Solid concentration stage

Filtration may also serve as the preparatory step for the operation following it. The latter stages may be drying or incineration of solids, concentration or direct use of the filtrate. Filtration equipment must be selected on the basis of their ability to deliver the best feed material to the next step. Dry, thin, porous, flaky cakes are best suited for drying where grinding operations are not employed. In such cases, the cake will not ball up, and quick drying can be achieved. A clear, concentrated filtrate often aids downstream treatment, whereby the filter can be operated to increase the efficiency of the downstream equipment without affecting its own efficiency. 

Once the precoating stage is completed the process slurry is pumped into the filter, the forming cake is retained on the plates and the filtrate flows to further processing. When the solids are fine and slow to filter a body-aid is added to the feed slurry in order to enhance cake permeability. However, it should be kept in mind that the addition of body-aid increases the solids concentration in the feed so it occupies additional volume between the plates and increases the amount of cake for disposal. Likewise, for all those applications when the cake is the product, precoat and filter-aid may not be used since they mix and discharge together with the cake. 

In practice, it is sometimes possible to incorporate moving blades in the filter equipment so that the thickness of the cake is limited to the clearance between the filter medium and the blades. Filtrate then flows through the cake at an approximately constant rate and the solids are retained in suspension. Thus the solids concentration in the feed vessel increases until the particles are in permanent physical contact with one another. At this stage the boundary between the slurry and the cake becomes ill-defined, and a significant resistance to the flow of liquid develops within the slurry itself with a consequent reduction in the flowrate of filtrate. 

It is theoretically possible that equilibrium between liquid and resin will be maintained at all points of contact. Liquid and solid concentrations are then related by the sorption isotherm. It is usual, however, that pellet or film diffusion will dominate or control the rate of exchange. It is also possible that control will be mixed, or will change as the ion exchange proceeds. In the latter case, the initial film-diffusion control will give way to pellet-diffusion control at a later stage. 

Black Liquor Soap Recovery. Black liquor soap consists of the sodium salts of the resin and fatty acids with small amounts of unsaponifiables. The soap is most easily separated from the black liquor by skimming at an intermediate stage, when the black liquor is evaporated to 25% solids (7). At this solids level, the soap rises in the skimmer at a rate of 0.76 m/h. At higher solids concentrations, the tall oil soap is less soluble, but higher viscosity lowers the soap rise rate and increases the necessary residence times in the soap skimmer beyond 3—4 hours. The time required for soap recovery can be reduced by installing baffles, by the use of chemical flocculants (8,9), and by air injection into the suction side of the soap skimmer feed pump. Soap density is controlled by the rate of air injection. Optimum results (70% skimmer efficiency) are obtained at a soap density of 0.84 kg/L (7 lb/gal). This soap has a minimum residual black liquor content of 15% (10—12). 

The emulsification process is simple but must be carefully controlled. Epoxy resin is loaded into a high-speed disperser, and the surfactant is added. A defoamer is generally added to prevent excessive aeration, and high-shear mixing is employed. Water is then slowly added to the mixture. The system at this stage has the epoxy resin as the continuous phase and the water as the dispersed phase. As the water addition continues, the ratio of the dispersed phase to the continuous phase increases until a phase inversion occurs. The inversion occurs at about 65 percent volume ratio of dispersed to continuous phase and is accompanied by a rapid reduction in viscosity. Water addition is then continued until the desired solids concentration is achieved. Additional additives and modifiers can be incorporated into the formulation at this stage. 

The recovery of whole cells is best explained by the manufacturing procedure for baker s yeast. This process is almost identical to the early stage of protein recovery, except that the final product is the cell instead of the filtrate. After fermentation, the cells are spun out with a centrifuge, washed with water, and recentrifuged to yield a yeast cream with a solids concentration of approximately 18 percent. Cream yeast can be loaded directly into tanker trucks and delivered to customers equipped with an appropriate cream yeast handling system. Alternatively, the yeast cream can be pumped to a plate and frame filter press or an RDVF and dewatered to a cakelike consistency with 30-32 percent yeast solids content. The press cake yeast is crumbled into pieces and packed or spray-dried for dry products. After packaging, the yeast is ready for shipping to retail. 

It is important to distinguish the effects of membrane fouling from those of concentration polarization. At the initial stage of a filtration run, the solids concentration at the membrane level is relatively small, but it builds up progressively as permeate is removed from the system. If a substantial flux decline is observed at low solids concentration, membrane fouling aspects are believed to be important. A flux decrease with an increase in solids concentration is largely due to concentration polarization. 

Magelli, F. Fajner, D. Nonentini, M. Pasquali, G. Solid distribution in vessels stirred with multiple impellers. Chem. Eng. Sci. 1990, 45, 615-625. Fajner, D. Magelli, F. Nocentini, M. Pasquali, G. Solids concentration profiles in a mechanically stirred and staged column slurry reactor. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 1985, 63, 235-240. 

Solid-liquid separation systems generally consist of four stages, which are 1) pretreatment to increase particle size 2) solid concentration in thickeners 3) solid separation in filters and centrifuges and 4) posttreatment to remove solubles and reduce liquid content. Fig. 6 shows the relationship among these stages. 

Solid-liquid separation systems generally consist of four stages including pretreatment, solid concentration in thickeners, solid separation in filters or centrifuges, and post-treatment by expression and washing operations. There are different types of SLS equipment served for different functions in relation to the four stages. Product specification, characteristics of solid-liquid suspension, solid settling velocity, rate of cake... 

Sensing techniques that are applicable to the measurement of solids concentration can be classified into four groups electrical, attenuation, resonance, and tomographic. The electrical methods utilize the dielectric and electrostatic properties of solids. Typical electrical sensors are capacitive and electrodynamic sensors the capacitive sensors measure the dielectric property of the solids, whereas the electrodynamic sensors detect the static charges that develop because of collisions between particles, impacts between particles and pipe wall, and friction between particles and gas stream. Attenuation methods are used with optical, acoustic, and radiometric sensors. Both optical and acoustic sensors are applicable to relatively low concentrations of solids. Radiometric sensors, in which y-rays or X-rays are used, are expensive and may raise safety concerns. They can, however, offer accurate and absolute measurement of particle velocity and thus can be used as calibration tools for other low-cost sensors such as the capacitive sensor. Resonance and tomographic methods, which are still in developmental stages, will be briefly introduced in Section 6.5. 

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