Belt press filters

Originally designed for the continuous filtration of conditioned sewage sludges, as were most of the filter belt presses available, the Manor Tower press is increa singly used for the treatment of paper mill sludge, coal, or flocculated clay slurries. 

For filter belt presses and centrifuges, resistance to shear and mechanical pressure is the most important parameter. In general, floes produced by charge patch neutralization are stronger than those produced by inorganic salts alone. 

Belt presses can be continuously fed with mash. Their output is high, ranging from 2 to 6 t/h. Modern filter belt presses achieve high yields. Because of their rapid operation (juice extraction times of about 4 min) there is little oxidation. 

Austin, E. P., The filter belt press—application and design . Filtration Separation, July/August, 320-330 (1978)... 

A medium molecular weight polymer is generally best for filter belt pressing. 

Other designs squee2e the cake between two permeable belts or between a screw conveyor of diminishing diameter, or pitch, and its permeable enclosure. The available filters which use mechanical compression can be classified into four principal categories, ie, membrane plate presses, tube presses, belt presses, and screw presses. 

Continuous Compression Filters. The variable chamber principle appHed to batch filtration, as described before, can also be used continuously in belt presses and screw presses. 

Expression Dewaterings of Fibrous Materials. Fibrous materials are frequently dewatered in belt-filter, screw, disk, and roU presses and in batch pot and cage presses. Table 1 Hsts appHcations of screw, roU, and pot presses. Screw and high pressure belt presses are continuous and have replaced batch pot and cage presses in most appHcations. Traditionally, however, batch presses have been used for squee2ing cocoa butter from cocoa beans, which require pressures up to 41 MPa (6000 psi) (39). A description of many types of batch presses is included in Reference 40. 

Property Belt-filter Standard press Vacuum-a ssisted Filter Plates press Cloth Rotary vacuum filter Centrifuge... 

Fig. 7. Sohds content of sludges dewatered by C, soHd bowl centrifuge VF, vacuum filter BP, belt press FP, filter press, and DFP, diaphragm filter press...

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)]. 

Tower Presses This press is similar to the stacked horizontal diaphragm presses, but only one filter belt is used (Fig. 18-191). The operation is also fully automatic. The primary applications are in chemical, mineral and pharmaceutical industries. The testing method is the same as the diaphragm presses. One important factor in designing a tower press is the sohds need to be able to be cleared from the chamber sed, otherwise leakage will occur in the following filtration cycle. 

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