Filtration

Outline
• Introduction
• Filter Media and Filter Aids
• Types of Filtration Equipment
• Filtration Principles
1. Constant-Pressure Filtration
2. Washing of filter cakes and total cycle time
3. Continuous Filtration
4. Constant-Rate Filtration
 Introduction
• Filtration is a solid-liquid separation
where the liquid passes through a
porous medium to remove fine
suspended solids.

• Filter media: a filter cloth or some

porous material

• Pressure is applied to push smaller

particles through the filter

• Separate elements of the solution

based on size
Figure 1 Schematic diagrams for dead-end or
conventional filtration. For dead-end filtration the
thickness of the solids buildup increases and the
permeate flux decreases with time, ultimately
reaching zero.
Filter Media and Filter Aids
1. Filter media
The filter media must fulfill a number of requirements:
• It must remove the solids to be filtered from the slurry and
give a clear filtrate
• The pores should not become plugged so that the rate of
filtration becomes too slow
• The filter medium must allow the filter cake to be removed
easily and cleanly
• Some widely used filter media are twill or duckweave
heavy cloth, wooded cloth, paper, felted pads of cellulose,
metal cloth, nylon cloth, dacron cloth, and other synthetic
cloths
Filter Media and Filter Aids
2.Filter aids
• Certain filters aids may be used to aid filtration
• Such as silica, wood cellulose and inert porous solids
• Can be use as a precoat before the slurry is filtered to
prevent gelatinous-type solids from plugging the filter
medium and also give clearer filtrate.
• Can also be added to the slurry before filtration. The
purpose is to increase the porosity of the cake and
reduces resistance of the cake during filtration
Types of Filtration Equipment
1. Bed filter
 Types of Filtration Equipment
2. Plate-and-frame filter presses
• Consist of plates and frames assembled alternately with a
filter cloth over each side of the plates
• The plates have channels cut in them so that clear filtrate
liquid can drain down along each plate
• The feed slurry is pumped into the press and flows
through the duct into each of the open frames so that
slurry fills the frames
• The filtrate flows through the filter cloth and the solids
build up as a cake on the frame side of the cloth
• The filtrate flows between the filter cloth and the face of
the plate though the channels of the outlet
• The filtration proceeds until the frames are completely
filled with solids
Types of Filtration Equipment
 Types of Filtration Equipment
1. Plate-and-frame filter presses
Types of Filtration Equipment
2. Rotary Drum Filtration
• Solution is vacuumed upward
where it crosses a filter
septum removed by a positive
displacement pump
• Filter cake is removed after
each rotation to give a fresh
surface for filtration
• Rotary vacuum filters can be
used to efficiently remove
mycelia, cells, proteins, and
enzymes, though a filter aid or
precoat of the septum may be
necessary
 Types of Filtration Equipment
A few types of continuous rotary filters
(a) continuous rotary vacuum-dryer filter
• This filter, filters, washes and discharges the cake in continuous, repeating
sequence
• The drum is covered with a suitable filtering medium
• The drum rotates and an automatic valve in the center serves to activate the
filtering, drying, washing, and cake-discharge functions in the cycle
• The filtrate leaves through the axle of the filter
(b) continuous rotary disk filter
• This filter consist of concentric vertical disks mounted on a horizontal rotating shaft
• The filter operates on the same principle as the vacuum rotary-drum filter
• Each disk is hollow and covered with a filter cloth and is partly submerged in the
slurry
• The cake is washed, dried and scraped off when the disk is in the upper half of its
rotation
(c) continuous rotary horizontal filter
• This type is a vacuum filter with the rotating annular filtering surface divided into
sectors
• As the horizontal filter rotates, it successively receives slurry, is washed, is dried
and the cake is scraped off
 Filtration Principles
• 2 type of filtration:

a) Dead-end filtration

b) b) crossflow filtration
 Filtration Principles
• When a slurry containing
suspended solids flow against
a filter medium by the
application of a pressure
gradient across the medium,
solids begin to build up on the
filter medium
• The buildup of solids on the
filter medium is called a cake

Figure 1 Schematic diagrams for dead-end or

conventional filtration. For dead-end filtration the
thickness of the solids buildup increases and the
permeate flux decreases with time, ultimately
reaching zero.
 Filtration Principles
• Darcy’s law describes the flow of liquid through a porous bed
of solids and can be written as follows:

1 dV  p
 (1)
A dt R
where;
V = volume of filtrate,
t = time,
A = cross-sectional area of exposed filter medium,
- Δp = pressure drop (medium + cake),
µ = viscosity of the filtrate,
R = resistance of the porous bed (total resistance).
 Filtration Principles
• In this case, R is a combination of the resistance of the filter
medium (Rm) and the resistance of the cake solids (Rc ):

