Self-cleaning clarifier

Figure 3.6 Self-cleaning clarifier (disc-stack centrifuge). Source. Courtesy of Westfalia Separator Ltd.

Self-cleaning clarifiers, in which the solids are discharged at intervals while the centrifuge is operating at full-speed (Fig. 20.12). They are available for both wort and beer clarification with throughputs of up to 600 hl/hr (370 brl/hr). The same machines used for beer recovery from fermenters and tank bottoms operate at up to 40 hl/hr (25 brl/hr). Many of these machines used for beer treatment are hermetically sealed so that neither carbon dioxide is lost nor oxygen taken up. 

This paper is organized as follows Section 5.2 provides a brief overview on the basic definitions used in differential geometry, on which the droplet membrane model is based. Then the model describing a self-cleaning system is illustrated in Section 5.3, where the following individual sub-models are introduced the droplet model, the substrate surface model, and the model discussing the particle-droplet interaction. The governing equations of these models are presented in Section 5.4, followed by the force analysis for the last model performed in Section 5.5. Numerical examples are shown in Section 5.6 in order to clarify the theory. In the end, we outline the summary of the presented work in Section 5.7. 

The milk is usually delivered in the cooled tank (at least — 8 °C of a milk truck. For purification, it is fed into a clarifier (self-cleaning disk separator) via a deaerating vessel. These separators can process either cold or warm milk (40 °C) at speeds of 4500-8400 rpm with throughput capacities of up to 50,0001/h. 

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