Particle Technology

1. Compute the area (in ft2) required of a thickener to handle 20 tons/hour of slurry, producing a
clear overflow and an underflow on sludge containing 20% by weight solids. Assume that the
constant rate of settling in the batch sedimentation is the rate of settling in the clarification zone
of the continuous thickener.

Data on 2.91% be weight of CaCO3 in pure water; particle size about 5 microns.

Time, min Height of interface, cm Time, min Height of interface, cm

0 48.33 16 26.21
2 46.17 21 19.30
4 43.22 24 16.4
6 40.31 30 13.55
8 37.51 39 10.92
10 34.55 59 7.51
12 31.72 102 5.23
14 28.79 infinity 4.40

2. A CaCO3 slurry (a= 2.41 x 10^11 ft/lb and e=0.4530) is to be filtered in a basket centrifugal filter
of 24-in inside basket diameter and 10 in basket height rotating at 1200 rpm. Assuming that the
cake is incompressible and the filter medium resistance is negligible, what filtration rate (in
gpm) can be expected when the cake is 1 in thick and the liquid surface corresponds to the filter
cake surface? Data: Specific gravity of CaCO3 is 2.93.
3. A rotary disk filter is to be used to collect the solids contained as flotation cell product in the
feed preparation of a cement plant. The filter rotates at 1.3 rpm with half its surface submerged
and an internal pressure of 5 psia. Laboratory experiments run on the same slurry at a constant
pressure differential of 10 psia using a plate and frame filter press with 10ft^2 effective surface
gave the following data:

Time, min Filtrate volume, cu. Ft

10 9
20 15.5
30 21
40 25.5

4. A through-washing plate and frame filter press is to be used to filter a slurry containing 2 weight
percent of precipitated CaCO3, the particles of which average 10 microns in diameter.
Laboratory test show that the cake particles have a sphericity of about 0.8 and that 100 cubic
cm of cake retain 40 cu-cm of filtrate. In operation the volume of wash water to be used each
cycle will be 5% of the volume of filtrate collected 30 min are required to dumped and
reassemble the press each cycle. The specific gravity of the calcium carbonate is 2.93.

Assuming that the cake is incompressible and that the filtrate has the same properties as the pure water
in washing and neglecting the resistance of filter cloth and delivery lines, compute the sum of filtering
and washing time per cycle to obtain maximum filtrate per day if both are carried out at a constant
pressure of 30 psig.

5. There have been reports that the glorious Manila Bay white sands are starting to wash out to
the sea, exposing the original and natural black sand. You, as a DENR undersecretary, who is an
engineer an actual competent, tested 1 kg of sand mixture (white sand + black sand) using a
screen, not just by squeezing them with your hands and placing the sand in an aquarium. Black
sand particles which are larger than the crushed dolomite sand generally separated. The sieve
analysis of the feed, oversize, and undersize are:

Mesh Size Feed Oversize Undersize

6/8 0.025 0.08 0.04
8/10 0.150 0.225 0.05
10/20 0.1 0.395 0.03
20/28 0.01 0.545 0.075
28/35 0.1 0.825 0.125
35/48 0.175 1 0.2
48/65 0.135 0.12
65/100 0.225 0.155
100/150 0.08 0.205

What is the efficiency of the screen assuming you used a 28-mesh screen?

6. A slurry is filtered in a plate and frame press having one frame ½ thick with one sq. ft of filtering
area on each side of the frame. The frame was filled when a total volume of 4 ft^3 filtrate have
been collected. It was found that both constant rate and pressure data were correlated by the
differential equation:

dU/dT= P(100V +200)

Where;

U=V/A

u= ft^3 of filtrate per sq. ft filtering area

t= minutes

P= gage pressure psig

The same slurry is to be filtered in a commercial leaf press having a total filtering area of 600 sq.ft. The
press will be connected to a pump having a capacity of 90 cfm. The pump will run at full speed during
the CRP without by-passing until a gage pressure of 60 psi is attained in the press and thereafter the
pump will be so by passed to maintain gage pressure of 60 psi during the CRP until it reaches ½ thick, at
which the filtration will be terminated. The cake will then be given a direct wash with a volume of wash
water equal 1/8 that of the total filtrate collected using the same gage pressure of 60 psi. The time of
cleaning and reassembling will be 15 minutes. For the commercial leaf press, calculate the total filtrate
(ft^3) per 24 hr-day.

7. Aluminum sulfate rock is fed to a crusher reducing the average size from 369 mm to 2.48 mm at
a rate of 76.5 tons/hr. The product is then reduced further in a second crusher to 1.23 mm. If
the work index is equal to 3.1, calculate the total power (kW) needed to crush the rock from its
initial size using Bond’s Law.
8. A ball mill grinds plastics to make a very fine powder. At the present time, 10000 kg of powder
are produced per day. You observed that the process (shown by the solids lines) is inefficient
because of 30% of the feed is not recovered as powder – it goes to waste. You make a proposal
(designated by the dashed lines) to recycle the uncollected material back to the feed stream. If
the feed costs $1.20 / kg, how much money would you save per day while producing 10000 kg of
fine powder?

