Retaining minerals in water while removing harmful contaminants
Non Electric
Normal water pressure is able to push the water through the filter
No Chemicals Required
No chemicals are used, Not harmful to body
Ultrafiltration (UF) is a type of membrane filtration in which hydrostatic pressure forces a liquid against a semipermeable membrane. The suspended solids and solutes of high molecular weight are retained, while water and low molecular weight solutes pass through the membrane. In other words, it treats water. UF uses a hollow, fibrous membrane material to trap contaminants inside in the lumen of each hollow fibre. The performance of the UF is dependent on size of contaminants it can retain.
How Ultrafiltration Achieves its Purpose?
For effective Ultrafiltration (UF), filter membranes must have pore sizes measuring between 0.01-to-1.0-micron. This provides the UF membrane the ability trap contaminants 5,000 times smaller than a human hair. Any standard water pressure in Singapore with more than 2 bar (50 psi) can push water through the UF membrane to remove any contaminants in water. UF is best use for the removal of colloids, proteins, bacteria, pyrogens, proteins, and macromolecules. However, only the highest range of UF membrane can completely remove all bacteria, highest amount of viruses, and parasites, while retaining minerals in the water.
What are Particle Filtration, Microfiltration (MF), Ultrafiltration (UF), Reverse Osmosis (RO)?
The 4 most commonly used residential water filtration range are shown below;
Particle Filtration
1 to 20 μm
Microfiltration (MF)
1 to 0.1 μm
Ultrafiltration (UF)
0.1 to 0.001 μm
Reverse Osmosis (RO)
0.001 to 0.0001 μm
The key difference between each filtration range is their micron size. For bacterial and virus removal from water, it can only be done via either UF or RO. Minerals are only partially removed during UF but totally removed during RO. Without minerals, water filtered by RO tend to be more acidic in nature compared to water filtered by UF. Hence, it is important that remineralization (water enhancement) is performed for RO filtered water.
Since water in Singapore is disinfected by chlorine, therefore bacteria and viruses are not present in the filtered water. This explains why water in Singapore is safe to drink directly from the tap and hence the need for RO is absent.
Blue Heale deliberately selected UF as our 3rd filtration that acts as the last line of defence for possible contaminants allowing for a soft water drinking experience while particle and MF are usually used for 1st line of deference to knock out the heavier particles, in order to lessen the filtration load at 2nd and 3rd stage filtration.
How Often should I Change the Ultrafiltration (UF) Filter?
The recommended duration is every 9-12 months but the exact duration is highly dependent on various factors like material used, age of the water pipe and water source. To prolong the UF membrane filter, it is suggested to have either Particle Filtration or MF installed before UF.