SEPARATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SOLIDS

Balag, Yzon Aldwin

Castillo, Jett Jeromel
Taron, Jon Tristan

SEPARATION OF SOLIDS

Techniques used to separate one material from the other is called separation. Separations are extremely common
in chemical manufacture. In fact, much processing equipment is devoted to separate one phase or one material from the
other. There are two types of separation: diffusional and mechanical separation. Diffusional separation is a technique
used for the separation of homogeneous mixtures. This separation includes the transfer of material between the phases
including distillation, crystallization and absorption. Mechanical separation is used for the separation of heterogeneous
mixtures. These are based on the physical differences between the particles such as size, shape or density. It can be applied
for separating solids from solids, solids from liquids and also solids from gases.

SEPARATION TECHNIQUES

Sieves, or sifters, are devices for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for characterizing the
particle size distribution of a sample, typically using a woven screen such as a mesh or net or metal. A strainer is a form of
sieve used to separate solids from liquid. Sieving is a simple technique for separating particles of different sizes. Coarse
particles are separated or broken up by grinding against one-another and screen openings. Depending upon the types of
particles to be separated, sieves with different types of holes are used. Sieves are also used to separate stones from sand.
Sieving plays an important role in food industries where sieves (often vibrating) are used to prevent the contamination of
the product by foreign bodies.
Mechanical screening, often just called screening, is the practice of taking granulated ore material and separating
it into multiple grades by particle size. This practice occurs in a variety of industries such as mining and mineral processing,
agriculture, pharmaceutical, food, plastics, and recycling. A screening machine consist of a drive that induces vibration, a
screen media that causes particle separation, and a deck which holds the screen media and the drive and is the mode of
transport for the vibration.
Magnetic separation is a process in which magnetically susceptible material is extracted from a mixture using a
magnetic force. This separation technique can be useful in mining iron as it is attracted to a magnet. In the machine, the
raw ore is fed onto a conveyor belt which passes underneath two pairs of electromagnets under which further belts run
at right angles to the feed belt. The first pair of balls are weakly magnetized and served to draw off any iron ore present.
The second pair are strongly magnetized and attracted the wolframite, which is weakly magnetic. These machines are
capable of treating 10 tons of ore a day.
Leaching is the process of extracting substances from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid, either naturally or
through an industrial process. In the chemical processing industry, leaching has a variety of commercial applications,
including separation of metal from ore using acid, and sugar from sugar beets using hot water.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOLIDS

Particle classification is an important unit process in many industries and finds demanding applications in mineral
processes, food processing, pharmaceutical, and toner or powder paint industries. Particle classification is defined as a
method sorting an initial distribution of particles to achieve a desired degree of uniformity, according to a chosen
parameter. Classifiers are so designed that the fine and coarse particles have different velocities or motion directions. The
fine and coarse products are collected according either to time or to the locations in the classifiers. A classifier is usually a
complex system since a number of forces can be involved in determining trajectories of particles. These forces include
drag forces by fluids, gravitational forces, centrifugal forces, and so on.
CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES

Classifiers are traditionally grouped into wet and dry classifiers. The difference between dry and wet methods is
the medium of suspension being used. Wet classifiers use liquids as the medium of suspension while dry classifiers use
gases. However, several technologies can be operated under either dry or wet conditions. The examples include sieving
and cyclone classification. Classification techniques can be also classified into mechanical and non-mechanical classifiers
regardless the working medium. Mechanical classifiers incorporate moving parts which influences the motion of particles.
Non mechanical classifiers use fluid drag only to separate particles. In terms of the forces exerted to particles, classifiers
can be categorized into two major types: gravitational and centrifugal classifiers. Gravitational classifiers are generally
used to separate very large particles and are mostly seen as a pre-treatment stage. This is because gravity itself does not
provide sufficient partition power in classifying small particles. The advantage of centrifugal classifiers is the possibility of
obtaining fine cut sizes due to a high partition power.