SEPARATION PROCESS:

1. A 10⁰ API oil of 500 molecular weight is being withdrawn from the bottom of a still, where it is
being stripped with steam at atmospheric pressure. The charge of this still contains 1% by liquid
volume of a light hydrocarbon, which maybe assumed to be n-heptane. The stripped product
contain 0.1% by liquid volume of the light hydrocarbon. The steam is admitted through a spider,
which is located below the surface of the liquid. The vapor pressure of the liquid phase in the
still is entirely the results of the light hydrocarbon. The distillation is carried out at 450 F. how
much steam in pound per hour is required if 2000 bbl/day of stripped product is eliminated.
2. A mixture containing 0.70 mole fraction and a 0.30 mole fraction b is subjected to a simple batch
still distillation until the instantaneous composition of the vapor leaving becomes 0.6 mole
fraction a. If the relative volatility for this mixture is constant at 1.5, estimate the average
composition of the total distillate collected.
3. 100 gal/hr of turpentine are to be steam distilled at 96 F at atmospheric pressure. The latent
heat of vaporization of turpentine is 74 cal/g. No external heat is supplied. How much steam
(lb/hr) at 5 psig will be used per hour? Neglect heat required to heat up the charge and heat lost
by radiation.
 4. 10000 lb/hr ofa rich oil solution containing 10% benzene by weight is to be steam distilled at
atmospheric pressure until the stripped solution is to contain only 0.1% by weight. Calculate the
minimum steam requirement for batch process.

Data:

a.) Temperature of still is at 110 C maintained by closed steam.

b.) Steam available is saturated at 25 psig, both for closed and open steam.
c.) Molecular weight of the oil is 225
d.) Oil solution is fed at 20 C
e.) Specific heat of the oil is 0.5, specific heat of benzene is 0.45
f.) Latent heat of vaporization of benzene is 6750 cal/mol.

5. It is proposed to distill continuously a solution containing 10 mol% ammonia and 90 mol% water
to produce distillate containing 20 mole% ammonia. Per 100 moles of feed, calculate the moles
of distillate obtainable by continuous distillation in a stripping column containing one-perfect
bubble cap plate and a still.

Data: In each case the feed enters as liquid at the boiling point, the still is heated by steam
condensing in a closed steam coil, and residue is continuously withdrawn from the still. At
equilibrium the mole fraction of ammonia in the vapor is 6.3 times that in the liquid; y=6.3x.

6. Tung meal containing 55 mass% oil is to be extracted at a rate of 4000lb/hr using 6000 lb/hr of
n-hexane, containing 5 mass % oil, as the solvent. A counter-current multi-stage extraction
system which is equivalent to two ideal stages is to be employed. The meal will retain 1 lb
solution per lb of oil free meal. The overflows will be a mixture of solution and fine meal
particles with an estimated ratio of 0.05 lb of solids per pound of solution. Determine the
percent recovery of the oil obtained under the conditions.

7. The distribution equilibrium for A between an extract solvent S and a raffinate solvent B is given
Y=2X where Y=mass if A per unit mass of S, X=mass of A per unit mass of B. The extract and
raffinate solvents are immiscible with each other at all concentrations of A. From these data,
calculate the amount of extract solvent (kg) needed per 100 kg solution containing 30% A in B
and 95% of A is to be removed using three-stage counter-current operation.

8. The orebody of the Union Miniere du Haut Katanga in the Belgian Congo is composed of
malachite (CuCO3Cu(OH)2) and gangue. Copper is extracted by crushing the ore to 20 mesh,
agitating with a dilute solution of sulfuric acid, followed by multiple-contact countercurrent
washing to wash the gangue free of the copper-bearing solution. The rich solution from the
washing system is treated for removal of dissolved iron and aluminum and then sent to the
electrolytic cells for precipitation of the copper. The dilute acid solution from the cells is recycled
to the agitators for treatment of more raw ore. The counter current washing operation uses
 Dorr thickeners for the recovery of the rich solution. The slurry from the agitators, with the
copper in the solution as copper sulfate is fed to the thickeners at the rate of 300 tons per hour.
According to operating records, the underflow from each thickener retains 1.22 tons of solution
per ton of gangue and the streams have the following compositions in mass percent. Determine
the number of equilibrium stages.

Feed to Thickener % Strong solution % Underflow leaving the

system, %
CuSO4 6.10 6.69 1
Gangue 14.92 99
Water 78.98 93.91