Cake filtration process equipment

Belt Presses Belt presses were fiiUy described in the section on filtration. The description here is intended to cover only the parts and designs that apply expression pressure by a mechanism in adchtion to the normal compression obtained from tensioning the belts and pulling them over rollers of smaller and smaller diameters. The tension on the belt produces a squeezing pressure on the filter cake proportional to the diameter of the rollers. Normally, that static pressure is calculated as P = 2T/D, where P is the pressure (psi), T is the tension on the belts (Ib/hnear in), and D is the roller diameter. This calculation results in values about one-half as great as the measured values because it ignores pressure created by drive torque and some other forces [Laros, Advances in Filtration and Separation Technology, 7 (System Approach to Separation and Filtration Process Equipment), pp. 505-510 (1993)]. 

Wells, S. A. and Dick, R. I. (1993) "Permeability, Solid and Liquid Velocity, and Effective Stress Variations in Compressible Cake Filtration," Proceedings, American Filtration Society Conference on System Approach to Separation and Filtration Process Equipment, Chicago, Illinois, May 3-6, pp. 9-12... 

The third category, cake filters, although well developed in many wastewater treatment applications, are the least developed of the filtration equipment use by the Biotech Industry. In the organic synthesis laboratory sometimes very simple equipment like a funnel and filter paper is used to accomplish this operation. Some other operations used for this filtration step in the lab are more sophisticated, but many are very labor intensive and limit the capacity of the overall production process itself. As a result, there is a need for optimization of the cake filtration equipment used in biotechnology. Cake filtration equipment is available in batch and continuous modes. Following are several examples of cake filtration units ... 

Staff profile page - the Engineering Faculty at Loughborough. .. Broad Interests and Expertise. Compressible cake filtration Selection, scale-up and process simulation of solid/liquid separation equipment Washing and. .. http //WWW. Iboro. ac. uk/departments/eng/research/staff/html/tarleton. html [More Results From www.lboro.ac.uk]... 

It is evident that attention paid in the laboratory to the factors affecting particle size distribution will save on capital investments made for separation equipment and downstream process equipment. Specific cake resistance (a) can be determined in the laboratory over the life of a batch, to evaluate if time in the vessel and surrounding piping system is degrading the product s particle size to the point it impedes filtration, washing and subsequent drying. 

Within the subject of filtration, a distinction is made between micro- and macromodeling. The first one is related to modeling cake formation. The cake is assumed to have a well defined structure, in which the hydrodynamic and physicochemical processes take place. Macromodeling presents few difficulties, because the models are process-oriented (i.e., they are specific to the particular operation or specific equipment). If distorting side effects are not important, the filtration process may be designed according to existing empirical correlations. In... 

Filtration. In many mineral processing operations, filtration follows thickening and it is used primarily to produce a soHd product that is very low in moisture. Filtration equipment can be either continuous or batch type and either constant pressure (vacuum) or constant rate. In the constant pressure type, filtration rate decreases gradually as the cake builds up, whereas in the constant rate type the pressure is increased gradually to maintain a certain filtration rate as the cake resistance builds. The size of the device is specified by the required filter surface area. 

Lime-Sulfuric. Recovery of citric acid by calcium salt precipitation is shown in Figure 3. Although the chemistry is straightforward, the engineering principles, separation techniques, and unit operations employed result in a complex commercial process. The fermentation broth, which has been separated from the insoluble biomass, is treated with a calcium hydroxide (lime) slurry to precipitate calcium citrate. After sufficient reaction time, the calcium citrate slurry is filtered and the filter cake washed free of soluble impurities. The clean calcium citrate cake is reslurried and acidified with sulfuric acid, converting the calcium citrate to soluble citric acid and insoluble calcium sulfate. Both the calcium citrate and calcium sulfate reactions are generally performed in agitated reaction vessels made of 316 stainless steel and filtered on commercially available filtration equipment. 

Mannheim (1) A process for making hydrochloric acid by roasting sulfuric acid and sodium chloride together in a closed cast iron furnace equipped with a plough. The byproduct sodium sulfate, known as salt cake, may be reciystallized after neutralization and filtration, and used as a detergent ingredient. A potassium variant is used in those locations where native potassium chloride can be found. 

Horizontal Belt Vacuum Filter The final piece of equipment is the horizontal belt filter, in which the nnderflow from the hydroseparator (basically gypsum diluted with process liquor) will be filtered to produce marketable gypsum of -12% moisture. The filter cake will be washed to reduce the amount of dissolved solids and will be conveyed to a prodnct gypsnm storage area. Filtrate from this filter will be disposed of as an aqneons pnrge stream. 

Filtration. Filtration can include filter presses, rotary drum vacuum filters (RDVF), belt filters, and variations on synthetic membrane filtration equipment, such as filter cartridges, pancake filters, or plate and frame filter presses. These processes typically operate in a batch mode when the filter chamber is filled up or the vacuum drum cake is exhausted, a new batch must be started. This type of filtration is also called dead-end filtration because the only fluid flow is through the membrane itself. Due to the small size of cells and their compressible nature, typical cell cakes have low permeability and filter aids, such as diatomaceous earths, perlite, or other mined materials are added to overcome this limitation. Moreover, the presence of high solids and viscous polymeric fermentation byproducts can limit filtration fluxes without the use of filter aids. 

The recovery of whole cells is best explained by the manufacturing procedure for baker s yeast. This process is almost identical to the early stage of protein recovery, except that the final product is the cell instead of the filtrate. After fermentation, the cells are spun out with a centrifuge, washed with water, and recentrifuged to yield a yeast cream with a solids concentration of approximately 18 percent. Cream yeast can be loaded directly into tanker trucks and delivered to customers equipped with an appropriate cream yeast handling system. Alternatively, the yeast cream can be pumped to a plate and frame filter press or an RDVF and dewatered to a cakelike consistency with 30-32 percent yeast solids content. The press cake yeast is crumbled into pieces and packed or spray-dried for dry products. After packaging, the yeast is ready for shipping to retail. 

Solvent Crystallization. Two processes, one utilizing acetone (Armour) and the other employing methanol (Emery), are well known. Using the latter, fatty acid is dissolved in 90 percent aqueous methanol in a 1 2 acid/ solvent ratio by the application of heat. The resulting solution is then cooled to H 5°C in a multi-tubular crystallization chamber equipped with scrapers for efficient heat transfer. The crystallized fatty acids are removed by filtration. The filter cake is melted and stripped of any residual solvent to yield the refined stearin fraction, and then the liquid stearin is converted to flakes or powder by a variety of processes, for example, chill roller, and the like. The mother liquor from the filtration is stripped to obtain the olein fraction. The separated stearin and olein fractions have a variety of commercial applications in both the chemical and food processing industries. 

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