Unit 4

Filtration
Filter Medium (Characteristics of filter medium)
• 1. It should retain the solids to be filtered, giving a reasonably clear filtrate.
• 2. It should not plug or blind (low rate of entrapment of solids within its interstices).
• 3. It should be mechanically strong to withstand the process conditions.
• 4. It should be resistant to the corrosive action of fluid.
• 5. It should offer as little resistance as possible to the flow of filtrate.
• 6. It should possess ability to discharge cake easily and cleanly.
• 7. It should have acceptable resistance to mechanical wear.
• 8. It should be cheap.
• 9. It should have long life.
• In cake filtration, the filter medium is frequently a textile fabric.
• • Canvas cloth, woolen cloth, metal cloth of monel or stainless steel, glass cloth and synthetic
fibre cloth - nylon, polypropylene, etc., are commonly used as filter media in industrial filtration
practice depending upon the process conditions.
• • For an alkaline slurry, nylon cloths are used while for an acidic slurry, polypropylene cloths are
used as a filter medium.
Filter Aids
• Filtration of slurries containing very finely divided solids or slimy, deformable flocs is very
difficult due to formation of a dense, impermeable cake that quickly plug the filter
media.
• In such cases the porosity of the cake must be increased to allow passage of the filtrate
at a reasonable rate. This is achieved by adding a filter aid to the slurry before filtration.
• A filter aid is a granular or fibrous material which packs to form a bed of very high
voidage. Because of this, they are capable of increasing the porosity of the filter cake. A
filter aid should be of low bulk density, should be porous, should be capable of forming a
porous cake, and must be chemically inert to the filtrate.
• The commercial filter aids are
• diatomaceous earth - almost pure silica prepared from deposits of diatom (marine
organisms) skeletons,
• expanded pearlite, and
• Asbestos fibres.
• The filter aids are used for sludges that are difficult to filter and the use of filter aids is
normally restricted to filtration technique in which the filtrate is valuable and the cake is
the waste product.
• Methods of using filter aids :
• (i) adding a filter aid to the slurry before filtration, and
• (ii) precoating, i.e., by depositing a layer of a filter aid on the filter medium before
filtration.
• Precoats prevent gelatinous solids from plugging the filter medium and give a clear
filtrate. The precoat is a part of the medium rather than that of the cake.
• When the filter aid is directly added to the slurry before filtration, the presence of it
increases the porosity of the sludge, decreases its compressibility and reduces the
resistance of cake during the filtration operation.
FACTORS AFFECTING RATE OF FILTRATION
• The rate at which the filtrate is obtained in a filtration operation, i.e., the rate of filtration
depends upon the following factors :
• 1. Pressure drop across the feed inlet and far side of the filter medium.
• 2. Area of the filtering surface.
• 3. Viscosity of the filtrate.
• 4. Resistance of the filter medium and initial layers of cake.
• 5. Resistance of the filter cake
• The rate of filtration is directly proportional to the pressure difference across a filter medium.
Therefore, higher the pressure difference across a filter medium, higher will be the rate of
filtration.
• The rate of filtration is directly proportional to the square of the area of a filtering surface.
Therefore, higher the area of a filtering surface, higher will be the rate of filtration.
• The rate of filtration is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the filtrate. Therefore, higher
the viscosity of the filtrate, lower will be the rate of filtration.
• The rate of filtration is inversely proportional to the resistance of a cake or filter medium.
Therefore, higher the resistance of a cake or filter medium, lower will be the rate of filtration
TYPES OF FILTRATION EQUIPMENTS
• Two major groups based on cake formation
• (i) Cake filters.
• (ii) Clarifying filters.
• Method of operation or operating cycle as
• (i) Batch filters
• (ii) Continuous filters
• Driving force used for separation, e.g., gravity, pressure, vacuum or centrifugal.
• Pressure difference across the medium (i) gravity filters, (ii) pressure filters, (iii) vacuum filters,
(iv) centrifugal filters.
• Industrial cake filters are usually classified as follows :
• 1. Batch (discontinuous) pressure filters e.g., filter press - plate and frame press, pressure leaf
filters.
• 2. Continuous pressure filters e.g., pressure filter-thickener, continuous rotary pressure filters.
• 3. Batch vacuum filters e.g., vacuum nutsches, vacuum leaf filters.
• 4. Continuous vacuum filters e.g., rotary drum filters, vacuum precoat filters.
• 5. Centrifugal filters (batch and continuous) e.g., suspended basket centrifuge - top driven or
bottom driven, continuous filtering centrifugals.
