Flow resistance, used filter media

Panel filters may use either viscous or dry filter media. Viscous filters are so called because the filter medium is coated with a tacky liquid of high viscosity (e.g., mineral oil and adhesives) to retain the dust. The filter pad consists of an assembly of coarse fibers (now usually metal, glass, or plastic). Because the fibers are coarse and the media are highlv porous, resistance to air flow is low and high filtration velocities can be used. 

Filter aids should have low bulk density to minimize settling and aid good distribution on a filter-medium surface that may not be horizontal. They should also be porous and capable of forming a porous cake to minimize flow resistance, and they must be chemically inert to the filtrate. These characteristics are all found in the two most popular commercial filter aids diatomaceous silica (also called diatomite, or diatomaceous earth), which is an almost pure silica prepared from deposits of diatom skeletons and expanded perhte, particles of puffed lava that are principally aluminum alkali siheate. Cellulosic fibers (ground wood pulp) are sometimes used when siliceous materials cannot be used but are much more compressible. The use of other less effective aids (e.g., carbon and gypsum) may be justified in special cases. Sometimes a combination or carbon and diatomaceous silica permits adsorption in addition to filter-aid performance. Various other materials, such as salt, fine sand, starch, and precipitated calcium carbonate, are employed in specific industries where they represent either waste material or inexpensive alternatives to conventional filter aids. 

Cake Filters Filters that accumulate appreciable visible quantities of solids on the surface of a filter medium are called cake filters. The slurry feed may have a solids concentration from about 1 percent to greater than 40 percent. The filter medium on which the cake forms is relatively open to minimize flow resistance, since once the cake forms, it becomes the effective filter medium. The initial filtrate therefore may contain unacceptable sohds concentration until the cake is formed. This situation may be made tolerable by recycling the filtrate until acceptable clarity is obtained or by using a downstream polishing filter (clarifying type). 

The choice of the filter medium is often the most important consideration to ensure efficient operation of a filter. Its function is generally to act as a support for the filter cake, while the initial layers of cake provide the actual filter. The filter medium should be selected primarily on the basis of its ability to retain solids without binding. It should be mechanically strong and corrosion resistant, and should offer as little resistance as possible to the flow of the filtrate. The media are made from widely different materials such as cotton, wool, linen, nylon, jute, silk, glass fiber, porous carbon, metals, rayon and other synthetics, and miscellaneous materials like porous rubber. Cotton fabrics are most commonly used because they are available in a wide variety of weaves, and are cheap. 

Batch filtration. Batch filtration involves the separation of suspended solids from a slurry of associated liquid. The required product could be either the solid particles or the liquid filtrate. In batch filtration, the filter medium presents an initial resistance to the fluid flow that will change as particles are deposited. The driving forces used in batch filtration are2 ... 

A rotary drum filter is used to filter a slurry. The drum rotates at a rate of 3 min/cycle, and 40% of the drum surface is submerged in the slurry. A constant pressure drop at 3 psi is maintained across the filter. If the drum is 5 ft in diameter and 10 ft long, calculate the total net filtration rate in gpm that is possible for a slurry having properties as determined by the following lab test. A sample of the slurry was pumped at a constant flow rate of 1 gpm through 0.25 ft2 of the filter medium. After 10 min, the pressure difference across the filter had risen to 2.5 psi. The filter medium resistance may be neglected. 

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... 

Analogous to sampling TIN with the filter pack method, sampling with a quartz- or glass-fiber filter followed by a sorbent can provide a relatively accurate measure of the total (i.e., vapor plus particle phase) concentration of specific PAH compounds. Such methodologies were reviewed by Lee et al. (73). Selection of a sorption medium for collection of vapor-phase PAHs is influenced by air-flow resistance, collection efficiency, breakthrough volume, the effort required to purify the medium for use, and the efficiency with which the PAH can be recovered from the sorbent. 

E>q)erimental studies of many systems [Ru ton Wakeman, 1977] have demonstrated that the resistance of a cloth to liquids is at least equal to the air resistance. In some cases an increase Ro is recorded, after allowance for viscosity, up to values of twice the gas flow resistance. This effect is attributed to poor wetting of the medium in some liquid systems. Use of the medhun in filtering solids which tend to sur ce fiber produces increases in up to thirty times the clean water resistance. This value can increase materially (100->oo) if the particles are penetrating. The associated decrease in permeability may be gradual over many uses or dramatic, in a single use of the medium. 

Usually an increase in fluid pressure creates an increase in filtrate flow, although strict proportionality is seldom gamed since the resistance to flow of most filter cakes increases with pressure. Plugging of the filter medium can also reduce the advantage of hi -pressure use, and in order to avoid this phenomenon, plant is usually operated at low pressure m the initial stages of the process. In other applications, the filter may be filled at an initial constant feed rate followed by continued separation at constant pressure. Plant vriuch can be operated in this manner includes a poritive displacement pump vrith incorporated pressure-reducing controL... 

The resistivity of the cake, however, very often increases with time. Under the pressure of filtration or the friction of the fluid that continues to pass through the cake, the filtered particles continue to compact and reduce the area available for flow. Section 7.S.4.2 also describes the empirical methods that are used to characterize the compressibility of the cake. It is significant that the particles produced by precipitation from the brine are often highly compressible. At the same time, they have a tendency to become lodged in the pores of the filter medium. Filtration of these particles can become very difficult. The usual solution to this problem is the use of a filter aid. The filter aid is applied to the surface of the filter medium before introducing the brine. This is the precoating operation. Filter aids are selected for their desirable characteristics, and the precoat material protects the pores from penetration by filtered solids while at the same time offering little resistance to the flow. Compression of the precipitates still occurs, and so filter aid ( admix ) is also added in small quantities to the brine to improve the characteristics of the cake. 

Flow resistance Flow resistance is dependent on structure of the medium. It is often reported as the permeability measured at specific flow conditions this is often the permeability of the medium to flow of air, which can be misleading for media to be used in a liquid filter. It affects both capital and running costs, and large differences in flow resistance exist between the diverse media available. 

First, if we ignore the filter medium and consider only the cake itself, the pressure drop versus liquid flow relationship is described by the Ergun equation [Equation (6.15)]. The particle size and range of liquid flow and properties commonly used in industry give rise to laminar flow and so the second (turbulent) term vanishes. For a given slurry (particle properties fixed) the resulting cake resistance is defined as ... 

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. 

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