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Clarifier:
What's the Difference?
Thickeners and Clarifiers are both used to separate solids and liquid, but
how do they differ? Simply put, Thickeners focus on the settled solids, and
Clarifiers focus on the clear overflow liquid.
Clarifiers
A Clarifier will typically treat a low-density slurry of less than 5% w/w solids with a focus on
producing a clear liquid with suspended solids of less than 100 parts per million (ppm). To achieve
these high levels of clarity, the up-current flow, or rise rate, needs to be low to prevent entrainment
of fine particles.
Another technique is to settle the solids on steeply inclined laminar How to Size a Thickener
plates. In this example, the solids fall faster by sliding down the To get the highest underflow densities, features such as tank
plate surface rather than in a free settling mode. In principle, this geometry and rake design will be more critical. The underflow
is a great idea, but the requirements to build a plate stack that can density, to a degree, is proportional to the mud residence time (how
structurally manage a high solids loading restricts this nifty idea to long the particles remain the tank) and the compression effects of
smaller, lightweight solids applications. the column of settled muc so driven by the side-wall height.
Should the process specification require a suspended solids level, Clarifiers or Thickener?
— perhaps discharge to public waterways, a sedimentation process It can be tempting to try to do both the thickening and clarifying
alone may not be a cost-effective solution. functions to maximum benefit in one go. While technically this is
feasible, you’d need a really large diameter (for low rise rate and
Combination with a security filter may be an option. Think of your good clarity), yet tall tank with higher side walls and a robust drive
swimming pool filter with the Clarifier overflow passing through a and rake mechanism.
medium, such as sand or another more exotic material. Though as
with the swimming pool filter, there is a complication of having to As you would reasonably expect, this will come at a substantial cost
periodically backwash to clean the media. premium, and it may be difficult to convince the money men it is a
sound proposition.
Thickeners
A Thickener, in contrast, is designed to do just that — thicken. The trick is to figure out what is really important for your application,
While a part of this process by definition releases the liquid, the thickening or clarifying, and design the equipment to suit.
quality of the overflow is secondary. Suspended solids clarities of
up to 1,000ppm can be tolerated in some cases, though a typical
specification is less than 300ppm.
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