Filtration, Cake Washing & Drying: Lab Testing to Pilot Testing to Project Installation and Performance Guarantees

This presentation will discuss lab testing, pilot testing, scale-up, installation and performance guarantee for a candle filter technology. The overall scheme can be used by process engineers to develop optimum filtration solutions for pressure or vacuum, batch or continuous and high-solids to clarification applications.

The original process filtered a specialty chemical in a filter press using a paper filter media at 170 degrees C. Diatomaceous earth and/or activated carbon were used as a body feed and precoat. The process had the typical problems associated with a filter press including bypass of slurry, manual operation, filter media plugging, non-reproducible quality plus the safety concerns of being burned with hot oil.

Application testing began in the laboratory using the a Pocket Leaf Filter. These tests determined the filtration pressure, cake thickness, filter media, cycle times and other parameters such as filtrate quality and final moisture content. The lab testing showed that the Candle Filter technology worked very well for this application.

Following the lab testing, the plant then rented a pilot candle filter with 1 m2 of filter area. The testing objectives were to confirm the laboratory results, observe cake discharge and develop the design parameters for the final scale-up and performance guarantees.

The presentation concludes with a description of the installation, PLC controls and performance guarantees.