Filtration

Technical University of Kenya

FEBE
SCBSE
Department of Chemical and Process Engineering
PARTICLE TECHNOLOGY

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 Filtration

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 Filtration
• The solid remaining
on the filter medium
is called the residue.

• The residue can be

dried by spreading it
out on the filter
paper and allowing
the liquid to
evaporate.

• The liquid which has

passed through the
filter medium is
called the filtrate.

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Driving force for filtration:
• Gravity
– Hydrostatic pressure
– Free filtering materials
• Vacuum
– Downstream pressure below atmospheric
– Rotary drum, moving belt, disc filters
• Pressure
– Pumps or compressed gas
– Plate and frame, leaf
• Centrifugal Force
– Perforated bowl centrifuge, peeler centrifuge

Mechanisms for filters:

• Cake filters
• Clarifying filters
• Crossflow filters
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Filtration mechanism

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Cake filters
• Used for cake filtration in which the solids are
deposited in the form of a cake on the up-stream side
of a relatively thin filter medium.
• The cake must be removed from the filter after the
process.

Fig 2. Surface filtration

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Clarifying filters
• Particle deposition takes place inside the medium and
cake deposition on the surface is undesirable.
• Suitable for very small solids to produce clean or
sparkling liquids (e.g. water and beverages)

Fig 3: clarifying filtration

Filtrate

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Cross flow Filtration
• Feed flows at pressure under high velocity
• Thin layer forms on the surface of filter medium but
the high liquid velocity keeps the layer from building
up.
• Some of the liquid passes through the septum leaving
behind concentrated solution.

Fig 4: cross flow filtration

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 Filtration Options

Linear Filtration Centrifugal Filtration Cross Flow Filtration

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 Theory of Filtration
Mode of Operation
– Constant pressure filtration
• Vacuum pumps, compressed gas

– Constant rate filtration

• Positive displacement pumps

– Variable pressure, variable rate filtration

• Centrifugal filters

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 Theory of Filtration :Principles of Cake filtration
In filtration, flow resistance
increases with time as medium
becomes clogging or filter cake
builds up.

• During filtration, either flow rate

diminishes or pressure drop rises
as time goes on.

• In cake filtration, the liquid passes

through two resistances which
are in series :
(i) the cake and
(ii) the filter medium.
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Pressure drop during Cake Filtration
The cake resistance is zero at the beginning of
filtration and increases with time as filtration
proceeds.

Therefore: The overall pressure drop at any

time during cake filtration
is the sum of the pressure
drops over the medium and the
cake.

If Pa = inlet pressure
Pb = outlet pressure
P’ = the pressure at the boundary
between cake and the medium

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Then:
∆𝑷 = 𝑷𝒂 − 𝑷𝒃 = 𝑷𝒂 − 𝑷′ + 𝑷′ − 𝑷𝒃
………..(4.1)
= ∆𝑷𝒄 + ∆𝑷𝒎)

Where:
ΔP = Overall pressure drop
ΔPc = Pressure drop over the cake
ΔPm = Pressure drop over the media
Consider the thin layer of cake of thickness dL and let the pressure on that layer be P.

If the velocity in the filter is u, then:

𝑑𝑃 150𝜇𝑢(1−𝜀)2
= ………………………………….4.2
𝑑𝐿 𝑔𝑐 (Φ𝑠 𝐷𝑝 )2 𝜀3

Where: gc = acceleration due to gravity = 32.17 ft2/s

Equation 4.2 is known as Carman-Kozeny equation.

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• If pressure drop is expressed in terms of surface volume ratio, then:

𝑆
𝑑𝑃 4.17𝜇𝑢(1−𝜀)2 ( 𝑝ൗ𝑉𝑝 )2
= …………………………….4.3 (British unit)
𝑑𝐿 𝑔𝑐 𝜀 3

𝑆
𝑑𝑃 4.17𝜇𝑢(1−𝜀)2 ( 𝑝ൗ𝑉𝑝 )2
= (SI units)
𝑑𝐿 𝜀3
Where:
𝑑𝑃
= pressure gradient at thickness L
𝑑𝐿
P = pressure (N/m2 or lbf/ft2)
µ = viscosity of the filtrate (Pa.s or kg/m.s)
u = linear velocity of filtrate, based on filter area (m/s or ft/s)
Sp = surface area of single particle (m2 or ft2)
Vp = volume of a single particle (m3 of ft3)
ε = porosity of the cake (void fraction) = void
volume/total bed volume

gc = gravitational acceleration (should be used in eq. 4.3 for britsh Gravitational units
only)

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 Pressure drop due to Cake Filter
Beds of compressible particles or beds with a very low porosity :
𝑑𝑉/𝑑𝑡
𝑢= 𝐴
…………………………………………….4.4
where:
V = volume of filtrate collected from start to filtration time
A = filtration area
u = linear velocity
Since the filtrate must pass through the entire cake, V/A is the same for all layers and u is
independent of length L.

