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Often taken for granted, the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink is a crucial element that plays a pivotal role in ensuring our overall health and wellbeing. Poor air quality can lead to allergies, asthma, and chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (or worse). Additionally, its devastating effects can extend to biodiversity, causing significant environmental and economic losses. In this context, the sustainable provision of clean air but also pure liquids is one of the major societal and environmental challenges, now and in the future. With the increasing awareness of concerns, regulatory bodies and governments may enforce soon more stringent standards for air quality and sustainability in indoor environments, including our homes, workplaces, and vehicles. At the same time, the need for embracing sustainable technologies in all aspects of life is greater than ever.

Today, almost every industry relies on advanced and high-performance filtration to purify and decontaminate liquids and gases – and ultimately to protect people and systems all over the world, thus making our world safer and healthier. Looking towards the future of filtration, there is a clear trend embracing greener and more efficient filtration solutions. And when it comes to air filtration, sustainability involves using filter media, systems and processes that not only effectively clean the air around us but also have a positive environmental impact by reducing the carbon footprint.

In this quest for enhanced sustainability, the filtration industry relies on the expertise and insights of global leaders like Ahlstrom. Our comprehensive portfolio of specialty materials – including bio-based, synthetic, and recycled fibers – is designed and developed to help customers find the best balance between performance and sustainability across a wide range of applications. This reflects our purpose to “Purify and Protect with Every Fiber, for a Sustainable world.” And as the industry moves further into environmental changes, the integration of sustainability in our innovation strategy is not just a trend but a commitment to responsibility, shaping the way Ahlstrom develops and manufactures the next generation of filter media.

In this article, two main approaches are introduced through recent product development examples. The first approach is functional sustainability: we continuously develop effective and energy-efficient filtration products with improved performance (longer lifetime, lower energy consumption, better filtration efficiency) in order to reduce the carbon footprint of end customers. The second approach is core sustainability: we address the growing demand for fluorocarbon-free solutions without compromising the product quality and performance, and we incorporate increasing amounts of bio-sourced raw materials which improves overall sustainability along the value chain and reduce the carbon footprint of the entire process. All these projects are supported by EcoDesign and Circular Design tools in a systematic way...

Disruptor® water filtration technology was first introduced over a decade ago as a new innovation utilizing fibers and charge to achieve 4 log reduction of virus in gravity flow and pressurized water applications. Numerous studies have been conducted to establish multiple contaminant removal capabilities of standard Disruptor®. These have increased the understanding of Disruptor®’s ability to remove E. coli bacteria, legionella bacteria, endotoxin, humic acid, Iron (II & III), and trace pharmaceuticals (PCBs). What started as a defined and limited technology continues to evolve into a versatile product line able to meet today’s challenges within the water filtration industry.

While Disruptor® has proven its viability on the market for the past decade, recent developments and industry preferences have seen the technology enter a new phase of enhanced development. This includes expansion of filtration capabilities accomplished by introducing functionalized additives that have a synergistic effect when used in conjunction with traditional Disruptor® technology. Disruptor® technology utilizing these functionalized additives provides the biological removal efficiencies known to be achieved by Disruptor®, while also providing enhanced removal of chemical contaminants such as chlorine, chloramines, soluble and insoluble lead, arsenic, and select species of PFAS. Removal efficiency data and capacity curves are used to validate performance criteria.

Increased demand for higher flow material for use in gravity flow applications has led to the creation of a more open media that takes advantage of functionalized additives in order to retain high efficiency virus removal with a larger pore structure. This particular functionalized additive has also led to the development of a compostable prefilter that will not require lamination due to its high mechanical strength and pleatability. A growing social and commercial demand for sustainable products has been a driving force in this recent innovation.

With newly emerging contaminants creating concern for consumers, Disruptor® has proven to be an adaptable technology capable of meeting ever-changing market demands. These developments are focused on the ability to provide water filtration solutions based upon traditional Disruptor® technology, now including synergistic functionalized additive options in both Disruptor® filtration media and pre/post filters.