Cake thickness

Materials suitable as filter aids include diatomaceous earth, expanded perilitic rock, asbestos, ceUulose, nonactivated carbon, ashes, ground chalk, or mixtures of those materials. The amount of body feed is subject to optimisa tion, and the criterion for the optimisa tion depends on the purpose of the filtration. Maximum yield of filtrate per unit mass of filter aid is probably most common but longest cycle, fastest flow, or maximum utilisation of cake space are other criteria that requite a different rate of body feed addition. The tests to be carried out for such optimisation normally use laboratory or pilot-scale filters, and must include variation of the filtration parameters such as pressure or cake thickness in the optimisation. 

For given operating conditions and submergence, the dry cake production rate increases with the speed of rotation (eq. 10) and the limiting factor is usually the minimum cake thickness which can stiU be successfiiUy discharged by the method used in the filter. Equation 11 shows the dependence of the sohds yield on cake thickness ... 

As can be seen, for constant cake thickness doubling the feed concentration doubles the yield. So-called high duty vacuum dmm filters use a unique cake discharge method to allow very thin cakes to be discharged and can therefore be operated at very high speeds up to 25 revolutions per minute. 

Enclosed agitated filters are useful when volatile solvents are in use or when the solvent gives off toxic vapor or fume. Another significant advantage is that their operation does not require any manual labor. Control can be manual or automatic, usually by timers or by specific measurements of the product. Most filters are made of mild steel, with the exposed surfaces protected by lead, tile, mbber lining, or by coating or spraying with other substances as necessary. Filtration areas up to 10 m are available and the maximum cake thickness is 1 m. Apphcations are mainly in the chemical industry for the recovery of solvents. 

The operating cycle is seldom less than two hours, and several sets of frames can be operated in rotation. The cake thickness should be more than 3 mm, 9 mm being a typical value. Sluicing of the cake with a jet of compressed air has been used to permit thinner cakes and shorter filtration times. The leaves are spaced sufficiendy far apart that there is always clearance between the finished cakes. 

An important variation of this filter is based on replacing the rigid outer waU necessary for containing the feed and the cake on the rotating table by an endless mbber belt. The belt is held under tension and rotates with the table. It is in contact with the table rim except for the sector where the discharge screw is positioned, and where the belt is deflected away from the table to aUow the soHds to be pushed off the table. The cloth can also be washed in this section by high pressure water sprays. This filter, recendy developed in Belgium, is avaUable in sizes up to 250 m, operated at speeds of 2 minutes per revolution, and cake thicknesses up to 200 mm. 

The scraper or knife discharge consists of a blade that removes the cake from the dmm by direct contact with the filter cake. It is normally used for granular materials with cake thickness greater than about 6 mm. In order not to damage the filter cloth, a safety distance of 1 to 3 mm between the blade and the cloth must be observed. If the residual layer is made not of filter aid but of the product, there is danger of its blocking by fine particles and by successive consoHdation by the scraper blade. 

Another advantage of the membrane plate is its flexibiUty to cake thickness, ie, thinner cakes can be easily handled without loss of dryness. Cake release characteristics are also improved by deflation of the membrane prior to cake discharge. Alternating arrangements, in which the membrane plates and the normal recessed plates alternate, have been used to reduce cost. 

Filtration and compression take place with the press closed and the belt stationary the press is then opened to allow movement of the belt for cake discharge over a discharge roUer of a small diameter. This allows washing of the belt on both sides (Fig. 15). Cycle times are short, typically between 10 and 30 minutes, and the operation is fully automated. Si2es up to 32 m are available and the maximum cake thickness is 35 mm. 

Assemblies of small disks are rotated in a planetary movement around a central screw conveyor. The disks are mounted on six hoUow axles and the axles revolve on overhanging bearings from the gearbox at one end of the vessel where they are driven, via a drive shaft, by an electric motor. The filtrate is collected from the disks via the hoUow shafts and a filter valve into a large collecting pipe. The hoUow shafts also collect the water and air from the dewatering process, in another part of the rotational cycle. The number of disks mounted on the shafts can be adjusted for different materials, depending on the required capacity and the cake thickness to be used. 

Cake discharge occurs at atmospheric pressure by the action of a toU or a scraper, assisted by blowback. The cloth may be washed by a spray before the cycle starts again. Filtering areas range up to 8 m and dmm diameters up to 2 meters. The necessity for large seals limits the operating pressure to less than 300 kPa, typically. Cake thickness can be from 2 to 150 mm, depending on machine size, and the speed of dmm rotation up to 2 rpm, usually from 0.3 to 1 rpm. Apphcations occur in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, dyestuffs, edible oils, and various chemicals and minerals. 