The volume of solids in the layer (V) = A(1-ε).dL

If ρp = density of the particles then, the mass dm of solids is:

𝑑𝑚 = 𝜌𝑝 1 − 𝜀 . 𝐴. 𝑑𝐿………………………..4.5

Then:
𝑆𝑝 2
𝑘1 𝜇𝑢 𝑉 (1−𝜀)
𝑝
𝑑𝑃 = . dm……………………………….4.6 where: k1 = 4.17
𝑔𝑐 𝜌𝑝 𝐴𝜀3
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Compressible and incompressible filter cakes
• In the filtration under low pressure drop of slurries containing rigid
uniform particles,
𝑆𝑝 2
𝑘1 𝜇𝑢 (1 − 𝜀)
𝑉𝑝
𝑑𝑃 = 3
. dm
𝑔𝑐 𝜌𝑝 𝐴𝜀

• If mc is the total mass of solids in the cake, then integrate as follows:

𝑆𝑝 2
𝑘1 𝜇𝑢 (1−𝜀)
𝑃𝑎 𝑉𝑝 𝑚𝑐
‫𝑃׬‬′ 𝑑𝑃 =
𝑔𝑐 𝜌𝑝 𝐴𝜀 3
‫׬‬0 𝑑𝑚
𝑆𝑝 2
𝑘1 𝜇𝑢 (1−𝜀)𝑚𝑐
𝑉𝑝
𝑃𝑎 − 𝑃′ = = ∆𝑃𝑐 ……………………..4.7
𝑔𝑐 𝜌𝑝 𝐴𝜀 3

Which is used to calculate the pressure drop for incompressible filter cakes.
i.e. filtration of slurries containing rigid uniform particles such as sands,
stones, ceramics etc.
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 Compressible and incompressible filter cakes
Define a specific cake resistance, α
∆𝑃𝑐 𝑔𝑐 𝐴
𝛼≡ ………………………………………………4.8
𝜇𝑢𝑚𝑐
In other words, α is the resistance of a cake that gives a unit
pressure drop when µ, u and 𝑚𝑐 /A all equal to 1.0.
𝑆𝑝 2
𝑘1 𝜇𝑢 𝑉 (1 − 𝜀)𝑚𝑐
′ 𝑝
𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑃𝑎 − 𝑃 = 3
= ∆𝑃𝑐
𝑔𝑐 𝜌𝑝 𝐴𝜀
𝑆𝑝 2
𝑘1 𝑉 (1−𝜀)
𝑝
𝛼= …………………………………..4.9a
𝜀 3 𝜌𝑝
In terms of particle size Dp and a new constant k2, α is given as:
𝑘2 (1−𝜀)
𝛼= …………………………………..…4.9b
(Φ𝑠 𝐷𝑝 )2 𝜀 3 𝜌𝑝
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Compressible and incompressible filter cakes

Incompressible cakes
• For incompressible cakes, α is independent of the pressure
drop and position in the cake.

• α is influenced by the physical properties of the cake

especially Dp and ε.
Compressible cakes
• For compressible cakes, the value of α varies with
distance. This is due to variation of void fraction,
therefore, pressure drop also changes with time.

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• In practice, it is convenient
to carryout experiments to
determine:
(i) The specific cake
resistance under no
pressure difference (no
compression)

(ii) The effect of pressure

difference across the cake
on the specific cake
resistance. In this
experiment, cake is built
up first then compressed
to a known pressure with
piston provided with
porous bottom.

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Possible results:
• If cake is compressible, cake resistance α is independent
of pressure drop ΔP.

• The cake resistance is then expressed as:

𝛼 = 𝛼𝑜 (∆𝑃)𝑠 ……………………………………..4.10
Where:
αo = constant
s = coefficient of compressibility (typical range :
0.2- 0.8; for incompressible cakes e.g. sand = 0, for
compressible cakes is +ve)
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Pressure drop due to filter medium resistance
• Define a filter - medium resistance (Rm) (m-1 or ft-1) as
𝑃′ −𝑃𝑏 ∆𝑃𝑚 .𝑔𝑐
𝑅𝑚 ≡ = ………………………………..4.11
𝜇𝑢 𝜇𝑢
The overall pressure drop due to cake and medium
𝜇𝑢 𝑚𝑐 𝛼
∆𝑃 = ∆𝑃𝑐 + ∆𝑃𝑚 = ( + 𝑅𝑚 ) …………….4.12
𝑔𝑐 𝐴

• Linear velocity u and total mass of solid mc can be replaced with the
total volume of the filtrate V collected at time t
• And if c = mass of particles deposited in the filter per unit volume of
filtrate (kg/m3), then the mass of solids in the filter at time t is V times
c i.e.

𝑚𝑐 = V. c …………………………………………..4.13

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Based on material balance around the filter, c can be calculated as:

𝑐𝐹
𝑐= 𝑚 …………………………..4.14
1− ( 𝐹 −1 𝑐𝐹 /𝜌
𝑚𝑐
Where:
mF= mass of wet cake including liquid retained in the voids
mc = mass of dry solids
cF = concentration of solids in the slurry

Substituting u and mc :
𝜇𝑢 𝑚 𝛼
∆𝑃 = ∆𝑃𝑐 + ∆𝑃𝑚 = ( 𝑐 + 𝑅𝑚 )
𝑔𝑐 𝐴
𝑑𝑉/𝑑𝑡
and 𝑢 = 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑐 = V. c
𝐴

𝑑𝑡 𝜇 𝛼𝑐𝑉
= + 𝑅𝑚 …………………..4.15
𝑑𝑉 𝐴𝑔𝑐 ∆𝑃 𝐴

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