Glass Bead Filter Media: Higher Well Efficiency and Reduced O & M Costs

The declining quality and availability of natural sand and gravel filter pack media for water supply wells is a challenge for the well industry worldwide.

Inadequate values for crushing strength, abrasive resistivity, roundness, gradation and chemical resistivity lead to insufficient hydraulics, increased well clogging and scaling, higher electrical energy demand, reduced lifetime, and increased Operations & Maintenance costs.

In late 2007 high quality soda lime glass beads were first used as an alternative for gravel in water wells.

Extensive comparative field and laboratory studies and discussions whether glass beads are a better choice also fostered the fundamental analysis and understanding of the role of filter packs and the influence of media properties on well performance. Bench tests proved how underrated features like sphericity and gradation so far were on well efficiency. In this presentation a qualified and quantified selection of parameters from experiments will be outlined together with field results and cost benefit analysis from actual wells out of the experience of more than ten years.