Cleaning filter media

Rm refers to the permeability of the clean filter media. The resistance model is based on Darcy s law, which states that water flux through a membrane is propotlional to the pressure gradient across the medium and the permeability of the medium. 

The cleaning action of the pulse is so effective that the dust layer may be completely removed From the surface of the fabric. Consequently, the fabric itself must sei ve as the principal filter medium for at least a substantial part of the filtration cycle. Woven fabrics are unsuitable for such service, and felts of various types must be used. The bulk of the dust is still removed in a surface layer, but the felt ensures that an adequate collection efficiency is maintained until the dust layer has formed. 

The filter press has the advantage of simplicity, low capital cost, flexibility, and ability to operate at high pressure in either a cake-filter or a clarifying-filter application. Floor-space and headroom needs per unit of filter area are small, and capacity can be adjusted by adding or removing plates and frames. Filter presses are cleaned easily, and the filter medium is easily replaced. With proper operation a denser, drier cake compared with that of most other filters is obtained. 

Removable-Medium Filters Some drum filters provide for the filter medium to be removed and reapplied as the drum rotates. This feature permits the complete discharge of thin or sticky cake and provides the regenerative washing of the medium to reduce blinding. Higher filtration rates are possible because of the thinner cake and clean medium, but this is compromised by a less pure filtrate than normally produced by a nonremovable medium. 

When the pressure rises to the permissible maximum, the cartridge must be opened and the element replaced. Micronic elements of the fiber type cannot be cleaned and are so priced that they can be discarded or the filter medium replaced economically. Stone elements usually must be cleaned, a process best accomplished bv the manufacturer of the porous ceramic or in accordance with the manufacturer s directions. The user can clean stainless-steel elements by chemical treatment. 

A filter removes particulate matter from the carrying gas stream because the particulate impinges on and then adheres to the filter material. As time passes, the deposit of particulate matter becomes greater and the deposit itself then acts as a filtering medium. When the deposit becomes so heavy that the pressure necessary to force the gas through the filter becomes excessive, or the flow reduction severely impairs the process, the filter must either be replaced or cleaned. 

Used directly in lubricating clarification in a "blotter press", it acts much the same manner as the paper pads, but is much thinner and is not reused. As a precoat, paper protects the filter medium from slimy fines it may be peeled off and discarded after clogging, leaving the medium underneath clean. 

When solid particles undergo separation from the mother suspension, they are captured both on the surface of the filter medium and within the inner pore passages. The penetration of solid particles into the filter medium increases the flow resistance until the filtration cycle can no longer continue at economical throughput rates, at which time the medium itself must either be replaced or thoroughly cleaned. 

Roll A roll of filter medium on a drum that advances clean new material as the filter becomes clogged that may be manually or automatically driven. 

They must be readily accessible for cleaning, which should be carried out as frequently as necessary to ensure that pressure drop across the filter does not affect normal oil flow rates. The filtering medium should be of corrosion-resistant material such as Monel metal, phosphor-bronze or stainless steel. All first-stage filters should be provided with isolating valves. 

Fabric-filter systems, commonly called bag-filter or bag-house systems, are dust-collection systems in which dustladen air is passed through a bag-type filter. The bag collects the dust in layers on its surface and the dust layer itself effectively becomes the filter medium. Because the bag s pores are usually much larger than those of the dust-particle layer that forms, the initial efficiency is very low. However, it improves once an adequate dust-layer forms. Therefore, the potential for dust penetration of the filter media is extremely low except during the initial period after startup, bag change, or during the fabric-cleaning, or blow-down, cycle. 

The filters used for gas cleaning separate the solid particles by a combination of impingement and filtration the pore sizes in the filter media used are too large simply to filter out the particles. The separating action relies on the precoating of the filter medium by the first particles separated which are separated by impingement on the filter medium fibres. Woven or felted cloths of cotton and various synthetic fibres are commonly used as the filter media. Glass-fibre mats and paper filter elements are also used. 

Three basic types of air filter are used viscous, dry and continuous. Viscous and dry units are similar in construction, but the filter medium of the viscous type is coated with a viscous material, such as a mineral oil, to retain the dust. The filters are made up from standard, preformed, sections, supported on a frame in a filter housing. The sections are removed periodically for cleaning or replacement. Various designs of continuous filtration equipment are also available, employing either viscous or dry filter elements, but in which the filter is cleaned continuously. A comprehensive description of air-filtration equipment is given by Strauss (1975). 

The drum is immersed in the liquid to be filtered. A vacuum is pulled in the drum to create the pressure drop necessary to cause the fluid to flow through the filter media into the drum. The solids are retained on the surface of the filter medium. After the belt and the adhered solids leave the fluid, the vacuum continues and most of the liquid in the solids is removed. The solids are then discharged and both sides of the belt are cleaned. 