The factors to be considered while selecting equipment for filtration and
operating conditions are
• 1. Properties of the fluid such as viscosity, density and
corrosiveness/chemical reactivity.
• 2. Nature of the solid which includes particle size, size distribution, particle
shape and packing characteristics of solid particles.
• 3. Concentration of solids in slurry, i.e., feed slurry concentration.
• 4. Quantity of slurry to be handled and its value.
• 5. Valuable product of operation.
• 6. Necessity of washing the solids.
• 7. Initial investment.
• 8. Necessity of pretreatment of the slurry for ease in filtration.
• 9. Cost of labour and power.
Primary Filter - Sand Filters
• Sand filters (clarifying filters) are used for
water treatment and water purification.
• The medium of this filter is sand of varying
grades. When we have to remove taste and
odour, the sand filter may include a layer of
activated carbon.
• There are several kinds of sand filters : rapid
(gravity) sand filters, slow sand filters,
pressure sand filters and upflow sand filters.
Rapid Sand Filter
Rapid sand filters
• It is a gravity filter and is widely used filter in the treatment of water. It consists of an
open water tight tank 3 to 3.5 m deep, containing a filter bed, a layer of coarse sand
0.6 to 0.75 m thick.
• The size of sand particles ranges from 0.4 to 1 mm. The sand bed is supported by a
layer of graded gravel (of the size range of 1 to 50 mm) 0.45 m thick.
• Below the gravel there is an under drainage system consisting of a central
longitudinal conduit or manifold with strainers mounted on the top and pipes of
small diameter called laternals that carry perforations on the sides and bottom.
• In the operation, water to be filtered is introduced from the top, it passes downward
through the filter bed. During its flow the suspended impurities get trapped in the
bed and almost clear water leaves the filter from the bottom.
• The filter bed is periodically cleaned by backwashing. During backwashing with water,
the upward flow carries the deposited floc with it. The essential characteristics of
rapid sand filters are :
• (i) rate of filtration is high
• (ii) cleaning is done through backwashing and
• (iii) careful pre-treatment of water is necessary.
Pressure Sand Filters
• Pressure sand filters are essentially same as rapid sand filters,
• a suitable pressure and the filter medium is contained in a steel tank.
• These filters are commonly used for the treatment of boiler feed water.
• The water, instead of gravity fed, is pumped through the bed under pressure. Such units
are built as vertical or horizontal units.
• The former being used for a relatively small amount of water and the latter for greater
volumes.
• Pressure sand filtration is often carried after coagulation and sedimentation and if not,
the coagulants are introduced to the filtered water pipe ahead of the filters. These filters
are operated with a feed pressure of 2 to 5 bar.
• Vertical pressure filters
• diameter from 0.5 to 2.5 m and
• height from 2 to 2.5 m,
• Horizontal units
• 2.5 m in diameter and
• are of any desired length upto 7.5 m.
• The pressure filters occupy less space than the gravity filters of the same capacity.
Pressure Filters
• Filters which operate with super-atmospheric pressure on the upstream side of the filter medium
and atmospheric or greater pressure at the downstream side of the filter medium are termed as
pressure filters.
• the filtering pressure is applied on the upstream side by a liquid pump or by a compressed gas.
Hence, pressure filters are fed by plunger, screw, diaphragm or centrifugal pumps
• Advantages of Pressure filters :
• (i) Use of high filtration pressure results in relatively rapid filtrations.
• (ii) These filters are compact so they provide a large filtration area per unit of floor space occupied
by the filter.
• (iii) Batch pressure filters offer greater flexibility than any other filter at relatively low initial
investment.
• Disadvantages of Pressure filters :
• (i) Difficult to adapt to continuous processes and the operating cost is high in many applications.
• (ii) Continuous pressure filters are inflexible to some extent and are expensive.
• A filter press is the simplest and the most commonly used filtration equipment.
• Two main forms in which this press is made are : the plate and frame press, and the recessed plate
press/chamber press.
Plate and frame
The recessed plate press/chamber press.
VACUUM FILTERS
• Filters which operate with less than atmospheric pressure on the downstream
side of the filter medium and atmospheric pressure on the upstream side of
the filter medium are referred to as vacuum filters
• Maximum filtering pressure of one atmosphere.
• Vacuum filters need a vacuum pump which is a source of the filtration driving
force
• Vacuum filters are classified as discontinuous vacuum filters (vacuum nutsch
filter) and continuous vacuum filters (rotary drum filter).
Nutsch filter
Rotary drum filter