CHEMICAL ENGINEERING REVIEWER

SEDIMENTATION
A. Batch Sedimentation
B. Continuous Sedimentation

A. Batch Sedimentation
Industrial sedimentation operations may be carried out batch wise or continuously in equipment
called thickeners. In batch sedimentation, the thickener (Cylindrical tank with openings for slurry
feed and product draw off) is filled with a dilute slurry, and the slurry is permitted to settle. After
a desired period of time, clear liquid is decanted until sludge appears in the draw off. The sludge
is removed from the tank through a button opening.
Commercial batch sedimentation using large tanks is very much similar to a laboratory
operations using graduated cylinders so that the mechanism involved may be best studied by
observing what occurs during a batch settling test in a graduated cylinder.

Figure 1.a shows a newly prepared slurry of uniform concentration of uniform solid particles throughout the
cylinder. As soon as process starts, all particles begin to settle and are assumed to approach rapidly the terminal
velocities under hindered settling conditions. Several zones of concentration will be established (figure 1.b).
Zone D of settled solids will predominantly include the heavier faster settling particles. In a poorly defined
transition zone above the settled material, there are channels through which fluid must rise. The fluid is forced
from zone D as it compresses. Zone C is a region of variable size distribution and non-uniform concentration.
Zone B is a non-uniform concentration zone, of approximately the same concentration and distribution as
initially. At the top of region B is a boundary above which is clear liquid, region A. If the original slurry is
closely sized with respect to the smallest particles, the line between A and B is sharp.

As sedimentation continues, the heights of each zone vary as indicated in Figure 1. b, c, d. Note that both A and
D grow longer at the expense of B. Eventually, a point is reached where B and C disappear and all the solids
appear in D; this is referred to as the critical settling point (Figure 1.e) - that is, the point at which a single
distinct interface forms between clear liquid and sediment and the height of this sediment is called critical
height, z/c. The sedimentation process from this point on consists of a slow compression of the solids, with
liquid from the boundary layer of each particle being forced onupward through the solids into the clear zone.
Settling rates are very slow in this dense slurry and it will take a very long time to attain the ultimate height;
z∞of the sediments. The final phase is an extreme case of hindered settling.

The rate of settling (sedimentation rate) of solid particles in graduated cylinder can be expressed in terms of
height, z. In free settling zone (zone B), the terminal velocity, µt of a single particle is given by

z 0−z c
μt =
εc

Where: z0 = initial – height of the (zone B) slurry;zc = height of the interface between clear liquid and slurry
when zone B disappear; Ɵc = time elapse when the solid particles reach zc from z0.

The rate of settling in the transition region can be neglected while in the hindered settling zone (zone C), the
rate of settling has been observed to follow approximately the equation

−dz
μt = =k ( z−z ∞ )
dθ

Where: z = height of the interface between the clear liquid and the slurry at any time, Ɵ; k = constant for a given
suspension; z∞ = final/ultimate height of the sludge. Rearranging and integrating, the equation becomes
 θ z
dz
k ∫ dθ =−∫
θc z0 z−z ∞

z c−z ∞
k ( θ−θc )=ln
z −z∞