The term (T/Ai)cake is the resistance of the cake, and L/K) M is the resistance of the filter medium. The latter is higher for a dirty filter medium than for a clean one, but once the initial particles become embedded in the medium and the cake starts to build up, it remains constant. The cake resistance, on the other hand, continues to increase with time as the cake thickness increases. The cake thickness is directly proportional to the volume of solids that have been deposited from the slurry and inversely proportional to the area ... 

A plate-and-frame filter press consists of alternate solid plates and hollow frames in a sandwich arrangement. The open frames are covered by the filter medium (e.g., the filter cloth), and the slurry enters through the frames and deposits the cake on the filter medium. The operation is batch, in that the filter must be disassembled when the cake fills the frame space, then cleaned and reassembled, after which the entire process is repeated. A schematic of a plate-and-frame press is shown in Fig. 13-7. In the arrangement shown, all of the frames are in parallel and the total filter area (which appears in the equations) is... 

A plate-and-frame filter press contains 16 frames and operates at a constant flow rate of 30 gpm. Each frame has an active filtering area of 4 ft2, and it takes 15 min to disassemble, clean, and reassemble the press. The press must be shut down for disassembly when the pressure difference builds up to 10 psi. What is the total net filtration rate in gpm for a slurry having properties determined by the following lab test. A sample of the slurry is pumped at a constant pressure differential of 5 psi through 0.25 ft2 of the filter medium. After 3 min, 1 gal of filtrate has been collected. The resistance of the filter medium may be neglected. 

A slurry is being filtered at a net rate of 10,000 gal/day by a plate and frame filter with 15 frames, with an active filtering area of 1.5 ft2 per frame, fed by a positive displacement pump. The pressure drop varies from 2 psi at start-up to 25 psi after 10 min, at which time it is shut down for cleanup. It takes 10 min to disassemble, clean out, and reassemble the filter. Your boss decides that it would be more economical to replace this filter with a rotary drum filter using the same filter medium. The rotary filter operates at a vacuum of 200 mmHg with 30% of its surface submerged and rotates at a rate of 5 min/rev. If the drum length is equal to its diameter, how big should it be ... 

Results from constant differential pressure filtration tests have been analyzed according to traditional filtration science techniques with some modifications to account for the cross-flow filter arrangement.11 Resistivity of the filter medium may vary over time due to the infiltration of the ultrafine catalyst particles within the media matrix. Flow resistance through the filter cake can be measured and correlated to changes in the activation procedure and to the chemical and physical properties of the catalyst particles. The clean medium permeability must be determined before the slurries are filtered. The general filtration equation or the Darcy equation for the clean medium is defined as... 

A slurry containing 100 kg of whiting/m3 of water, is filtered in a plate and frame press, which takes 900 s to dismantle, clean and re-assemble. If the filter cake is incompressible and has a voidage of 0.4, what is the optimum thickness of cake for a filtration pressure of 1000 kN/m2 The density of the whiting is 3000 kg/m3. If the cake is washed at 500 kN/m2 and the total volume of wash water employed is 25 per cent of that of the filtrate, how is the optimum thickness of cake affected The resistance of the filter medium may be neglected and the viscosity of water is 1 mN s/m2. In an experiment, a pressure of 165 kN/m2 produced a flow of water of 0.02 cm3/s though a centimetre cube of filter cake. 

Each filter has demonstrated the capacity to filter the full brine flow of 195 m3 h 1. The pressure drop through the filter medium is measured and monitored continuously. Typically, it is nearly constant over a 2-h filtration at 195 m3 h 1. Back-pulse cleaning restores the initial pressure drop from cycle to cycle, with only a slow increase over time. After 12 months running time, the initial pressure drop at the beginning of the filter cycle had increased by 0.6 bar. The filter membranes were chemically cleaned with 5 % hydrochloric acid. After a cleaning time of 2 h the filter was started again and the pressure drop was less than 0.1 bar greater than that of new filter socks. 

In the second type of filtration, depth or deep-bed filtration, the particles penetrate into the pores of the filter medium, where impacts between the particles and the surface of the medium are largely responsible for their removal and retention. This configuration is commonly used for the removal of fine particles from very dilute suspensions, where the recovery of the particles is not of primary importance. Typical examples here include air and water filtration. The filter bed gradually becomes clogged with particles, and its resistance to flow eventually reaches an unacceptably high level. For continued operation, it is therefore necessary to remove the accumulated solids, and it is important that this can be readily achieved. For this reason, the filter commonly consists of a bed of particulate solids, such as sand, which can be cleaned by back-flushing, often accompanied by... 

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