Introduction
Solid-Liquid Separation
is a major unit operation that exists in almost every flowscheme
related to the chemical process industries, ore beneficiation,
pharmaceutics, food or water and waste treatment. The separation
techniques are very diverse and the objective of this site is to
provide a platform for plant and design engineers, research
personnel and students to discuss practices, experiences and new
developments in this fascinating unit operation.
The site is still under
construction and so far the following sections have been completed:
-
Vacuum Filters - the
entire section.
-
Pressure Filters -
the entire section.
-
Thickeners - the
section on Conventional Thickeners and High-Rate Thickeners
Sections that will be
soon added:
The site, when
completed, will review the following topics:
-
Filtration by
vacuum
and pressure filters.
-
Polishing by
vacuum precoat filters and pressure
filters.
-
Centrifugation by
filtering and sedimenting centrifuges.
-
Sedimentation by
conventional, storage and high-rate thickeners .
-
Clarification by
conventional, solids-contact and sludge-blanket clarifiers.
-
Ancillary equipment,
vacuum pumps, filtrate pumps, vacuum receivers, moisture traps
This site does not cover
separation methods such as screening, hydrocycloning, froth
flotation and dissolved-air flotation due to my limited experience
in these applications.
Other related subjects
that will be discussed are:
-
Coagulation and
flocculation by bridging polymers.
-
Moisture reduction
by wetting agents.
-
Particle analysis
and its influence on performance.
-
Defining a Relative
Filtration Index during the research phase.
-
Establishing
diminishing returns on wash efficiencies and drying.
-
Filtering medium and
its selection.
-
Evaluating long-term
effects on separation rates.
Please do not hesitate
to comment on any of the topics, your opinion, open discussion and
criticism are most welcome!
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