IMPROVING BIOCHEMICAL PROCESS

OPERATIONS WITH CONTINUOUS

PRESSURE AND VACUUM
FILTRATION TECHNOLOGIES
Barry A. Perlmutter
President & Managing Director
BHS-Sonthofen Inc.
NO JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS

Discussion of the bench-top lab tests that

are conducted for problem analysis,
technology selection and scale-up.
BHS Natural Feed Stock
Installation Experiences
• Corn Cobs
• Corn Stovers
• Wood Chips
• Bagasse
• Dairy Waste
• Chicken Renderings
• Microbial with Canola Oil (PHA)
• Fish Oils
• Cellulose Derivatives
Continuous Pressure Filtration
As an Alternative to
Batch Centrifuges &
Batch Pressure Plate Filters
For Chicken Renderings
LIQUEFIED GAS – PROTEIN
SLURRY
• A liquefied gas is a clean, colorless gas, easy to liquefy.
• It is gaseous at normal temperature and pressure, but
changes to a liquid with pressure or cooling.
• The critical point is to keep these gases, under pressure,
so they behave as a liquid during filtration, cake
washing and drying.
• The plant engineers reviewed the Rotary Pressure Filter
for filtration (proteins), cake washing (lipids) and drying
BHS Laboratory Tests
SELECTION OF
FILTRATION TECHNOLOGY
CAKE STRUCTURE /PROCESS
PARAMETERS FROM LAB TESTING
• Filtration Pressure
• Cake Thickness
• Filter Media
• Cake Washing
• Cake Drying
• Cake Discharge
RPF 0.18 M2 PILOT TESTWORK
AND SCALE-UP
RPF 0.18 M2 PILOT TESTWORK
AND SCALE-UP
Process Parameters: RPF Parameters:
• Slurry Feed Pressure • Drum Speed
• Slurry Feed Flow • Cake Thickness
• Wash Pressure
• Filter Cloth
• Wash Flow
• Separating elements
• Dry Pressure
• Drying Air Flow • Cake Discharge &
Cloth Wash Pressures
RPF 0.18 M2 PILOT TESTWORK
AND SCALE-UP
To evaluate the RPF performance, the site data:
Slurry solids concentration
Filtrate quantity (mother liquor, wash, blowing)
Cake Moisture and total cake discharged
Scale-Up From RPF 0.18 M2 Pilot Data
• Calculate Specific Filter Performance from Pilot Testing
= kg of dry solids/m2/hour
• Using the drum speed, filtration, washing and drying times
and other RPF factors, the specific filter area is calculated
ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
 Pressure Filtration
 Displacement or
Countercurrent Cake
Washing
 Solvent Exchange
 Steaming and Drying
 Cake Discharge:
Atmospheric or
Pressurized
DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS:
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
The RPF has unique features for this application:
Liquefied gas remains as a liquid
Safe operation with no fugitive emissions
• Closed and pressurized housing & bearings
• Pressurized secondary containment
• Pressurized cake discharge housing
Rotary Pressure Filter
Components
Continuous Vacuum Filtration As
an Alternative to
Centrifuges & Reslurry Tanks
For Bagasse
Standard BHS Vacuum
Laboratory Tests
 Existing Process Description
• Goal: Filter & wash bagasse pulp from syrup
• The current process uses screens and
centrifuges to reduce the sugar in the bagasse
pulp to less than 0.5%.
• The permeate from the screens containing
bagasse fines and sugars must then undergo a
filtration and wash process to recover the syrup
without the fines.
16
 New Process Solution:
No Jumping to Conclusions
• BHS performed lab testing on the screened fines; result
is slow filtration and would require batch candle filters
with a large filter area.
• PLF testing was also performed on the full pulp slurry.
This stream was determined to be a more appropriate
stream for continuous filtration. By using a belt filter on
the full pulp stream, filtration, washing, and dewatering
can be performed all in one process.
• This will eliminate many of the tanks and fines capture
processes with the original design
17
CONTINUOUS-INDEXING
VACUUM BELT FILTER
Pilot Belt Filter (0.1 m2) with wetted parts in 316L Stainless
CONTINUOUS-INDEXING
VACUUM BELT FILTER
Pilot Belt Filter (0.6 m2) with wetted parts in 316L Stainless
CONTINUOUS-INDEXING
VACUUM BELT FILTER
FINAL PROCESS SOLUTION
Required
Test No. of
Process steps No. Zones
Times zones
Filtration 45 sec 4.01 5
Cake washing 90 sec 8.03 8
Dewatering 45 sec 4.01 4

• BF350-225
• Belt Width of 3.5 m and belt length of 22.5 m
• Total Filtration Area = 78.75 m2
FINAL PROCESS SOLUTION
BHS Process Filtration Approach
• Process Design with lab and pilot testing
• BHS Technologies:
• Pressure/Vacuum, Batch/Continuous,
High Solids/Clarification
• Project & Process Engineering
• Full skid packages
• Commissioning, spare parts, service
• Performance Guarantees
BHS-Sonthofen Inc.
Barry A. Perlmutter, President & Managing Director
E-mail: barry.perlmutter@bhs-filtration.com
Telephone: 704.814.7661
BHS Blog: www.perlmutterunfiltered.com
BHS Book: Practical Guides in Chemical Engineering:
Solid-Liquid Filtration
Published by Elsevier
www.bhs-filtration.com