The Baleen Filter offers several important advantages when compared with many conventional screening and filtration systems.

As the cost of wastewater treatment and sludge disposal matures, the unique Baleen technology increases process efficiency and the capability of existing treatment plants resulting in major long term economic benefits, in terms of reduced capital and operating costs, and positive environmental oucomes, due to increased recycling and lower carbon emissions.

As a primary treatment system, the Baleen Filter can separate and recover near 100% of viable settleable (and floatable) matter, and when combined with flocculation chemistry, sub-visible suspended substances, an outcome typically not possible with conventional secondary approaches.  The results in both a very cost effective primary and secondary stage of water treatment, enabling customers to readily realise recycling opportunities with minimal operating costs.

In terms of secondary treatment, for processes requiring biological treatment, the Baleen Filter can operate in conjunction with bio-chemical methods to directly enhance treatment efficiency by way of influent pre-treatment, sludge dewatering or polishing of the resultant treated stream. Therefore, the Baleen Filter enables energy-efficient water reclamation and by-product recovery opportunities. 

Refer the table below for a summary of the Baleen Filter's performance in relation to key factors and conventional methods used.

• Settling (clarifier) and flotation (DAFF) methods are time-volume reliant and require maintenance-intensive processes for handling resultant sludge.
• Due to 'dead-end' (being offline for regular backwash) limitations, biological or chemical means are required to consume or aggregate suspended matter.  This demands significant energy and consumables to facilitate biodegradation/separation prior to settling and/or flotation of resultant sludge. 
• Above methods rely on retention time, and therefore have limitations whne exposed to variable flow or influent composition.

• Removes near 100% of visible matter from influent streams without downtime
• Collects screenings in a less hydrated, dewatered natural-wet consistency.
• Enables separation of visible-inert matter as a first screening step, to realise ongoing chemical savings when removing sub-visible/colloidal matter during secondary screening.
• Efficiently handles high flow rates and variable pollutant loadings inline. 
• Complements conventional methods by way of influent pre-treatment, sludge de-watering or effluent polishing.

Capital & Operating Cost

• Biological treatments require aeration during operation, involving much upfront capital expenditure and substantial ongoing operating costs.
• Capital payback is generally not pssoible

• Comparatively inexpensive and have minimal operating and maintenance considerations.
• Users typically experience payback within 12 months. 

Environmental regulatory compliance

• Conventional methods used like settling ponds will become outdated as controls relating to wastewater quality become more stringent and reliant on advanced filtration technologies.

• Efficient separation of contaminants and enabling collection of by-products or improved sludge practices, thereby meeting enhaced environmental regulations. 

Energy requirements

• Conventional approaches to effluent management can require up to 240 kWh per ML of water treated to operate a sustainable biological system.

• Requires about 4% (10 kWh per ML) to operate, meaning major energy cost savings and a smaller carbon footprint. 
• Will also enhance a biological system's performance (refer above).

• Clarification and biological methods require significant amounts of land to accommodate required volumes(for residence purposes). 

• Are very small and compact, enabling far more efficient use of space available. Large-scale applications can leverage from Baleen's modular-stackable design.

•  Odour and water-loss (due to evaporation) are a common concern.

• Inline capability for immediate sludge recovery without water loss or further degradation of water quality.

•  Not normally an option.

• Allows for spadeable recovery of by-products for value-added purposes.