(2)
• It is convenient to write the cake resistance Rc in terms of specific
cake resistance, α as follows:
V 
Rc  cs   (3)
•  A
where cs is the mass of dry cake solids per volume of filtrate (kg/m3).
• Thus, the resistance increases with the volume filtered
• Combining Eq. (1), (2) and (3), we obtain
1 dV  p

A dt  csV  (4)
  Rm 
 A 
 Filtration Principles
Specific cake resistance
• The pressure drop is influenced by the specific cake
resistance, α
• α can be increased if the cake is compressed
• Cakes are typically compressible when cells and other
biological materials are being filtered
• the relationship between specific resistance, α and pressure
drop, (- Δp) :
    p 
0
s
(5)

where α0 and s are empirical constants.

• Compressibility constant, s = 0 for incompressible cakes. The
value usually in the range 0.1 to 0.8.
1. Constant-Pressure Filtration
dt cs  cs
 2 V Rm Kp 
dV A  p  A p  A  p 
2 (s/m6)
dt
 K pV  B
dV
(6)
Rm
B (s/m3)
A p 

• For constant pressure, constant α, and incompressible cake,

integrating Eq. (6): K 
t
  V  B
p

V  2  (7)

• To determine the values of α and Rm:

Plot t/V versus V. The slope = Kp/2. The intercept = B
1. Constant-Pressure Filtration

t K pV
 B
V 2
Example 1
Data for the laboratory filtration of CaCO3 slurry in water
at 298.2 K are reported as follows at a constant pressure
(- Δp) of 338 kN/m2. The filter area of the plate-and-frame
press was 0.0439 m2 and the slurry concentration was cs
= 23.47 kg/m3. Calculate the constants α and Rm from the
experimental data given, where t is time in s and V is
filtrate volume collected in m3.
Solution
1. Plot (t/v) versus V
2. Find the slope and intercept Kp/2 = 3.00 x 106 s/m6
3. Find α and Rm B = 6400 s/m3
Example 2
Time required to perform a filtration.

The same slurry used in Example 1 is to be filtered

in a plate-and-frame press having 20 frames and
0.873 m2 area per frame. The same pressure will
be used in constant-pressure filtration. Assuming
the same filter-cake properties and filter cloth,
calculate the time to recover 3.37 m3 filtrate.

In Example 1:
A1 = 0.0439 m2, Kp1 = 6.00 x 106 s/m6 , B1 = 6400 s/m3.

A2 = ???. How to relate A with Kp and B.

• Kp is proportional to 1/A2.
A1  0.0439 m 2 , A2  (0.873)(20)  17.46 m 2
 1 
 2 
 K p1   A1   A22 
   
 K   1   A2 
 p2     1 
 A2 
 2
2
 A1   0.0439 
K p2  K p1    6.00 106    37.93 s / m
6

 A2   17.46 

• B is proportional to 1/A.  1 
 
 B1   A1    A2 
  
 B2   1   A1 
A 
 2 
 A1   0.0439 
 
B2  B1    (6400)   16.10 s / m
3

 A2   17.46 
• The time required to perform the filtration, t :

K p  37.93, B  16.10,V  3.37

Kp
t V 2  BV
2
t
37.93
3.37   16.103.37   269.7 s  4.50 min
2

2
2. Washing of filter cakes and total cycle time
• For constant pressure filtration, using the same pressure in
washing as in filtering:
 dV  1
  
 dt  f K pV f  B (8)

(dV/dt)f = rate of washing in m3/s

Vf = total volume of filtrate (m3)
• For plate-and-frame filter press, the wash liquid travels
through a cake twice as thick and an area only half of filtering
• So, the predicted washing rate is ¼ of the final filtration rate:

 dV  1 1
  
 dt  f 4 K pV f  B (9)
• After washing is completed, additional time is
needed to remove the cake, clean the filter, and
reassemble the filter.

The total filter-cycle time = filtration time

+ washing time
+ cleaning time
Example 3
Rate of Washing and Total Filter-Cycle Time.

