Feed concentration

The ability to handle a wide range of feed concentrations. Many of the alternatives to distillation can only handle relatively pure feeds. 

The performance of anaerobic digestion processes varies according to the type of unit, throughput, and feed concentration, but such processes are typically capable of removing between 75 and 85 percent of COD. ... 

Another example is the purification of a P-lactam antibiotic, where process-scale reversed-phase separations began to be used around 1983 when suitable, high pressure process-scale equipment became available. A reversed-phase microparticulate (55—105 p.m particle size) C g siUca column, with a mobile phase of aqueous methanol having 0.1 Af ammonium phosphate at pH 5.3, was able to fractionate out impurities not readily removed by hquid—hquid extraction (37). Optimization of the separation resulted in recovery of product at 93% purity and 95% yield. This type of separation differs markedly from protein purification in feed concentration ( i 50 200 g/L for cefonicid vs 1 to 10 g/L for protein), molecular weight of impurities (<5000 compared to 10,000—100,000 for proteins), and throughputs ( i l-2 mg/(g stationary phasemin) compared to 0.01—0.1 mg/(gmin) for proteins). 

Most of the above apphcations are in clarification duties. The use of HGMS to dewater relatively concentrated, paramagnetic mineral slurries has been demonstrated on 2 to 12 wt % feed concentration of synthetic malachite (7) concentrated to 40%. The magnetic collection was optimized at flow velocities of 1 mm/s, and product concentrations greater than 40% were not possible unless the collected material could be removed from the matrix with less than the equivalent of one canister of washwater. 

The specific cake resistance is the most troublesome parameter ideally constant, its value is needed to calculate the resistance to flow when the amount of cake deposited on the filter is known. In practice, it depends on the approach velocity of the suspension, the degree of flow consoHdation that the cake undergoes with time, the feed soHds concentration, and, most importantly, the appHed pressure drop Ap. This changes due to the compressibiHty of most cakes in practice. often decreases with the velocity and the feed concentration. It may sometimes go through a maximum when it is plotted against soHds concentration. The strongest effect on is due to pressure, conventionally expressed as ... 

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. 

An additional benefit of prethickening is reduction in cake resistance. If the feed concentration is low, there is a general tendency of particles to pack together more tightly, thus leading to higher specific resistances. If, however, many particles approach the filter medium at the same time, they may bridge over the pores this reduces penetration into the cloth or the cake underneath and more permeable cakes are thus formed. 

An example of the concentration effect on the specific cake resistance is available (12) that reports results of some experiments with a laboratory horizontal vacuum belt filter. In spite of operational difficulties in keeping conditions constant, the effect of feed concentration on specific cake resistance is so strong that it swamps all other effects. 

A variation to the top-feed dmm filter is the dual dmm filter which uses two dmms of the same size in contact with each other and rotating in opposite directions. The feed enters into the V-shaped space formed on top of the two dmms and the cake that starts forming initially contains coarser particles due to the settling which takes place in the feed zone. This is beneficial to the clarity of the filtrate because the coarser particles act as a precoat. Erom the point of view, however, of the final moisture content of the cake the stratification of the soHds in the cake may lead to somewhat wetter cakes. Utilization of the area of the dmms is poor since there are dead spaces under the two dmms. The primary appHcation of the dual dmm filters is in dewatering coarse mineral or coal suspensions at feed concentrations greater than 200 kg/m. ... 

Pusher centrifuges require high feed concentrations to enable the formation of a sufficiently rigid cake to transmit the thmst of the piston. The diameters vary from 150 to 1400 mm, the stroke frequency from 20 to 100 strokes per minute, and the soHds handling capacities up to 40 metric tons per hour or more. 

About one-third of the chemical industry s energy is used for separation. A correlation exists between selling price and feed concentration (Fig. 2) as well as between selling price and product purity. 

These values, which match experience, suggest that distillation should be the preferred separation method for feed concentrations of 10—90%, but is probably a poor choice for feed concentrations of less than 1%. Techniques such as adsorption (qv), chemical reaction, and ion exchange (qv) ate chiefly used to remove impurity concentrations of <1%. 

Fig. 9. Parametric simulation using the MSD model of water flux vs feed concentration as a function of organic sorption coefficient, where for A,...

In general, soHds-retaining batch and batch automatic machines are limited to low feed concentrations to minimize the time required to unload the soHds. Continuous disk centrifuges can have higher feed concentration. The limit is the underflow concentration. Conveyor discharge centrifuges can handle high feed concentration and are limited only by the volume of soHds displacement, or torque capacity. 

Centrifuges. Sohd-bowl centrifuges have been proposed as an alternative classifying device to hydrocyclones for cut sizes below 10 pm. The results appear to be mixed (21). In one apphcation, where the cut size was 6.5 pm and the sharpness index 0.7, there was essentially no apparent bypass. However, in other apphcations operating at higher feed concentrations, the cut size ranged from 5—8 pm, but the sharpness index was between 0.3—0.5 and the apparent bypass between 10—30% or higher (22). Smaller cut sizes have also been reported (23). 

The pressure to be used for reverse osmosis depends on the salinity of the feedwater, the type of membrane, and the desired product purity. It ranges from about 1.5 MPa for low feed concentrations or high flux membranes, through 2.5—4 MPa for brackish waters, and to 6—8.4 MPa for seawater desalination. In desalination of brackish or sea water, typical product water fluxes through spiral-wound membranes are about 600—800 kg/m /d at a recovery ratio RR of 15% and an average salt rejection of 99.5%, where... 

Unsteady-State Direct Oxidation Process. Periodic iatermption of the feeds can be used to reduce the sharp temperature gradients associated with the conventional oxidation of ethylene over a silver catalyst (209). Steady and periodic operation of a packed-bed reactor has been iavestigated for the production of ethylene oxide (210). By periodically varyiag the inlet feed concentration of ethylene or oxygen, or both, considerable improvements ia the selectivity to ethylene oxide were claimed. 

Say the recycle flow rate in a PFR is V and the fresh feed rate is Vq, with the ratio R = V /Vq. With a fresh feed concentration of Cq and a produc t of Co the composite feed concentration is... 

A second order reaction is conducted in two equal CSTR stages. The residence time per stage is T = 1 and the specific rate is /cCq = 0.5. Feed concentration is Cq. Two cases are to be examined (1) with pure solvent initially in the tanks and (2) with concentrations Cq initially in both tanks, that is, with Cio = Coq = Cq. 

For a given drum pressure and feed composition, the bubble- and dew-point temperatures bracket the temperature range of the equilibrium flash. At the bubble-point temperature, the total vapor pressure exerted by the mixture becomes equal to the confining drum pressure, and it follows that X = 1.0 in the bubble formed. Since yj = KjXi and since the x/s stiU equal the feed concentrations (denoted bv Zi s), calculation of the bubble-point temperature involves a trial-and-error search for the temperature which, at the specified pressure, makes X KjZi = 1.0. If instead the temperature is specified, one can find the bubble-point pressure that satisfies this relationship. 

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