Filtration batch cake filters

Filtration equipment will be briefly reviewed for the following categories batch cake filters, continuous cake filters, and clarifying filters. 

In cake or surface filtration, there are two primary areas of consideration continuous filtration, in which the resistance of the filter cake (deposited process solids) is veiy large with respec t to that of the filter media and filtrate drainage, and batch pressure filtration, in which the resistance of the filter cake is not veiy Targe with respect to that of the filter media and filtrate drainage. Batch pressure filters are generally fitted with heavy, tight filter cloths plus a layer of precoat and these represent a significant resistance that must be taken into account. Continuous filters, except for precoats, use relatively open cloths that offer little resistance compared to that of the filter cake. 

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 ... 

Against this, it may be necessary with a batch vacuum filter to provide holding vessels for feed, and possibly filtrate and wash. The discharge of solids is intermittent and this may lead to complications in feeding the solids to a continuous dryer or to some other continuous process, and cake hoppers and a feeding arrangement may have to be provided. 

The filter cake is removed continuously by scraping from the vacuum filters or batch-wise after completion of the filtration with membrane filters. After removal in either system, the stearin fraction is melted for further handling and processing. 

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. 

Clarifying filters for liquids include the gravity-bed filters for water treatment mentioned earlier and a variety of small cartridge and edge filters of various designs. Some cake filters, especially tank filters and continuous precoat filters, are used extensively for clarification. In a batch unit, the filtration rate and solids removal efficiency are typically almost constant for a considerable period of operation, but eventually the solids content of the effluent rises to an unacceptable breakthrough value, and backwashing of the filter element becomes necessary. 

The equations for c may need to be modified when considering a batch filtration. Unless care is taken the entire batch of suspension can be filtered and the experiment can be continued with the result that undesirable cake deliquoring, and sometimes cake compression, occur. As seen in Figure 4.2 these phenomena manifest themselves on a t/F vs. V plot as a sharp deviation at longer filtration times, and hence larger volumes of filtrate. Should cake deliquoring occur then both and need to be adjusted in order to calculate correct values for specific cake resistance and the volume fraction of cake soUds (Q ) as the mass of wet cake recorded at the end of an experiment will be too low. When the volume of filtrate at the transition from cake formation to gas deliquoring is... 

A batch centrifugal filter (bowl diameter of 0.762 m, height of 0.4572 m, speed of 2000 rpm) is used to process a suspension (60 g/liter concentration, dry solid density of 2000 kg/m, liquid is water). Cake parameters are porosity of 0.435, cake thickness of 0.1524 m, specific cake resistance of 1.316 x 10 m/kg, filter medium resistance of 8.53 x 10 ° m . Final cake is washed such that inner surface of liquid is 0.2032 m. Find wash water rate if it equals final filtrate rate of flow. 

The SulFerox sulfur-cake matrix tends to be quite compressible and reportedly lends itself well to filtration via plate-and-fiame filters or automated batch filter presses with recessed membranes for post-filtration sulfur-cake squeezing. It is claimed that only small amounts of wash water are needed to displace the residual process solution from the filtercake. Rotary drum vacuum filters were used in all early SulFerox applications, but variations in feed slurry characteristics due to differing inlet gas contaminants and required additive levels made their performance inconsistent. It is repotted that filtration by pressurized-feed filter presses has eliminated the problem of cake quality variation and has substantially reduced iron chelate losses (Anon., 1994). The sulfur filtercake from pressurized-feed filter presses is reported to contain 10 to 23 wt% moisture (Allen, 1995). 

The Nutsche filter is a vertical vessel, divided into two chambers by a horizontal perforated plate roughly at its mid-point. This plate may itself be the filter medium, or a sheet of finer medium may be laid onto the plate. In its simplest form, the upper chamber of the filter is an open feed chamber, into which the feed suspension is poured or pumped. The enclosed lower chamber is the filtrate receiver, to which the vacuum connection is made (at a level above that of the top of the batch of filtrate) to draw the filtrate through the filter medium, leaving the suspended solids from the feed as a cake on the upper surface of the filter medium. This cake will then be dug out of the filter, or lifted out on a removable filter medium, or tipped out by turning the whole filter unit through 180°. 

The vertical filter press, like the horizontal press, is strictly speaking a batch operating filter, but is more correctly called a semi-continuous filter, because the cake is discharged from all of the compartments at the same time. When the filtration cycle starts, the plate assembly (Figure 3.73) closes, and slurry is fed to all of the compartments at the same time. Cakes form on top of the filter medium in each compartment. Once filtration is complete, diaphragms are forced hydraulically down on the cakes to dewater them. Then the diaphragms are relaxed, wash water is introduced, and the cakes squeezed once again, followed by a compressed air blast to dry them further. At this point, the plate assanbly opens, and the continuous band of filter medium advances... 

The trend in the use of deep bed filters in water treatment is to eliminate conventional flocculators and sedimentation tanks, and to employ the filter as a flocculation reactor for direct filtration of low turbidity waters. The constraints of batch operation can be removed by using one of the available continuous filters which provide continuous backwashing of a portion of the medium. Such systems include moving bed filters, radial flow filters, or traveling backwash filters. Further development of continuous deep bed filters is likely. Besides clarification of Hquids, which is the most frequent use, deep bed filters can also be used to concentrate soflds into a much smaller volume of backwash, or even to wash the soflds by using a different Hquid for the backwash. Deep bed filtration has a much more limited use in the chemical industry than cake filtration (see Water, Industrial water treatment Water, Municipal WATERTREATiffiNT Water Water, pollution and Water, reuse). 

Optimization of Cycle Times. In batch filters, one of the important decisions is how much time is allocated to the different operations such as filtration, displacement dewatering, cake washing, and cake discharge, which may involve opening of the pressure vessel. Ah. of this has to happen within a cycle time /. which itself is not fixed, though some of the times involved may be defined, such as the cake discharge time. 

In general, pan filters are selected for freely filtering soHds and thick filter cakes. Cake washing can be introduced easily. Most appHcations are in the mining and metallurgical industries for small-scale batch filtration. 

Reaction times can be as short as 10 minutes in a continuous flow reactor (1). In a typical batch cycle, the slurry is heated to the reaction temperature and held for up to 24 hours, although hold times can be less than an hour for many processes. After reaction is complete, the material is cooled, either by batch cooling or by pumping the product slurry through a double-pipe heat exchanger. Once the temperature is reduced below approximately 100°C, the slurry can be released through a pressure letdown system to ambient pressure. The product is then recovered by filtration (qv). A series of wash steps may be required to remove any salts that are formed as by-products. The clean filter cake is then dried in a tray or tunnel dryer or reslurried with water and spray dried. 

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. 

To apply these equations, let s consider the following example. Determine a constant rate of filtration and the time of operation corresponding to the maximum capacity of a batch filter having the following conditions maximum permissible pressure difference AP = 9x10 N/m sludge viscosity /r = 10 N-s/m filter plate resistance Rf = 56x 10 ° m specific cake resistance r = 3 X 10 m ° x = 0.333 auxiliary time = 600 s maximum permissible cake thickness h = 0.025 m. The solution is as follows ... 

---