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64
SolidLiquid Separation
64.1 Unit Operations in SolidLiquid Separation
Screening Sedimentation Centrifugation Hydrocycloning
Flotation

64.2 Equipment
64.3 Fundamental Concept
64.4 Design Principles

Shiao-Hung Chiang
University of Pittsburgh

Cake Filtration Ultrafiltration

64.5 Economics

Solidliquid separation plays a key role in nearly all manufacturing industries, including chemical,
mineral, paper, electronics, food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and biochemical industries, as well as in
energy production, pollution abatement, and environmental control. It also serves to fulfill vital needs
of our daily life, since we must have cartridge oil/fuel filters for operating an automobile, a paper filter
for the coffee machine, a sand filter bed for the municipal water treatment plant, and so on. In fact,
modern society cannot function properly without the benefit of the solidliquid separation.
Technically, solidliquid separation involves the removal and collection of a discrete phase of matter
(particles) existing in a dispersed or colloidal state in suspension. This separation is most often performed
in the presence of a complex medium structure in which physical, physicochemical and/or electrokinetic
forces interact. Their analysis requires combined knowledge of fluid mechanics, particle dynamics, solution chemistry, and surface/interface sciences.
Although the industrial equipment classified as solidliquid separation devices are too numerous to
be cited individually, it is generally accepted that these may be grouped into six categories of unit
operations: (1) screening, (2) sedimentation, (3) centrifugation, (4) hydrocycloning, (5) flotation, and
(6) filtration.

64.1 Unit Operations in SolidLiquid Separation

A description of each unit operation in solidliquid separation is presented in this section with the
exception of filtration. Liquid filtration, one of the most commonly used industrial operations, is discussed separately in subsequent sections to illustrate the fundamental concept and design considerations
for solidliquid separation.

Screening
Screening is the simplest mechanical operation to separate solid particles based on their sizes. When
solids are placed on a screen, particles smaller than the screen opening pass through while the larger
particles are retained by the screen. In this manner, feed solids can be separated into two different parts,

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namely, the undersized and the oversized portions. Often two or more screens of graded openings are
used in series to separate a material into different size fractions. In many instances, screening is used as
an analytical tool to determine particle size distribution in a sample of solid material. The particle size
distribution can be used as a basis for equipment selection in solidliquid separation (see Section 64.2
below). In addition to size separation, an important usage of screening is to perform mechanical dewatering (often combined with washing) of solid materials [Svarovsky, 1985]. For industrial applications,
screens are made of various metals in the forms of wire mesh and slotted or perforated plates. The
openings of standard screens range from 10 cm (4 in.) down to as small as a few micrometers. In screening
operations, mechanical vibration and shaking are often applied to the screen surface to enhance the
effectiveness of separation [Perry and Green, 1997].

Sedimentation
Sedimentation is a unit operation designed to separate suspended solid from a liquid stream by particle
settling under the influence of a body force, most commonly gravity. From an operation standpoint,
gravity sedimentation can be divided into two basic types: clarification and thickening. The objective of
clarification is to remove small quantities of suspended particulates from the liquid stream to produce
a clarified effluent or overflow stream. On the other hand, thickening is to concentrate dilute suspensions
for their subsequent treatment in filters or centrifuges.
The settling behavior of suspended particulates in a gravitational field is affected by three factors: the
particle size, the solid concentration, and the aggregation status of particles. In a dilute suspension, the
settling solid behaves as individual particles and the process is regarded as particulate or free settling
regime. Most clarifier operations fall into this regime. As the solid concentration increases, the suspended
particles have more chances to approach each other closely and to form aggregates. Once the concentration reaches a level at which the suspended particles settle as a mass, the corresponding sedimentation
is known as hindered or zone settling. In this regime, the settling behavior is related more to the solid
concentration than to the particle size. As the solid concentration increases further, a settled bed of
sediment mass is compressed by the overburden of sediment on top of it. Liquid is expressed from the
lower sediment layers and flows upward through the sediment. This regime is termed compression regime.
Sedimentation with the addition of chemical flocculant usually falls into this regime. A feed suspension
in a thickener (or clarifier) can be operated in any regime. Therefore, the design of sedimentation
equipment must consider all three regimes.
Figure 64.1 shows a schematic diagram of a thickener that exhibits three distinct zones: a clean liquid
(or clarification) zone at the top, a compression zone at the bottom, and a transition zone in between.
The thickener consists of several basic components: a tank to contain the slurry, a feed well for feed
supply (with or without flocculant), a rotating rake mechanism, an underflow solids-withdrawal and an
overflow launder. In addition, an underflow recirculation system (not shown in the diagram) is often
used. The physical size of a conventional thickener can vary from a few meters to more than 100 meters
in diameter. For the operation of large vessels, careful consideration must be given to the design of the
supporting structure for the rotating rake mechanism and the control scheme for liquid levels and flow
rates. Detailed descriptions of major components and instrumentations used for different types of
thickeners can be found in the literature [Perry and Green, 1997; Schweitzer, 1997].

Centrifugation
Centrifuges are equipment that employs centrifugal force for the effective separation of solidliquid
suspension. The centrifugal force used in such equipment ranges up to 10,000 times the gravitational
acceleration. Liquidsolid separation centrifuges can be broadly divided into two types: sedimentation
centrifuges and filtering centrifuges.
Due to its much stronger force field, sedimentation centrifuges can be used to separate very fine
particles as well as emulsions, which might normally be stable in a gravitational field. These centrifuges

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64-3

SolidLiquid Separation

Feed Suspension + Flocculant

Rake

Feedwell

Tank

Overflow
Launder

Clean Liquid Zone

(Clarification)

Transition Zone
Settling Solids

Overflow

Compression Zone

SolidWithdrawal

Underflow

FIGURE 64.1 Schematic diagram of thickener operation.

are not usually sensitive to feed solid concentration because the

liquid does not have to move through the solids or a medium. In
order for a particle of a given size to be removed from the liquid, a
sufficient time should be allowed for the particle to settle and reach
the wall of the separator bowl. For example, in a simple tubular
centrifuge, as shown in Figure 64.2, the bowl consists of a vertical
tube with a large height to diameter ratio, which rotates at a high
speed about its vertical axis [McCabe et al., 2001]. The feed point is
at the bottom and the liquid discharge is at the top. The incoming
suspension starts to rotate with the bowl, and its angular velocity
will soon become identical with that of the bowl. There is therefore
no tangential flow in the bowl. The rotating liquid moves upward
through the bowl at a constant velocity, carrying solid particles with
it. In the meantime, under the influence of high centrifugal forces
the solid particles begin to settle toward the wall. The total settling
time is limited by the residence time of the liquid in the bowl. At
the end of this time if the particle does not reach the wall, it leaves
the centrifuge with the liquid. Only those particles that reach the
wall within the residence time are removed from the liquid.
Filtering centrifuges separate solid particles and liquid from a
solidliquid suspension by employing pressure resulting from the
centrifugal action to force the liquor through the filter medium,
leaving the solid particles behind [Zeitsch, 1990]. The density difference between the solids and the liquid, which governs the sepa-

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Motor

Liquid

Liquid

Rotating Bowl

Solids
Feed

FIGURE 64.2 Tubular centrifuge.

(Source: McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C.,
and Harriott, P. 2001. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 6th
ed., Figure 29.36, p. 1049. McGrawHill, New York.)

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Vortex Finder
Feed
Inlet

Overflow
Feed
Outer
Vortex

Cylindrical
Section

Inner Vortex
with Air Core
Cone
Section
Apex
(a)

Underflow
(b)

FIGURE 64.3 Schematic diagram of hydrocyclone: (a) principal features and (b) flow pattern.

ration in the sedimentation centrifuges, is no longer a prerequisite. The common feature of all filtering
centrifuges is a rotating basket having a slotted or perforated wall covered with a filter medium, such as
canvas or metal cloth, on which the deposited solid particles form a filter cake. Thus, the centrifugal
filtration can be viewed as a cake filtration process under constant pressure (due to centrifugal acceleration). The rate of filtration can be calculated using the two-resistance model for cake filtration (see
Section 64.4 below).

Hydrocycloning
The hydrocyclone is another device using centrifugal force to separate solids from liquid based on
differences in density and particle size. A typical hydrocyclone consists of a cylindrical section and a
conical section (with no internal rotating parts) as shown in Figure 64.3. An external pump is used
to transport the liquid suspension to the hydrocyclone through a tangential inlet at high velocity,
which in turn generates the liquid rotation and the necessary centrifugal force. The outlet for the bulk
of the liquid is connected to a vortex finder located on the axis of upper cylindrical section of the
vessel. The underflow, which carries most of the solids, leaves through an adjustable opening (apex)
at the bottom of the conical section. It should be noted that the solidliquid separation in hydrocyclones is never complete because there is always a significant amount of liquid discharging with the
solids through the underflow. This feature limits the applications of hydrocyclone to clarification and
thickening. In some cases, the hydrocyclone is also used as a classifier to separate suspended particles
into different size fractions.
The internal working of a hydrocyclone is best described in terms of a double spiral liquid flow pattern
within its body [Kelsall, 1952; Rushton et al., 2000; and Svarovsky, 1985]. A schematic view of the spiral
flow inside a hydrocyclone is shown in Figure 64.3(b). Liquid on entry commences downward flow in
the outer regions of the hydrocyclone body. This combined with the rotational motion to which it is
constrained creates the outer spiral. At the same time, some of the downward-moving liquid begins to
feed across towards the center. The amount of inward motion of liquid increases as it approaches the
cone apex. Liquid in this inward stream ultimately reverses its direction and flows upwards to the cyclone
overflow outlet via the vortex finder. The reversal applies only to the vertical component of velocity, and
the inner spiral rotates in the same circular direction as the outer one. Wall friction causing obstruction
of tangential velocity results in a nontangential motion. Consequently, a strong axially directed current
occurs near the wall, which carries solid particles to the apex opening and out of the hydrocyclone. Thus,
it achieves the desired solidliquid separation.

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64-5

SolidLiquid Separation

Flotation
The use of bubbles to float fine particles in a liquid is commonly known as flotation process. Such a
process consists of attaching gas bubbles to the suspended solid particles to alter their apparent density
for selective levitation of particles to be separated. The flotation operation involves not only the adhesion
of small particles to gas bubbles, but also the collection of the gassy particles in the form of froth. Thus,
the bubble flotation is also named as froth flotation.
The flotation process is fundamentally different from other mechanical separation techniques in that
flotation is a surface property-driven process, which depends upon complex phenomena occurring at
the interface of solid particles and gas bubbles [Fuerstenau et al., 1985; Jaycock and Parfitt, 1981; and
Zettlemoyer, 1969]. In a bubble-particle attachment process, the tendency of the particle to replace its
solidliquid interface by the solidvapor interface is termed hydrophobicity or floatability. If a surface is
completely wetted by water, it would be denoted as high-energy surface (i.e., hydrophilic). Most metals
and minerals exhibit high-energy surfaces. On the other hand, hydrocarbon surfaces are low energetic
(i.e., hydrophobic). The particles with a low free energy have a high floatability.
The contact between particles and gas bubbles in a suspension is considered as a two-step process: (1)
the collision between the particle and the bubble and (2) the attachment of the particle onto the gas
bubble. Each step can be modeled as a stochastic event. Thus, the overall probability of particle collection
by gas bubble is defined as the product of the probability of particlebubble collision and the probability
of adhesion after the collision. The collision probability depends mainly on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flotation cell while the adhesion probability is related to the hydrophobicity of the particle.
Traditionally, flotation is carried out in an open cell equipped with a gas-inducing agitator (turbine
or impeller). As shown in Figure 64.4, air is induced through the air passage in the agitator shaft by
suction. The rotational motion of the agitator disperses air bubbles into the suspension. These bubbles
attach to suspended particles to form aggregates. The particlebubble aggregates float upward to the froth
layer, which is mechanically skimmed off or flows over a weir into the discharge launder as a froth
product. The nonfloatable particles are withdrawn from the bottom of the cell as tailings. A more recent
development in flotation is the use of bubble column as a flotation device [Finch et al., 1995]. In Figure
64.5, it shows that the space in a flotation column can be divided into two parts: the collection zone and
the froth zone. The feed enters the column via a feed port at the middle and flows downward to the base
of the column. The gas bubbles are generated either by an internal sparger near the bottom of the column
or an external gas bubble generator. To minimize the effect of unexpected particle entrainment, a wash
water device is added near the top of the column just below the overflow weir for cleaning the froth. The
operating performance of a flotation column is generally superior to that of open cell flotation.
Air
Particle-Laden Froth

Pulp

Bubble

Particles

Agitator

FIGURE 64.4 Conventional open-cell flotation.

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Wash Water
ParticleLaden Froth

Feed

Froth Zone

Interface

Column
Diameter
Collection Zone

Gas
Bubbles

Gas

Sparger

Tailings

FIGURE 64.5 Column flotation.

64.2 Equipment
The most important criterion for the selection of equipment for a given application of solidliquid
separation is the particle size of the system. Figure 64.6 shows the general range of applicability of major
types of equipment in terms of the particle size and representative materials involved. Of course, this
representation is an oversimplification of the selection process, as many other factors are not considered.
For example, the solid concentration in the feed mixture (suspension) can influence the choice of
equipment type. In general, deep-bed filtration is best for treating dilute slurry with solid concentration
less than 1%, whereas cake filtration is the method of choice for slurries having solid concentration much
greater than 1%.

Flotation
Deep-bed Filtration
Screening
Cycloning
Sedimentation/Thickening
Cake Filtration
Microfiltration
Ultrafiltration
Virus

Clay

Silt

Fine
Sand

Coarse
Sand

Gravel

Bacteria
molecules
104

103

colloids
102

ultrafine
101

1.0

fine
10

medium
102

Mean Particle Size, micrometer

FIGURE 64.6 Equipment selection for solidliquid separation based on particle size.

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coarse
103

104

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SolidLiquid Separation

TABLE 64.1 Filtration Equipment

Discontinuous Filters

Semicontinuous Filters

Continuous Filters

Plate and frame filter press

Leaf filter
Tray filter

Rotary pan filter

Semicontinuous belt filter
Automatic filter press
Electrical precipitator

Drum filter
Rotary disk filter
Vacuum belt filter
Rotary disk cross-flow filter
Rotating cylinder cross-flow filter

It should also be pointed out that the various filtration processes (deep-bed filtration, cake filtration,
microfiltration, and ultrafiltration) cover nearly the entire range of particle size. Therefore, the term
filtration is often used as a synonym to represent the field of solidliquid separation. The most commonly
used filtration equipment is given in Table 64.1.
A detailed procedure for equipment selection for a given requirement in solidliquid separation can
be found in Perrys Chemical Engineers Handbook [Perry and Green, 1997].

64.3 Fundamental Concept

There are two general types of operations for separating solid particulate matter from a liquid phase. In
the first type, the separation is accomplished by moving the particles through a constrained liquid phase.
The particle movement is induced by a body force, such as gravity or centrifugal acceleration. For
example, in sedimentation, the solid particles settle due to a difference in density between solid and
liquid under the influence of gravity. In centrifugation and hydrocycloning, the separation is effected
by centrifugal acceleration.
In the second type of operation, exemplified by the filtration process, the separation is accomplished
by contacting the solidliquid suspension with a porous medium (see Figure 64.7). The porous medium
acts as a semipermeable barrier that allows the liquid to flow through its capillary channels and retains
the solid particles on its surfaces. Depending on the mechanism for arrest and accumulation of particles,
this type of separation can be further divided into two classes [Perry and Green, 1997]: deep-bed filtration
and cake filtration.
Deep-bed filtration is also known by terms such as blocking filtration, surface filtration, and clarification
[see Figure 64.7(b)]. This type of filtration is preferred when the solid content of the suspension is less
than 1%. In such an operation, a deep bed of packing material (e.g., sand, diatomite, or synthetic fibers)
is used to capture the fine solid particles from a dilute suspension. The particles to be removed are several
orders of magnitude smaller than the size of the packing material, and they will penetrate a considerable
depth into the bed before being captured. The particles can be captured by several mechanisms [Tien,
1989]:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

The direct-sieving action at the constrictions in the pore structure

Gravity settling
Brownian diffusion
Interception at the solidliquid interfaces
Impingement
Attachment due to electrokinetic forces

Cake filtration is the most commonly used industrial process for separating fine particles from a
solidliquid suspension. In cake filtration, the filtered particles are stopped by the surface of a filter
medium (a porous barrier) and then piled upon one another to form a cake of increasing thickness [see
Figure 64.7(a)]. This cake of solid particles forms the true filtering medium. In the case of liquid
filtration, a filter cake with filtrate (the liquid) trapped in the void spaces among the particles is obtained
at the end of the operation. In many instances where the recovery of the solids is the ultimate objective,
it is necessary that the liquid content in the cake be as low as possible. In order to reduce the liquid
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The Engineering Handbook, Second Edition

Suspension
Fluid-Particle
Suspension
Filter medium
Cake
Medium
Filtrate

Filtrate

(a)

(b)
Suspension

Concentrated suspension
(Retentate)

Membrane
(Medium)
Filtrate
(Permeate)
(c)

FIGURE 64.7 Mechanisms of filtration: (a) cake filtration, (b) deep-bed filtration, (c) cross-flow filtration (ultrafiltration). (Source: McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C., and Harriott, P. 2001. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 6th
ed., Figure 29.3, p. 992. McGraw-Hill, New York.)

content, the cake is subjected to desaturating forces. These forces can be mechanical, hydrodynamic,
electrical, or acoustic in nature [Muralidhara, 1989].
When the mean particle size is less than a few micrometers, the conventional cake filtration operation
becomes ineffective, primarily due to the formation of high-resistance filter cake. To overcome this
obstacle, cross-flow filtration (often coupled with ultrafiltration) is used to limit the cake growth. In the
cross-flow configuration (e.g., in continuous ultrafiltration), the solidliquid suspension flows tangentially to the filter medium rather than perpendicularly to the medium as in conventional filtration. The
shear forces of the flow in the boundary layer adjacent to the surface of the medium continuously remove
a part of the cake and thus prevent the accumulation of solid particles on the medium surface. In this
manner, the rate of filtration can be maintained at a high level to ensure a cost-effective operation.

64.4 Design Principles

Cake Filtration
In the design of a cake filtration process, the pressure drop, Dp, the surface area of the cake, A, and the
filtration time, t, are important parameters to be determined. As the filtration proceeds, particles retained
on the filter medium form a filter cake (see Figure 64.8). For an incompressible cake the pressure drop,
Dp, across the filter cake and filter medium can be expressed as:
amc

Dp = pa - pb =
+ Rm m u
A

(64.1)

where m is the viscosity of the filtrate, u is the velocity of the filtrate, mc is the total mass of solids in the
cake, Rm is the filter-medium resistance, and a is defined as the specific cake resistance. The specific cake
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64-9

Medium

SolidLiquid Separation

Lc

Filter cake
Direction of flow
of suspension

Filtrate

Upstream face of cake

Pa

P
Pb

FIGURE 64.8 Pressure gradient in filter medium and cake.

resistance depends on particle size, shape, and distribution. It is also a function of porosity of filter cake
and pressure drop. For incompressible cakes, a is independent of the pressure drop and the position in
the filter cake.
For data analysis, Equation (64.1) is usually rewritten as follows: [McCabe et al., 2001]
dt
m a cV

=
+ Rm
dV A(- Dp) A

(64.2)

where t is the filtration time, V is the volume of filtrate, and c is the mass of solid per unit filtrate volume.
In order to use this equation for design of a cake filtration operation, the specific cake resistance and
filter-medium resistance must first be determined by performing experimental tests. Equation (64.2) can
be further integrated under constant pressure to give:
1
t Kc
= V +
V 2
qo

(64.3)

where
Kc =

mca
A 2 Dp

and

1 mRm
=
qo ADp

(64.4)

A plot of t/V against V yields a straight line with a slope of (Kc/2) and an intercept of (1/qo). Using
Equation (64.4), the values of a and Rm can be calculated. For slightly compressible cake, a becomes a
function of pressure drop and can be represented by the following correlation:
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a = a 0 (Dp)a

(64.5)

where a0 and a are empirical constants.

Equation (64.2) through Equation (64.5) can be used for design calculations for a filtration operation
with incompressible and slightly compressible filter cakes. For the case of highly compressible cakes the
effect of variations in cake porosity on specific cake resistance must be considered [Tiller and Shirato, 1964].

Ultrafiltration
Ultrafiltration is a membrane process (see Chapter 63 on membrane separation) capable of separating
or collecting submicrometer-size particles from a suspension or solution. It has been widely used to
concentrate or fractionate a solution containing macromolecules, colloids, salts, or sugars. The ultrafiltration membrane can be described as a sieve with pore size ranging from molecular dimension to a few
micrometers. It is usually polymeric and asymmetric, designed for high productivity (permeation flux)
and resistance to plugging. Ultrafiltration membranes are made commercially in sheet, capillary, and
tubular forms.
In the design of the ultrafiltration process, either batch operation or continuous operation (employing
a cross-flow configuration) can be used. In the batch operation, the retentate is returned to the feed tank
for recycling through the filter unit. It is the fastest method of concentrating a given amount of material
and it also requires the minimum membrane area. In order to determine the membrane surface area, A,
for the ultrafiltration process, the following three parameters are required: flux, J, which is a measure of
the membrane productivity; permeate, Vp, which is the amount of material that has passed through the
membrane; and retentate, VR, which is the amount of material that has been retained by the membrane.
During the batch ultrafiltration operation, flux decreases because of an increase in concentration in the
recycled stream. Furthermore, the phenomenon of concentration polarization tends to cause a higher
concentration at the membrane surface than that in the bulk. Therefore, an average flux should be used
in the design. The average flux, Jav, can be estimated by the following equation:
J av = J f + 0.33 (J i - J f )

(64.6)

where Jf is the final flux at the highest concentration and Ji is the initial flux. The material balance gives
V f = Vr + V p

(64.7)

where Vf, Vr, and Vp are volume of feed, retentate, and permeate, respectively.
The membrane area can be expressed as
A = (V f - Vr )/ J av

(64.8)

Equation (64.6) to Equation (64.8) can be used to estimate the membrane surface area required for a
given ultrafiltration operation [Cheryan, 1986].

64.5 Economics
The cost for a given solidliquid separation process varies widely. For example, the cost for purchasing
industrial filtration equipment can vary from several hundred dollars to over ten thousand dollars per
square meter of filter area. Such a large variation in cost is due to a wide variety of individual features
and materials of construction required by specific applications. A good source of information on the cost
of common industrial filtration and other solidliquid separation equipment can be found in Perrys
Handbook [Perry and Green, 1997].
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SolidLiquid Separation

64-11

Defining Terms
Cake filtration The separation of particles is effected by contacting the solidliquid suspension with
a porous filter medium (made of cloth, synthetic fibers, or metals). The filter medium allows
the liquid to flow through its pores while it retains the particles on its surface to form a cake.
As filtration proceeds, the cake of solid particles grows in thickness and becomes the true
filtering medium.
Centrifugation Centrifugation is a separation process based on the centrifugal force either to hold
the material in it or to let the material pass through it. Separation is achieved due to the
difference in density.
Hydrocycloning Hydrocycloning is a centrifugal separation process. The feed is introduced tangentially into the cylindrical portion of a cyclone, causing it to flow in a tight conical vortex. The
bulk of the liquid leaves upward through a pipe located at the center of the vortex. Solid particles
are thrown to the wall and discharged with a small portion of the liquid through the bottom
apex of the cyclone.
Deep-bed filtration In this type of filtration a deep bed of packing materials, such as sand, diatomite,
or synthetic fibers, is used as the filter medium. The particles are captured within the packed
bed while the liquid passes through it.
Flotation Flotation is a gravity separation process based either on the use of a dense medium in which
the desired particles will float or on the attachment of gas bubbles to particles, which are then
carried to the liquid surface to be separated.
Membrane filtration In membrane filtration a thin permeable film of inert polymeric material is used
as the filter medium. The pore size of the membrane ranges from molecular dimension to a
few micrometers. It is widely used to collect or fractionate macromolecules or colloidal suspensions. It is also applied to beverage filtration and preparation of ultrapure water.
Screening Screening is an operation by which particles are introduced onto a screen of a given aperture
size to separate particles of different sizes.
Specific cake resistance Specific cake resistance is the resistance of a filter cake having unit weight of
dry solids per unit area of filtration surface.
Thickening/sedimentation Thickening/sedimentation is a gravity-settling process that removes the
maximum quantity of liquid from a slurry and leaves a sludge for further processing.
Ultrafiltration Ultrafiltration is a special type of membrane filtration. It is used for concentration
and purification of macromolecular solutes and colloids in which the solution is caused to flow
under pressure parallel to a membrane surface (in a cross-flow configuration). Solutes (or
submicrometer particles) are rejected at the semipermeable membrane while the solvents and
small solute molecules pass through the membrane.

References
Cheryan, M., 1986. Ultrafiltration Handbook. Technomic, Lancaster, PA.
Finch, J. A., Uribe-Salas, A. and Xu, M. 1995. Column flotation, In: Flotation Science and Engineering,
Matis, K. A., Ed. Marcel Dekker, New York. pp. 291330.
Fuerstenau, M. C., Miller, J. D., and Kuhn, M. C. 1985. Chemistry of Flotation, Society of Mining Engineers,
New York, p. 2.
Jaycock, M. J. and Parfitt, G. D. 1981. Chemistry of Interfaces, Ellis Horwood Limited, New York.
Kelsall, D. F. 1952. A study of the motion of solid particles in a hydraulic cyclone. Trans. Inst. Chem. Eng.
30:87104.
McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C., and Harriott, P. 2001. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 6th ed.
McGraw-Hill, New York. pp. 9861056.
Muralidhara, H. S. (Ed.) 1989. Solid/Liquid Separation. Battelle Press, Columbus, OH.
Perry, R. H. and Green, D. W. (Ed.) 1997. Perrys Chemical Engineers Handbook, 7th ed., McGraw-Hill,
New York. Chapters 18 and 22.
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Rushton, A., Ward, A. S., and Holdich, R. G. 2000. SolidLiquid Filtration and Separation Technology, 2nd
ed., Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany. Chapters 2 and 3.
Svarovsky, L. 1985. SolidLiquid Separation Processes and Technology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 6871.
Schweitzer, P. A. 1997. Handbook of Separation Techniques for Chemical Engineers, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill,
New York. pp. 4.140-4.156.
Tien, C. 1989. Granular Filtration of Aerosols and Hydrosols. Butterworths, Stoneham, MA.
Tiller, F. M. and Shirato, M. 1964. The role of porosity in filtration: VI. new definition of filtration
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Further Information
An excellent in-depth discussion on the theory and practice of solidliquid separation is presented in
SolidLiquid Separation, 3rd ed., by Ladislav Svarovsky, Butterworths, London, 1990.
The proceedings of the annual American Filtration and Separation Society meeting and the World
Filtration Congress document new developments in all aspects of solidliquid separation.
Four major journals cover the field of solidliquid separation:
SolidLiquid Separation Journal. Published by the American Filtration and Separation Society, Houston, TX.
Particulate Science and Technology: An International Journal. Published by Taylor and Francis, Washington, DC.
Transactions of Filtration Society. Published by the Filtration Society, Leics. LE67 8PP, UK.
Separations Technology. Published by Butterworth-Heinemann, Stoneham, MA.

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