At the end of the filtration cycle in Example 2, a

total filtrate volume of 3.37 m3 is collected in a total
time of 269.7 s. The cake is to be washed by
through-washing in the plate-and-frame press
using a volume of wash water equal to 10% of the
filtrate volume. Calculate the time of washing and
the total filter-cycle time if cleaning the filter takes
20 min.
Solution
• For plate-and-frame filter press:
 dV  1 1
  
 dt  f 4 K pV f  B

 dV  1 1
    1.737 103 m3 / s
 dt  f 4 37.933.37   16.10
• Volume of wash water = (0.1)(3.37) = 0.337 m3
• The time of washing: (0.337 m3 )
t  3.23 min
 3 m  60 s 
3
1.737 10  
 s  min 
Solution
The total filter-cycle time = filtration time
+ washing time
+ cleaning time

 4.50  3.23  20  27.73 min

3. Continuous Filtration
• In continuous filtration such as a rotary-drum vacuum type, the
feed, filtrate and cake move at steady & continuous rates.
• The pressure drop is held constant.
• The resistance of the filter medium is negligible (Rm ~ 0)
compared with the cake resistance.
• So, B = 0. Hence: 0
Kp
t V 2  BV
2
V2
t  Kp (10)
2
t = time required for formation of the cake.
3. Continuous Filtration
• In a rotary-drum filter, the
filter time, t is less than the
total cycle time, tc:

t  ft c (11)

f = the fraction of the cycle

used for cake formation.
@ fraction of
submergence of the drum
surface in the slurry.
3. Continuous Filtration

 2 f  p 
1/ 2
V
• Flow rate =  
(12)

At c  tc cs 

• If the cake resistance varies with pressure, the

value of α in Eq. (5) needs to be predicted.
3. Continuous Filtration
• When short cycle times are used in continuous filtration,
• and/or the filter medium resistance is relatively large,
• The filter resistance term B must be included and the eq.
becomes: 2
V
t  ft c  K p  BV (13)
2
• Hence, the flow rate:

V


 Rm / tc  R / t  2cs  p  f /( tc )
2
m
2
c 
1/ 2

(14)
At c cs
• Volume of filtrate, V can be related to W, the kg of
accumulated dry cake solids as follows:

cx
W  csV  V (15)
1  mcx

where;
cs = kg solids/ m3 of filtrate
cx = mass fraction of solids in the slurry
m = mass ratio of wet cake to dry cake
ρ = density of filtrate in kg/m3
Example 4
Filtration in a continuous rotary-drum filter
A rotary-vacuum –drum filter having a 33% submergence
of the drum in the slurry is to be used to filter a CaCO3
slurry as given in Example 1 using a pressure drop of 67.0
kPa. The solids concentration in the slurry is cx = 0.191 kg
solid/kg slurry and the filter cake is such that the kg wet
cake/kg dry cake = m = 2.0. The density and viscosity of
the filtrate can be assumed as those of water at 298.2 K.
Calculate the filter area needed to filter 0.778 kg slurry/s.
The filter-cycle time is 250 s. The specific cake resistance
can be represented by
  (4.37 10 )(p)
9 0.3

where (– Δp) is in Pa and α in m/kg.

Solution
From Appendix A.2 for water:   996.9 kg/m 3
  0.8937 103 Pa.s

cx 996.9(0.191)
cs    308.1 kg solids/m 3 filtrate
1  mcx 1  (2.0)(0.191)

solving for  ,   (4.37 109 )(67.0 103 )0.3  1.225 1011m/kg

 To calculate the flow rate of the filtrate:

 kg slurry  kg solid 
 0.778  0.191 
V 0.778(c x )  s  kg slurry 
 
tc (cs )  kg solid 
 308.1 3 
 m filtrate 
V
 4.823 10  4 m 3 filtrate/s
tc

Neglecting B = 0 and solving Eq. (12),

1/ 2
V 4.823 10 4
 2(0.33)(67.0 10 ) 3

  3 
At c A  250( 0.8937  10 )(1.225  1011
)(308.1) 
A  6.60 m 2
4. Constant-Rate Filtration
• In some case, filtration runs are made under conditions of
constant rate rather than constant pressure.
• This occur if the slurry is fed to the filter by a positive-
displacement pump.

 cs dV   Rm dV   cs dV 

 p   2 V    KV   2  (N/m5)
 A dt   A dt   A dt 
 p  KV V  C (16)
 Rm dV 
C  
 A dt  (N/m2)
4. Constant-Rate Filtration
• Assume: incompressible cake, KV and C are constants
characteristic of the slurry, cake, rate of filtration flow, etc.
• Hence, a plot of  p versus V, gives a straight line for a
constant rate dV/dt.
• The slope = KV. The intercept = C.
• The pressure increases as the cake thickness increases and the
volume of filtrate collected increases.
• Rearrange Eq. in terms of  p and t as variables: V  t
dV
(17)
dt
• Substitute Eq. (17) into Eq. (16):
 cs  dV  2   Rm dV 
 p   2   t    (18)
 A  dt    A dt 