Filtration in the context of "Diatomaceous earth"

Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide.

Clays develop plasticity when wet but can be hardened through firing. Clay is the longest-known ceramic material. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay and used it for making pottery. Some of the earliest pottery shards have been dated to around 14,000 BCE, and clay tablets were the first known writing medium. Clay is used in many modern industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production, and chemical filtering. Between one-half and two-thirds of the world's population live or work in buildings made with clay, often baked into brick, as an essential part of its load-bearing structure. In agriculture, clay content is a major factor in determining land arability. Clay soils are generally less suitable for crops due to poor natural drainage; however, clay soils are more fertile, due to higher cation-exchange capacity.

Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a final production step before selling or packaging products. To be considered "dried", the final product must be solid, in the form of a continuous sheet (e.g., paper), long pieces (e.g., wood), particles (e.g., cereal grains or corn flakes) or powder (e.g., sand, salt, washing powder, milk powder). A source of heat and an agent to remove the vapor produced by the process are often involved. In bioproducts like food, grains, and pharmaceuticals like vaccines, the solvent to be removed is almost invariably water. Desiccation may be synonymous with drying or considered an extreme form of drying.

In the most common case, a gas stream, e.g., air, applies the heat by convection and carries away the vapor as humidity. Other possibilities are vacuum drying, where heat is supplied by conduction or radiation (or microwaves), while the vapor thus produced is removed by the vacuum system. Another indirect technique is drum drying (used, for instance, for manufacturing potato flakes), where a heated surface is used to provide the energy, and aspirators draw the vapor outside the room. In contrast, the mechanical extraction of the solvent, e.g., water, by filtration or centrifugation, is not considered "drying" but rather "draining".

Mineral wool is any fibrous material formed by spinning or drawing molten mineral or rock materials such as slag and ceramics. It was first manufactured in the 19th century. Applications include thermal insulation (as both structural insulation and pipe insulation), filtration, soundproofing, and hydroponic growth medium. Mineral wool can cause irritation to the eyes, skin and lungs, especially during its manufacture and installation.

Suspended solids refers to small solid particles which remain in suspension in water as a colloid or due to motion of the water. Suspended solids can be removed by sedimentation if their size or density is comparatively large, or by filtration. It is used as one indicator of water quality and of the strength of sewage, or wastewater in general. It is an important design parameter for sewage treatment processes.

It is sometimes abbreviated SS, but is not to be confused with settleable solids, also abbreviated SS, which contribute to the blocking of sewer pipes.

Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water. The goal is to produce water that is fit for specific purposes. Most water is purified and disinfected for human consumption (drinking water), but water purification may also be carried out for a variety of other purposes, including medical, pharmacological, chemical, and industrial applications. The history of water purification includes a wide variety of methods. The methods used include physical processes such as filtration, sedimentation, and distillation; biological processes such as slow sand filters or biologically active carbon; chemical processes such as flocculation and chlorination; and the use of electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light.

Water purification can reduce the concentration of particulate matter including suspended particles, parasites, bacteria, algae, viruses, and fungi as well as reduce the concentration of a range of dissolved and particulate matter.

A sieve (/ˈsɪv/), fine mesh strainer, or sift is a tool used for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet material. The word sift derives from sieve.

In cooking, a sifter is used to separate and break up clumps in dry ingredients such as flour, as well as to aerate and combine them. A strainer (see colander), meanwhile, is a form of sieve used to separate suspended solids from a liquid by filtration.

The urinary system, also known as the urinary tract or renal system, is a part of the excretory system of vertebrates. In humans and placental mammals, it consists of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and the urethra. The purpose of the urinary system is to eliminate urine from the body, regulate blood volume and blood pressure, control levels of electrolytes and metabolites, and regulate blood pH. The kidneys have an extensive blood supply via the renal arteries which leave the kidneys via the renal vein. Each kidney consists of functional units called nephrons. Following filtration of blood and further processing, the ureters carry urine from the kidneys into the urinary bladder. The urethra carries urine from the bladder through the penis or vulva during urination. The female and male urinary system are very similar, differing only in the length of the urethra.

800–2,000 milliliters (mL) of urine are normally produced every day in a healthy human. This amount varies according to fluid intake and kidney function.

Filter feeders are aquatic animals that acquire nutrients by feeding on organic matter, food particles or smaller organisms (bacteria, microalgae and zooplanktons) suspended in water, typically by having the water pass over or through a specialized filtering organ that sieves out and/or traps solids. Filter feeders can play an important role in condensing biomass and removing excess nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphate) from the local waterbody, and are therefore considered water-cleaning ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms.

Filter feeders can be sessile, planktonic, nektonic or even neustonic (in the case of the buoy barnacle) depending on the species and the niches they have evolved to occupy. Extant species that rely on such method of feeding encompass numerous phyla, including poriferans (sponges), cnidarians (jellyfish, sea pens and corals), arthropods (krill, mysids and barnacles), molluscs (bivalves, such as clams, scallops and oysters), echinoderms (sea lilies) and chordates (lancelets, sea squirts and salps, as well as many marine vertebrates such as most species of forage fish, American paddlefish, silver and bighead carps, baleen whales, manta ray and three species of sharks—the whale shark, basking shark and megamouth shark). Some water birds such as flamingos and certain duck species, though predominantly terrestrial, are also filter feeders when foraging.