Solid/liquid separation equipments centrifuges

The relative suitability of the common kinds of solid-liquid separation equipment is summarized in Table 11.3. Filtration is the most frequently used operation, but sedimentation as a method of pretreatment and centrifugation for difficulty filterable materials has many applications. Table 11.15 gives more detail about the kinds of filters appropriate to particular services. 

Clear-liquor advance is used for two purposes (1) to reduce the quantity of liquor that must be processed by the solid-liquid separation equipment (e.g., filter or centrifuge) that follows the crystallizer, and (2) to separate the residence time distributions of crystals and liquor. The reduction in liquor flow through the separation equipment can allow the use of smaller equipment for a fixed production rate or increased production through fixed equipment. Separating the residence time distributions of crystals and liquor means that crystals will have an average residence time longer than that of the liquor. This should, in principle, lead to the production of larger crystals, but because the crystallizer is otherwise well mixed, the crystal population density will have the same form as that for the MSMPR crystallizer (Eq. (54)). 

Level. Level control using a control valve to throttle the exit flow rate presents a potential for plugging at the constricting point. Attrition of the crystals from the shear in the valve will generate additional nuclei, especially if the crystallizer head is insufficient to supply slurry to the downstream process and a centrifugal pump is required upstream of the valve. If the slurry is sent to solid-liquid separation equipment, the nuclei are inconsequential because they... 

Solid-Liquid Separation Equipment (Thickeners, Clarifiers, FUters, Centrifuges, and Expression)... 

Crystals suspended in liquors emerging from crystallizers are normally passed to solid-liquid separation devices such as gravity settlers or thickeners that may subsequently feed filters to remove yet more liquid prior to drying. Here the transport processes of particle motion and the flow of fluids through porous media are important in determining equipment size, the operation of which may be intensified by application of a centrifugal force. 

The simplest type of extraction equipment is the stirred tank, coupled with a solid-liquid separation step such as a screen, filter, or centrifuge to separate the marc from the extract. This equipment is readily available in a wide variety of sizes and can be operated as a single-batch extractor or run in series in a countercurrent mode as shown in Figure 11.6. 

If a screen is installed at the bottom of the tank, the solid-liquid separation can take place within the extraction equipment. The extract drains out of the tank, leaving the solids behind. Water can then be added to reslurry the solids, washing solvent from the marc. However, some means of removing the washed marc from a tank equipped with a screen is needed. Where external filtration or centrifuging equipment is used, solvent can be removed from the marc by water washing or conveying to an external dryer. 

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... 

As shown in Fig. 11.1-1, the solids—liquid separation device is the link between the solids formation equipment and the diying operation, Thus, predictable and reliable operation is essential in this stage of the processing sequence. Continuous or baich-automatic centrifuges nad continuous vacuum filters are typically used to recover solid material from continuous crystal I ization operations. Many factors are considered in [ha final selection of the device. In any case, an equipment testing program is always essential to determine the capacity and performance of solids separation equipment. 

Grimwood C., 2005. Filtering centrifuges, in Solid/Liquid Separation Scale-up of Industrial Equipment , Eds. R.J. Wakeman and E.S. Tarleton, pp. 314—374, Elsevier, Oxford. 

Generally, there are different techniques to separate the solid phase, the crystals, from the mother liquor. In most cases, pressure filtration or centrifugation is used sedimentation rather rarely. Furthermore, different technical equipment are available to apply the individual techniques for solid-liquid separation. A major characteristic of these techniques is the residual moisture content, which directly determines the amount of impurity in the solid separated. 

Depending on the task of the separation process, a large number of different types of equipment for the solid-liquid separation are available. Criteria for the selection are, inter alia, the filtration properties of the crop and the size of the particles, the suspension density, and the mode of operation, batchwise or continuous. Two main types of solid-liquid separations can be distinguished, cake forming filtration under pressure and centrifugation. In both cases, the crystals form a filter cake on a medium through which the mother liquor has to pass. The resistance is the rate-limiting step for the filtration and the characteristic property of the suspension. 

However it is in most cases not possible to achieve the required product quality only with one Mechanical Solids-Liquid Separation step, as it not possible to remove all the liquid just by mechanical forces. Depending on the product and the equipment used, the moisture level of discharged products from centrifuges or filters is in a range of 5-80% by weight (Figure 12.1). 

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