322 9 Selected Aspects of Filter Media for Cake Filtration

Figure 9.28 Vacuum disc filter with microporous ceramic filter media. Source: Courtesy of
OUTOTEC Oyj.

the total flow resistance of the system medium/cake. This influences the cake
formation equation (cf. Eq. (6.24)).
To minimize the filter media resistance under the condition of semipermeability
and to make the specific solid throughput directly comparable to conventional
vacuum filters, thin polymeric membrane filter clothes could be a promising
approach. Such media are highly flexible and not in danger to break, as brittle
ceramics. On the other hand, such media are not as robust as ceramics. This
alternative process to suppress the gas throughput during cake desaturation has
been validated already in a lab-scale pressure filter cell and a pilot-scale drum
filter but is not yet available commercially. There are still some open questions
and not solved problems regarding the filter design and the development of
membrane filter clothes, which are really stable enough to overcome a sufficient
long service life, is not yet finished [21].

9.4.2 Concept of Gasless Filtration on Vacuum Drum Filters

and Physical Background
In Figure 9.29, a conventional vacuum drum filter including the necessary periph-
erals is shown schematically.
The circumferential surface of the filter drum is divided into rectangular filter
cells, which are conventionally covered by a woven filter fabric. This filter fabric
can be normally penetrated by liquid and by gas. If the filter cake can be desat-
urated and the pores of the filter media exhibit at least the pore size of the filter
cake, the gas is able to overcome the capillary pressure in the medium pores too
and gas can flow through. The filter cells are connected via filtrate pipes and the
control head of the filter with the vacuum system (cf. Figures 6.26 and 6.27). The
drum rotates continuously through a stirred filter trough, in which the slurry to be
separated is fed in. The formed filter cake can be optionally washed after emerging
from the slurry and is desaturated afterward because of the applied gas pressure
difference. Gas flows through the emptied pores of the filter cake into the vacuum
system. To maintain the filtration pressure difference, this gas must be exhausted
 9.4 Semipermeable Filter Media – Gas Pressure Filtration Without Gas Flow 323

Figure 9.29 Conventional Cake washing

vacuum drum filter Filter cloth
installation.
t2
Filtrate receiver

Drum
Qg
filter
Qs
S
Vacuum
pump

Slurry pump

Filtrate
pumps

by the vacuum pump. In the cake discharge zone, the filter cake is finally removed
by a supporting slight gas blowback and taken over by a scraper blade. The filtrate
is separated from the gas in filtrate receivers. It must be withdrawn from these
against the negative pressure by filtrate pumps. Vacuum pump and filtrate pumps
are consuming most of the electrical energy to operate the filter apparatus. The
more permeable the filter cake is, the more gas must be exhausted, and the more
energy is consumed (cf. Section 8.3.4.6).
From the view of process technology and economics, it would be desirable to
prevent the gas flow and to discharge the liquid without pumps from the vacuum
system. One first step in this direction results with accordingly suitable architec-
tural conditions in the installation of a so-called barometric leg, as sketched in
Figure 9.30.
If in the filtrate receiver the absolute pressure amounts 20 kPa and the external
atmospheric pressure amounts 100 kPa, a water column of 8 m heights generates
a hydrostatic pressure of 80 kPa. As a consequence, additional separated liquid
from the filter is able to flow unhindered out of the drainage pipe outlet. There-
fore, the filtrate pumps become unnecessary. Nevertheless, the vacuum pump to
generate the required negative pressure is still needed to exhaust the gas flow,
which is caused by the cake desaturation.
If the filter medium would have semipermeable properties and would only let
the liquid pass through, no gas flow could occur, that needs to be sucked off. In the
optimal case, exclusively the 8 m high water column of the barometric leg could
generate the necessary vacuum behind the filter medium. In such case also, the
vacuum pump would become principally superfluous, as shown in Figure 9.31.
As cake a discharge device, alternatively a scraper or a roller can be used,
depending on the handling properties of the filter cake. Alternatively to the
324 9 Selected Aspects of Filter Media for Cake Filtration

Figure 9.30 Barometric leg.

Filtrate
receiver Drum
filter

20 20
kPa kPa

8m
Vacuum
pump 80 kPa Ambient pressure
100 kPa

Hydrostatic
Slurry pump
pressure
ρL·g·H
Filtrate

Cake washing
Alternatively
Roller
Microporous hydrophilic discharge
Drum filter
membrane Scraper
discharge

No vacuum pump
no filtrate pump

8m

80 kPa

Slurry pump

Filtrate

Figure 9.31 Gasless drum filter process.

filtration of easy to filter materials, this technology could be an alternative to

dead-end microfiltration or centrifugal sedimentation of very small and thus
hard to separate particles. If particles become smaller, the specific cake flow
resistance rises up and only a very thin cake will form during the limited cake
forming time on a rotary filter. Secondly, the capillary pressure rises up in such