Filtration
➢ The separation of solids from a suspension in a liquid by means
of a porous medium or screen which retains the solids and allows
the liquid to pass is termed filtration.
➢ The feed to the operation is called slurry or suspension. The
liquid passed through the filter medium is called filtrate while the
solid retained is called filter cake. Filtration is a solid- liquid
separation and less demanding in energy than evaporation or
drying.
➢ In the laboratory, filtration is often carried out using a form of
Buchner funnel, and the liquid is sucked through the thin layer of
particles using a source of vacuum. In even simpler cases the
suspension is poured into a conical funnel fitted with a filter
paper.
➢ In the industrial equivalent, difficulties are encountered in the
mechanical handling of much larger quantities of suspension and
solids.
➢ A thicker layer of solids has to form and, in order to achieve a
high rate of passage of liquid through the solids, higher pressures
are needed, and a far greater area has to be provided.
➢ A typical filtration operation is illustrated in the Figure , which
shows the filter medium, in this case a cloth, its support and the
layer of solids, or filter cake, which has already formed.
➢ Volumes of the suspensions to be handled vary from the
extremely large quantities involved in water purification and ore
handling in the mining industry to relatively small quantities, as
in the fine chemical industry where the variety of solids is
considerable. In most industrial applications it is the solids that
are required and their physical size and properties are of
paramount importance.
Types of filter cake:
A- Compressible filter Cake:
❖The flow of liquid through the cake is affected by ∆P
❖Bed voidage (e is not constant) ∆P ↑ e↓
B- In Compressible filter Cake:
❖The flow of liquid through the cake is not affected by
∆P
❖Bed voidage (e is constant) e = constant
Types of Filtration:
A- Cake Filtration:
In this type solids in the suspension are large and most of the
particles are collected in the filter cake which can be detached
from the medium.
B- Deep bed Filtration:
In this type solids in the suspension are small and will penetrate a
considerable distance before being captured.
THE MAIN FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN
SELECTING EQUIPMENT AND OPERATING
CONDITIONS ARE:
(a) The properties of the fluid, particularly its viscosity, density and
corrosive properties.
(b) The nature of the solid—its particle size and shape, size
distribution, and packing characteristics.
(c) The concentration of solids in suspension.
(d) The quantity of material to be handled, and its value.
(e) Whether the valuable product is the solid, the fluid, or both.
(f) Whether it is necessary to wash the filtered solids.
(g) Whether very slight contamination caused by contact of the
suspension or filtrate with the various components of the equipment
is detrimental to the product.
(h) Whether the feed liquor may be heated.
(i) Whether any form of pretreatment might be helpful.
➢ Filtration is essentially a mechanical operation and is less
demanding in energy than evaporation or drying where the high
latent heat of the liquid, which is usually water, has to be
provided.
➢ In the typical operation shown in the Figure, the cake gradually
builds up on the medium and the resistance to flow progressively
increases.
➢ During the initial period of flow, particles are deposited in the
surface layers of the cloth to form the true filtering medium. This
initial deposit may be formed from a special initial flow of pre-
coat material which is discussed later.
THE FILTER MEDIUM:
• The function of the filter medium is generally to act as a
support for the filter cake, and the initial layers of cake provide
the true filter.
• The filter medium should be mechanically strong, resistant to
the corrosive action of the fluid, and offer as little resistance as
possible to the flow of filtrate.
• Woven materials are commonly used, though granular
materials and porous solids are useful for filtration of
corrosive liquids in batch units. An important feature in the
selection of a woven material is the ease of cake removal,
since this is a key factor in the operation of modern automatic
units.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS ON WHICH THE RATE
OF FILTRATION THEN DEPENDS WILL BE:
(a) The drop in pressure from the feed to the far side of the filter
medium.
(b) The area of the filtering surface.
(c) The viscosity of the filtrate.
(d) The resistance of the filter cake.
(e) The resistance of the filter medium and initial layers of cake.
FILTRATION THEORY
➢ Because the particles forming the cake are small and the flow
through the bed is slow, streamline conditions are almost
invariably obtained, and, at any instant, the flow rate of the filtrate
may be represented by the following form of the equation:
➢ where V is the volume of filtrate which has passed in time t , A is
the total cross-sectional area of the filter cake, uc is the superficial
velocity of the filtrate, l is the cake thickness, S is the specific
surface of the particles, e is the voidage, μ is the viscosity of the
filtrate, and P is the applied pressure difference.
The initial stages in the formation of the cake are therefore
of special importance for the following reasons:
(a) For any filtration pressure, the rate of flow is greatest at the
beginning of the process since the resistance is then a minimum.
(b) High initial rates of filtration may result in plugging of the
pores of the filter cloth and cause a very high resistance to flow.
(c) The orientation of the particle in the initial layers may
appreciably influence the structure of the whole filter cake.
➢ For incompressible cakes e in the equation may be taken as constant
and the quantity e³/[5(1 − e)²S²] is then a property of the particles
forming the cake and should be constant for a given material.
Flow of filtrate through the cloth and cake combined
Example (1):
A plate and frame press gave a total of 8 m3 of filtrate in 1800 s
and 11.3 m3 in 3600 s when filtration was stopped. Estimate the
rate of filtration. The resistance of the cloth may be neglected and
a constant pressure is used throughout.
Solution:
For constant pressure filtration with no cloth resistance, the
following equation is applied:
