CONTINUUM APPROACH

TO OPTIMIZING
DOWNSTREAM FINAL DRYING
WITH UPSTREAM
SOLID-LIQUID FILTRATION
Barry A. Perlmutter
President & Managing Director
BHS-Sonthofen Inc.

© BHS-Sonthofen
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

• Most often when analyzing a new process development approach,

engineers take a “silo” approach and look at each step independently
• This presentation illustrates that by taking a holistic approach and
looking at each step not individually but as a continuum, the process
solution becomes much more efficient
• Data is presented showing how to balance each of process steps for
maximum efficiency

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-Sonthofen Inc. and AVA-GmbH

• Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries of BHS-Sonthofen GmbH and Part of the

BHS Group of Companies
• The BHS technologies provide for thin-cake filtration, cake washing,
and dewatering based upon pressure or vacuum, for batch or
continuous operations from high solids slurries to clarification
applications with solids to 1% to PPM levels
• The AVA technologies provide for turbulent mixing, reacting and
gentle drying of wet cakes, powders and process slurries. The
vertical and horizontal technologies are vacuum/atmospheric, batch/
continuous, for final drying to “bone-dry” powders

© BHS-Sonthofen
EXISTING PROCESS & EXPANSION
- This specialty chemical process has crystals in a methanol slurry
which must be filtered, washed, dewatered and then dried

- Objectives for Expansion:

- Continuous Operation from Batch Operation
- Maximum solid-liquid filtration performance
- Low wash ratios for minimum wash media consumption
- Lowest possible residual moisture in discharged filter cake
- Final moisture of <1.0%

© BHS-Sonthofen
EXISTING PROCESS & EXPANSION
- The standard approach is to optimize the solid-liquid filtration step
with maximum washing and pre-drying efficiency and then with
this information optimize the downstream drying

- The operating company, however, took a different approach and

looked at the process as a continuum from solid-liquid filtration
through cake washing and dewatering to final drying.

- The Continuum Approach” resulted in operational energy and

nitrogen savings as well as lower capital and installation costs
for a more efficient and reliable process.

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS LABORATORY TESTS

© BHS-Sonthofen
SELECTION OF FILTRATION TECHNOLOGY

CAKE STRUCTURE /PROCESS RESULTS

FROM LAB TESTING
• Cake Thickness (25 mm)
• Pressure Filtration (Less than 2 minutes @ 200 kg DS/m2/hour);
• Therefore suitable for continuous operation
on the BHS Rotary Pressure Filter
• Filter Media (14 um)
• Cake Washing (Efficient wash ratios of 0.7 to 1.2 kg MeOH/kg DS)
• Cake Drying (11 – 30%)
• Cake Discharge (Good)
© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS LABORATORY TESTS

DRIED
WET FILTER
FILTER MOTHER WASH
CAKE SMELL SMELL DEWATERING
CAKE FILTRATE FILTRATE
(NV%)
(NV%)

CRYSTALLINE
218032 IV/1 92 ++/++++ 100 0/++++ CLEAR CLEAR
PRECIPITATE

218032 III/1 88 ++/++++ 99.8 0/++++ CLEAR TRACES CLEAR

CRYSTALLINE
218032 III/2 87.2 +++/++++ 100 0/++++ TRACES CLEAR
PRECIPITATE
CRYSTALLINE
218032 III/3 93 +/++++ 99.3 0/++++ TRACES CLEAR
PRECIPITATE
CRYSTALLINE
218032 II/2 93 0/++++ 100 0/++++ CLEAR CLEAR
PRECIPITATE
CRYSTALLINE
218032 II/3 97.7 +/++++ 100 0/++++ CLEAR CLEAR
PRECIPITATE

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

◼ Pressure Filtration
◼ Displacement Cake Washing
◼ Countercurrent Cake Washing
◼ Solvent Exchange & Extraction
◼ Steaming
◼ Drying
◼ Atmospheric Cake Discharge

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

Wash Inlet

Drying Gas Inlet

Outlets

Separating
Element
Solids
Discharge

Slurry Inlet Cloth Rinse

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER:
DRUM & CELL INSERTS

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

Packing
Synthetic
Filter Media
Installed on
the Cell
Insert

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
SOLIDS DISCHARGE

Scraper
Knife for
Cake
Discharge

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
SOLIDS DISCHARGE

Page 16 © BHS-Sonthofen
ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
PILOT UNIT, 0.18 M2

© BHS-Sonthofen
CONCLUSION FROM THE LAB &
PILOT TESTING AND SCALE-UP
• Media = 14 micron and a cake thickness of 25 mm
• Filtration times and filtrate quality were achieved
• Efficient wash ratios of 0.7 to 1.2 kg MeOH/kg DS
• The moisture content varied between 11 – 30% based upon the
nitrogen for blowing for drying
• Sizing of the RPF for moisture of 11% resulted in a filtration area of
2.88 m2 with a nitrogen solvent recovery package to reduce the
nitrogen usage
• This is the important point which led to the optimization testing of the
AVA dryer.

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-AVA MIXER & DRYER TECHNOLOGIES
Scope

Horizontal Vertical
Capacities to 60,000 liters Capacities to 60,000 liters

Design Conditions: FV to 30 bar; -30°C to 700°C

19 © BHS-Sonthofen
AVA VERTICAL DRYER

20 © BHS-Sonthofen AVA GmbH & Co. KG

AVA VERTICAL DRYER

▪ Intensive mixing reduced

mixing times

▪ Low shear forces due to

vertical vortex movement

▪ Bearing / sealing of the shaft

outside the product space

21 © BHS-Sonthofen
AVA VERTICAL DRYER PILOT TEST UNIT

22 © BHS-Sonthofen AVA GmbH & Co. KG

PROCESS DRYING RESULTS IN THE
AVA TEST CENTER

Max.
Initial product Vacuum Drying Final Dryer Size
moisture temp. (mbar) time moisture
100 - 300 2.4 m3
17.5% 65°C 45 min <1.0%
5-120 1.9 m3
11.6% 95°C 35 min <1.0%
100 - 300 3 m3
30 % 65°C 63 min <1.0%

The conclusion from the testing shows a small increase in the drying
time and dryer sizing from a cake moisture of 30% moisture as
compared with 11.6%.

23 © BHS-Sonthofen
PROCESS DRYING RESULTS IN THE
AVA TEST CENTER

24 © BHS-Sonthofen
CONTINUUM APPROACH & SUMMARY

• Initial Design
• Filter Size: 2.88 m2 with 11% moisture using 260 m3/hr N2 + Vacuum
• Dryer Size: 1.93 m3
• Dryer Cycle Time: 35 minutes
• Total System Budget Price: $2 million
• Optimized Design
• Filter Size: 1.44 m2 with 30% moisture using 200 m3/hr N2 + Vacuum
• Dryer Size: 3.0 m3
• Dryer Cycle Time: 60 minutes
• Total System Budget Price: $1.5 million

© BHS-Sonthofen
CONTINUUM APPROACH & SUMMARY
OPTIMIZED DESIGN
BHS Rotary
Pressure Filter
Wet Cake Agitated
Buffer Tank

Vacuum-Condensing
System for AVA AVA Vertical Dryer
Vertical Dryer
Dry Cake Discharge
© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS PROCESS FILTRATION & DRYING
SOLUTIONS SUMMARY
• Process Design with lab and pilot testing
• BHS & AVA Technologies:
• Pressure/Vacuum, Batch/Continuous;
High Solids/Clarification
• Turbulent mixing, reacting and gentle drying for
vacuum/atmospheric, batch/ continuous, for final drying to
“bone-dry” powders
• Project & Process Engineering
• Full skid packages with, Tanks, Pumps, Instrumentation,
PLC Controls, Piped and Wired
• Commissioning, spare parts, service
• Performance Guarantee & Testing
© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-SONTHOFEN INC.

Barry A. Perlmutter, President & Managing Director

E-mail: barry.perlmutter@bhs-filtration.com
Telephone: +1.704.814.7661
BHS Blog: www.perlmutterunfiltered.com
BHS Book: Practical Guides in Chemical Engineering:
Solid-Liquid Filtration
Published by Elsevier
www.perlmutter-ideadevelopment.com

www.bhs-filtration.com; http://www.ava-drynamix.com/en/

© BHS-Sonthofen