Batch Settling

On a land site where space and weight are not normally constraints, advantage can be taken of tank type separation equipment such as wash tanks and settling tanks, and batch processing methods. Such equipment is generally cheaper to maintain than continuous throughput vessels, though a combination of both may be required. 

In the batch process which finds occasional use, the steps used in the successive nitrations are similar and include acid mixing, addition of the oil, digesting (cooking) the reaction to completion, cooling and settling the mix, and separating the oil from the acid. The nitrators are made of stainless steel... 

Sedimentation equipment can be divided into batch-operated settling tanks and continuously operated thickeners or clarifiers. The operation of the former is simple. Whereas use has diminished, these are employed when small quantities of Hquids are to be treated, for example in the cleaning and reclamation of lubricating oil (see Recycling, oil). Most sedimentation processes are operated in continuous units. 

Batch-stirred vessels are most often used in treating material with powdered activated carbon (72). The type of carbon, contact time, and amount of carbon vary with the desired degree of purification. The efficiency of activated carbon may be improved by applying continuous, countercurrent carbon—Hquid flow with multiple stages (Fig. 3). Carbon is separated from the Hquid at each stage by settling or filtration. Filter aids such as diatomaceous earth are sometimes used to improve filtration. 

In principle, at least, any mixer may be coupled with any settler to provide the complete stage. There are several combinations which are especially popufar. Continuously operated devices usually, but not always, place the mixing and settling functions in separate vessels. Batch-operated devices may use the same vessel alternately for the separate functions. 

The leached solids must be separated from the extract by settling and decantation or by external filters, centrifuges, or thickeners, all of which are treated elsewhere in Sec. 18. The difficulty of solids-extract separation and the fact that a batch stirred tank provides only a single equilibrium stage are its major disadvantages. 

There is a gradual transition from particulate setthug into the zone-settling regime, where the particles are constrained to settle as a mass. The principal characteristic of this zone is that the setthug rate of the mass, as observed in batch tests, will be a function of its solids concentration (for any particular condition of flocculation, particle density, etc.). 

Despite the recent efforts for settling operational conditions for metal and metalloid fractionation, conventional batch sequential extraction schemes lack automation and are rather time consuming and laborious. Two additional main problems are the phase overlapping and possible re-adsorption of released elements. 

Since the efficiency of this washing is dependent upon the degree of settling, the checkers recommend that washing with 50-mL batches of ether be continued until the smell of the alcohol is no longer detectable on a sample of the dry salts. 

Coe and Clevenger method. Since the slurry settling rate R varies with concentration of solids in the thickener batch settling tests are used to determine R over the concentration range of operation F S) and the corresponding... 

Both continuous and batch methods may be used in methanolysis. The batch mediod requires an autoclave, crystallizer, and centrifuge and a system for the melting and distillation of the DMT obtained. In the two-stage Hoechst continuous process, waste PET is melted and fed to a reactor. Preheated methanol is added to the autoclave, which is equipped with a mixer. The conversion reaches 70-90% in the first reactor, after which the reaction stream is introduced into a second autoclave at a lower temperature near the bottom, where it rises slowly and die higher density impurities settle at the bottom. The reaction stream leaves the second autoclave and its pressure is reduced to 0.3 MPa. On further reduction of the pressure and cooling, DMT precipitates and is subsequently purified.12... 

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