ENHANCED PARTICLE REMOVAL FROM LIQUIDS

INNOVATIVE CENCEPTS TO GREATLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY OF PARTICLE REMOVAL FROM LIQUID EFFLUENT AND PROCESS STREAMS ARE BEING INVESTIGATED. THE DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERSTANDING OF EFFICIENT PARTICLE REMOVAL TECHNIQUES IS OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE TO A BROAD SPECTRUM OF MANUFACTURING AND PROCESS INDUSTRIES DUE TO SOPHISTICATED OPERATIONS, GLOBAL COMPETITION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. THE FEASIBILITY OF CONCEPTS TO IMPROVE CONVENTIONAL PARTICLE REMOVAL PERFORMANCE OF CROSS-FLOW FILTRATION IS BEING INVESTIGATED AND THE IMPROVEMENTS QUANTIFIED. A PREDICTIVE MECHANISTIC MODEL IS BEING DEVELOPED TO GUIDE EXPERIMENTS. THE CONCEPT COMBINES FEATURES OF CYCLONE SEPARATION, PERIODIC FLOW INTERRUPTION, AND CROSS-FLOW FILTRATION; AND RESULTS IN PERIODIC SHEDDING OF THE PARTICLE LAYER BUILT UP ON THE POROUS TUBE WALL. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES IN FILTRATE FLUX RATES AND OPERATING TIME BETWEEN CLEANINGS ARE BEING OBTAINED WITH THESE TECHNIQUES. SUCH IMPROVEMENTS SIGNIFICANTLY CUT PARTICLE REMOVAL COSTS, INCREASING THE ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS OF OPERATIONS EMPLOYING THE TECHNOLOGY.