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Particle Technology and Engineering
Lab session III. Filtration
Abstract- For this practice, a filtration process was carried out
for a mixture of 380g of calcium carbonate in 10 L of water with
a device called filter press. The process was carried out with 4
filters obtaining a constant pressure of 29 psi. After completing
the filtration process, the volume and mass for each cake was
determined. Finally, the humidity percentage of the filtered
solution was determined, obtaining a 98% dry weight.
Index Terms: filter press, cake filtration, Ergun and Kozeny
equation, calcium carbonate.
I. INTRODUCTION
The filtration process consists in the separation of solid
particles or droplets from a fluid using a filter medium. One
type of filtration is called cake filtration, it involves the
buildup of a bed or cake of particles on a porous surface
known as the filter medium, which commonly takes the form
of a woven fabric. In cake filtration the pore size of the
medium is less than the size of the particles to be filtered.
(Rhodes, 2008). The cake increases its thickness with time and
must be removed in time.
The process could be either operated at a constant flow rate
with a variable pressure drop or a constant pressure drop with
variable flow rate. The image 1 shows the different zones that
are formed during the process.
Figure 1. [Po-P1] Suspension or Slurry, [P1-P2] Cake and
[P2-P3] Membrane (Filter)
The filtered stream flow, is affected by the filter area, cake,
and the liquid viscosity. At a constant flow rate, the cake
thickness increases, thus the resistance to the liquid circulation
and therefore pressure loss also occurs. Filter cakes can be
assumed as incompressible or compressible. Although all
cakes roughly compressible, the degree of compressibility of
some of them, such as CaCO3, BaCO3, etc., is so small that for
all intents and purposes the cake can be considered as
incompressible. For the incompressible filter cakes, the
specific resistance a and the porosity of the cake can be
considered constant through the cake throughout the filtration
process.
November 10, 2017
If in any case the treated cake is compressible, which means
that the volumetric fraction of solids is not homogeneous
throughout the cake, but varies with its length. Thus, the actual
velocity of the filtrate. (I. Martn, 2011). It will not be the
same throughout the cake, and neither will the specific
resistance of the cake. The porosity of the compressible cake
decreases as it is subjected to higher pressure. As illustrated in
the following image:
Figure 2. Behavior of the pressure in a compressible cake.
For the analysis we can obtain a laminar flow or a turbulent
flow, depending on this, the Carman-Kozeny or Ergun
equations apply, respectively. For this case, we carry out the
analysis by means of Kozeny and Darcy law.
Equation 1: Carman -Kozeny for laminar flow Re < 2
1
=
Equation 2: Darcy equation for laminar flow Re < 2
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
In order to develop the practice, The FT150 Filtration Unit
available at the university was used. This equipment is made
up of a press that for its operation uses 5 plates, 2 end plates,
two frame plates and a wash plate. Slurry was pumped by a
centrifugal pump through the system.
1. Suspension preparation
380 g of CaCO3 were weighed and dissolved in 10 liters of
water in order to obtain a slurry with a concentration of
approximately 3,8 %. This suspension was stirred until it was
homogenous and finally was added to the pumping tank.
2. Filter placing
The filter medium used had a nominal pore size of 0.8 m, and
each of them were placed between the plates in the direction
the smooth surface was towards the incoming flow. Then
plates were press together with the handle and reinforced once
the filter settles wet.
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Particle Technology and Engineering November 10, 2017

so it can be established that the pressure was the same for the
3. Measurement of flow rate under constant pressure drop entire equipment.
At first since the unit uses a centrifugal pump, the pipe was
filled in before the filtration process started. After that According to the texture analyzer results the efficiency of the
Pressure drop was settled at 28 psi. the system was run for filtration of the slurry of 3,8 % of calcium carbonate was
approximately 3 minutes. The flow rate was measured at the 98,93 %. Which means that approximately 0,375 kg of solid
end of the entire process. material was retain by the filter medium. Therefore, since this
value is relatively high it could be established that the initial
4. Shutting down and cleaning: sample could be considered as a monodisperse powder, where
The pump was turned off, the valves were set to be closed and particle size diameters are similar and make the slurry
the rest of suspension was drained from the tank. Verification homogenous. Besides, this parameter also indicates that the
was made in order to ensure that the stirring, pump, flow and conditions to which the process was carried out were
pressure-meters were disconnected. satisfactory since the idea was to eliminate as much water as
possible from the slurry. In addition, it could be established
5. Cake- filter measurement that only 0,0040 kg of the initial sample is composed by
The entire volume of the resulting cake was weighed, and the particles of a diameter size range below 0.8 m. that
height and diameter of the filter medium was measured. Then corresponds to the 1,07 % of calcium carbonate that remains
1,110 grams of the cake was taken as a sample in order to in the filtrate.
measure its humidity in the moisture analyzer.
On the other hand, when performing a search for the average
particulate size of the calcium carbonate, it is found in the
III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS literature that this is 10 (Industria del Carbonato de Calcio ,
2015), so we can say that most of the particles in the
To run the test only 3 plates were used in consequence only 4 suspension are of this size since as it was previously said the
filter mediums were used, the measurements of the diameter, particles smaller than 8 passed the filter.
weight and height of each of them are reported in table 1. Also
in this table is reported the cake area for each filter medium. With respect to the pressure, a graph is made showing the
The flow rate measured after the whole process was 0,037 L/s. behavior throughout the process while stabilizing the final
pressure of the system, it can be seen that after 120 seconds it
Filter Cake Cake Cake Cake is already stable and after 140 seconds it is finally obtained a
number height diameter area weight pressure of 29 psi.
(m) (m) (m2) (kg)
1 0,00322 0,12768 0,12768 0,08
2 0,00275 0,13044 0,13044 0,07
Presin vs Tiempo
3 0,00197 0,1275 0,1275 0,07 35
4 0,00298 0,13068 0,13068 0,08 30
Table 1: Data obtained for the filter cake.
Presin (psi)

25
20
Using the Darcy equation and tabulated data for the viscosity
15
of water it was possible to establish the permeability constant
for the sample tested. Table 2 show the result for each filter. 10
5
Filter number Permeability constant (m2) 0
1 1,7201E-12 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
2 1,68371E-12 Tiempo (s)
3 1,72253E-12
4 1,68061E-12
Table 2: Determination of the permeability constant for each
filter IV CONCLUSIONS

Regarding the previous results it could be established that the
average permeability constant for the calcium carbonate
sample used in the practice is 1,7017E-12. Having this result,
it was possible to calculate the voidage of filtration with the
Kozeny equation. (equation 1), the result was a voidage of
0,016 for the filtration process carried out. As can be seen in
table 1, the permeability is practically the same for each filter,
During the filtration process different problems can occur,
among them coagulation and flocculation can occur in the
filtration bed. Incomplete coagulation can cause serious
problems in the operation of the filter. Forces that attract and
hold particles to the grains are the same as those that work in
coagulation and flocculation. However, according to the
results and the percentage of filtering in this practice it seems
that this problem has not occurred (Paula Hernndez)
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Particle Technology and Engineering November 10, 2017

IV. REFERENCES
I. Martn, R. S. (2011). Mecnica de fluidos. Obtenido de
https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/20299/11
/tema5_operaciones%20separacion.pdf

Seville, J., & Chuan-Yu, W. (2016). Particle Technology

and Engineering. USA: ELSEVIER.

Industria del Carbonato de Calcio . (2015). A-800. Obtenido

de Planta de produccin: ICC:
http://industriadecarbonato.com/portfolio-item/a-
x800-diametro-promedio-de-particula-d50-
10%C2%B5/c