with prior flocculation. As the contaminant separation process takes place in the filter medium, factors such as flocculation time, filtration velocity and flocculent dosage are required to be monitored regularly, as they can directly affect the flocculent size produced. This is vital to the process in order to prevent potential clogging or bioclogging of the filter bed. The advantages associated with this process include the ability to produce large flocculent, which can then be filtered. The other advantage of the depth filtration method is the flexibility in the choice of filter arrangement, which allows high solid storage capacities to be obtained, while keeping the energy consumption rate within an acceptable range. The downside of using direct filtration is that microbes are able to grow within the channels of the filter and hence reproduce throughout long operating runs. This reproduction of organisms within the filter matrix can result in the contamination of the filtrate. Depth filtration is also widely used for the clarification of cell culture clarification. The cell culture systems can contain yeast, bacterial and other contaminant cells and hence, an efficient clarification stage is vital to separate the cells and other colloidal matter to produce a particle free cell system [9]. Most depth filters used in pharmaceutical processes such as cell system harvesting are composed of cellulose fibres and filter aids. The direct flow design in depth filters provides a financially suitable solution by trapping the contaminants within the filter channel while ensuring the maximum recovery rate of the product. The other advantages of this system include its low power costs, since the pumps utilised in depth filters require minimal power input due to the small pressure within the system. Depth filtration is also flexible in terms of being able to scale up or down the system while outputting a high rate of yield (>95%). Limitations of depth filtrations over competitive processes Besides Depth Filtration, a number of membrane filtration methods are also used for different industrial applications such as Reverse Osmosis, nano-filtration and Microfiltration. The aforementioned processes operate under the same principle, by rejecting contaminants larger than the filter size. The main distinguishing feature amongst them is their effective pore size. For example, Microfiltration operates by allowing large particles to pass through the filter media, whilst Reverse Osmosis rejects all the particles except very small species. Most membrane filters can be utilized for final filtration whilst depth filters