Water treatment apparatus, system and process

Water treatment apparatus, comprising:

• a) a source of raw water to be treated;
• b) one or more ceramic membrane vessels, each said vessel having multiple ceramic membrane filters;
• c) a raw water influent flow line that transmits raw water from the said raw water source to said one or more vessels;
• d) a flow apparatus that includes a booster pump, said flow apparatus operable to pass raw water through said one or more vessels in a forward direction in a first, filtration cycle that accumulates material to be filtered on said ceramic membrane filters so as to filter the water that was transmitted to said one or more vessels via said raw water influent flow line;
• e) wherein during said first, filtration cycle, raw water from said raw water influent flow line flows through said ceramic membrane filter or filters depositing a concentrate filtered material on said membrane filters;
• f) a permeate flow line that transmits filtered fluid from the ceramic vessel or vessels to a permeate tank;
• g) a raw water return flow line that enables transmission of raw water from the filter or filters to the raw water source, said raw water return line having a raw water return valve;
• h) a backwash tank;
• i) a backwash flow line that transmits backwash fluid from the backwash tank to said vessels during a second, backwash cycle;
• j) a compressor that pressurizes the backwash tank;
• k) a backwash valve in said backwash flow line that can be opened and closed;
• l) a permeate valve in said permeate flow line that valves fluid flow between said ceramic vessels and said permeate tank, said permeate valve having open and closed positions;
• m) wherein during said backwash cycle, the permeate valve is in the closed position and raw water is pumped via the raw water influent flow line to said vessels;
• n) wherein the ceramic membrane filters are ceramic hollow fiber membrane filters;
• and
• o) wherein each said ceramic hollow fiber membrane filter has a filter wall surrounding a central bore and during the filtration cycle raw water is connected to and enters said bore and flows radially through said filter wall.