DRY CLASSIFICATION

Dry classification is widely used in many industrial processes. In comparison to wet classification, dry classification
does not need drying and slurry treatment. When dry classification uses air as the working medium, it often refers to air
classification. As a complement of sieving, air classification can separate smaller or larger particles than commercial sieving
sizes. Therefore, air classification manages a wider range of materials, typically from 2 mm down to 5 µm. The primary
application of air classification is to achieve a narrower size range of product, which produce better flow characteristics
and enhance the properties of the final product.
Classification by elutriation. Elutriation is a process of washing fines by air while allowing the coarse product
settling. The bulk of unclassified powders are usually introduced to the elutriator from the middle inlet. The air stream
flows upwards and washes the fine particles from the bulk. The lighter or finer particles are lift against gravity to a fines
collector overhead. The denser or larger particles are too heavy to be raised and fall against airflow into the coarse
collector below. The cut size is controlled by varying the gas velocity.
Fluidised bed classifier. Segregation may occur when a binary mixture is fluidised in a fluidised bed. Measures are
taken to prevent segregation, which makes classification by fluidised bed unusual. This is because segregation is often
incomplete under normal operations. In order to make classification processes feasible, some modifications to the
fluidised bed must be made to enhance the degree of particle segregation.
Cross-flow classifiers are designed so that the direction of airflows is perpendicular to the gravity. The gas is
injected to the classifier horizontally from the inlet on the left wall. The material inlet is nearby the gas nozzle and the
powders are fed downwardly into the classifier. The particles are spread to a fan-shape in the chamber. The particles are
separate since the coarse powders and the fine powders have different trajectories in the separation zone due to the fluid
drag forces and gravitational forces. The coarse powders settle quicker than the fines. By inserting the several plates at
certain distances to the gas inlet, the classified particles are collected into fractions.
Cascade air classifier. The Zigzag classifiers consist of several inclined branch pipes vertically arranged to form a
zigzag separation zone. These inclined pipes have rectangular cross-section and are inclined alternately to the left and to
the right at the same angle. An inlet is opened at the top or the middle of the classifier in order that the materials to be
classified are fed into it. The coarse fractions fall to the bend where they need to cross through the classifying airflow
coming from below. The separation of fines takes place at each bend and several bends are required to increase the
sharpness of separation.
Inertial air classifier. These classifiers separate fine powders from 40 to 400 µm. Both particles and airflow enter
the classifier from the top and flow downwardly. An outlet is set on the sidewall and inclines by 45 degree. The fine
particles are carried by air and discharged from this outlet. The coarse particles proceed straight down by inertia and
collected below. A secondary air is introduced just below the fines outlet and the airflow washes the remaining fine
particles from the falling coarse fraction, particularly dislodging the adhering fines from the surface of the coarse particles.
A curvilinear chamber is provided to direct the secondary airflows to the fines outlet.
Vortex air classifiers belong to centrifugal classifiers. It is the first industrial design which separates particles at
size cut about 10 µm. An advantage of the vortex air classifiers is that de-agglomeration occurs during classification which
leads to good dispersion the raw materials in airflow. The disadvantage is that the product to air ratio has significant
effects on the cut size. To solve this problem, a vane is installed in the classifier to create a forced vortex in which the
circumferential velocity component is determined by the rotor speed.
 Rotating wheel classifiers use rotating blades to create the air vortex or the centrifugal field. The advantage of a
rotating wheel classifier is the elimination of any external compressor to send air as in a vortex air classifier. In addition,
the volumetric flow rate of air required for classification is much less in the rotating wheel classifier.
Circulating air classifiers are widely used in cement industry. It has generally complex interior geometry. Particles
are fed from the top onto a plate where the particles are scattered by rotation of the plate. Circulating airflows carry the
fine particles to the outer wall (annular chamber). The air flows back to the classification chamber via vanes and leave the
fine particles fall into the fines collector. The coarser particles remain in the interior chamber and falls into the coarse
collector below.
Electrostatic classifier. The conventional classifiers have in general cut size above 1 µm. However, finer end
products are required to obtain better product characteristics for example in toner industry. Electrostatic classification is
a process by which aerosol particles are fractionated according to their electric mobility.

WET CLASSIFICATION

Wet classification refers to the process of separating particulates in a liquid suspension into fractions according to
particle size or density by methods other than screening. Wet classifiers work as a result of difference in settling rate
between fine and coarse particles. The basic principles of classification is that fine particles have a slower settling velocity
than coarse particles of same density or light particles have a slower settling velocity than heavy particles of same size.
The applications of wet classifiers were found in the treatment of raw materials for example effecting a simple sand-slime
separation resulting in two products. In general, wet classifier types fall into two categories: gravitational and centrifugal
classifiers. Gravitational classifiers can be subdivided into sedimentation and hydraulic classifiers. Depending on the
operation manner, each type can be further divided into mechanical and non-mechanical classifiers.
Sedimentation classifier. Spiral classifiers and rake classifiers are two types of sedimentation classifiers and are
mostly used in separating coarse particles from a mixture. A typical spiral classifier consists of a sloping elongated round-
bottom tank and a sand-raking spiral. The raw materials are fed to the central section of the pool and flow to the weir
while the suspended particles settle down. Four zones can be identified in the poor, which are stationary zone, moving
zone, hindered settling and free settling zone. The cut size depends on a number of parameters including the height of
the weir, angle of tank slope, viscosity of the mixture, and so on. Secondary fresh water may be supplemented to clean
the coarse fraction before discharging. Spiral classifiers produce coarse particles in good quality while they are generally
not used in separating fine particles. The rake classifiers have almost similar configurations with spiral classifiers. The only
difference is that the rakes move following a rectangular direction in rake classifiers.
Hydraulic classifiers differ from sedimentation classifiers in that particle settling directions are in opposite to fluid
movement. It is a mechanical cone classifier consisting of a cylinder and a conical tank. The materials are fed from top to
a slowly rotating disk. A vane is placed above the disk to generate upward water current. The coarse particles escape from
the upward stream and go to the lower part of the classifier where being washed by water jet. The device has around 50%
of overflow capacity for 74 µm particles but the overflow drops dramatically for finer particles. Therefore, it has been used
to treat low quality classifier sands.
Hydrocyclones consist of a top cylindrical section and a lower conical section. The raw materials were fed into the
body tangentially through the inlet on the top sidewall. The solid-liquid mixture followed a downwards helical pathway.
The centrifugal effects pushed coarse particles away from the fluid stream to the wall where the coarse particles felled
and were collected below. The fine particles remained in the fluid stream and discharged above.

REFERENCES

Yang, W. Particle separation and classification. www.researchgate.net

Ahmed, W. Separation, screening and classification. www.slideshare.net
Solid-solid separation. en.wikipedia.org