The vertical recessed plate automatic press, shown schematically in Figure 15 and described previously, is another example of a horizontal belt pressure filter. Cycle times ate short, typically between 10 and 30 minutes, and the operation is fully automated. The maximum cake thickness is about 35 mm washing and dewatering (by air displacement) of cakes is possible. Apphcations include treatment of mineral slurries, sugar, sewage sludge, and fillers like talc, clay, and whiting. 

Mechanical Cake Removal. This method is used in the American version of the dynamic filter described under cross-flow filtration with rotating elements, where turbine-type rotors are used to limit the cake thickness at low speeds. The Exxflow filter, introduced in the United Kingdom, is described in more detail under cross-flow filtration in porous pipes. It uses, among other means, a roUer cleaning system which periodically roUs over a curtain of flexible pipes and dislodges any cake on the inside of the pipes. The cake is then flushed out of the curtain by the internal flow. 

The American version of the dynamic filter, known as the Artisan continuous filter (Fig. 30), uses such nonfiltering rotors in the form of turbine-type elements. The cylindrical vessel is divided into a series of disk-type compartments, each housing one rotor, and the stationary surfaces are covered with filter cloth. The feed is pumped in at one end of the vessel, forced to pass through the compartments in series, and discharged as a thick paste at the other end. At low rotor speeds the cake thickness is controlled by the clearance between the scraper and the filter medium on the stationary plate, while at higher speeds part of the cake is swept away and only a thin layer remains and acts as the actual medium. 

For cakes of high permeabihty, the capillary drain height may be an insignificant fraction of cake thickness, and film drainage becomes the controlling factor in a centrifugal field (7). Under unsteady-state conditions, equation 18 represents the drainable Liquid left in the cake as a function of the centrifugal filtration parameters ... 

Fig. 4. Drainage of salt crystals in a cylindrical screen pusher-discharge centrifuge (8), where the cake thickness is 3.3 cm, the centrifugal field = 320 U, and the crystals 14 wt % <250 p.m. ( ) Represents moisture in the discharge cake, and (° ) moisture in the cake by material balance with drainage flows line A...

Experimental exponents for cake thickness vary from 0.5 to as much as 3.0. The theoretical value of //2 may be approached only by incompressible cakes of a narrow range of sizes. The proper and characteristic value for the mean particle size, d, is difficult to ascertain. In practice, the most finely divided particles, eg, 10—15 wt % of soHds, almost whoUy determine the Hquid content of a cake, regardless of the rest of the size distribution. It seems reasonable to use a d closely related to Hquid content, eg, the 10% point on a cumulative weight-distribution curve. 

If expression is effective, it reduces the permeabiHty of the cake being compacted and, as a consequence, the resistance to flow of the Hquid increases considerably (27). The effectiveness of expression is governed by cake thickness, specific resistance, consoHdation properties, and shear forces. 

The burden must have a definite sohdification temperature to assure proper pickup from the feed pan. This limitation can be overcome by side feeding through an auxiliary rotating spreader roll. Apphcation hmits are further extended by special feed devices for burdens having oxidation-sensitive and/or supercoohng characteristics. The standard double-drum model turns downward, with adjustable roll spacing to control sheet thickness. The newer twin-drum model (Fig. ll-55b) turns upward and, though subject to variable cake thickness, handles viscous and indefinite solidification-temperature-point burden materials well. 

Cake Thickness Control Sometimes the rate of cake formation with bottom feed-type filters is rapid enough to create a cake too thick for subsequent operations. Cake thickness may be controlled by adjusting the bridge-blocks in the filter valve to decrease the effective submergence, by reducing the slurry level in the vat, and by reducing the vacuum level in the cake formation portion of the filter valve. If these measures are inadequate, it may be necessaiy to use a toploading filter. 

It is absolutely necessaiy that a dam be used in all cases, except for roll discharge applications which do not involve cake washing or where the maximum cake thickness is on the order of 2 mm or less. If a dam is not used, filter cake will form past the edge of the leaf in the general shape of a mushroom. When this happens, the total filter area is some unknown value, greater than the area of the leaf, that constantly increases with time during cake formation. 

At the end of the run, measure and record the filtrate volume (and weight, if appropriate), cake thickness, final cake temperature (if appropriate), wet cake weight, and note the cake discharge characteristics (roU, sticks to media, etc.). 

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