Diagram of simple filtration: oversize particles in the feed cannot pass through the lattice

structure of the filter, while fluid(gas) and small particles pass through, becoming filtrate.
Filtration is commonly the mechanical or physical operation which is used for the separation of
solids from fluids (liquids or gases) by interposing a medium through which only the fluid can
pass. The fluid that passes through is called the filtrate. Oversize solids in the fluid are retained,
but the separation is not complete; solids will be contaminated with some fluid and filtrate will
contain fine particles (depending on the pore size and filter thickness).

Applications

 Filtration is used to separate particles and fluid in a suspension, where the fluid can be
a liquid, a gas or a supercritical fluid. Depending on the application, either one or both of the
components may be isolated.

 Filtration, as a physical operation is very important in chemistry for the separation of

materials of different chemical composition. A solvent is chosen which dissolves one
component, while not dissolving the other. By dissolving the mixture in the chosen solvent,
one component will go into the solution and pass through the filter, while the other will be
retained. This is one of the most important techniques used by chemists to purify
compounds.

 Filtration is also important and widely used as one of the unit operations of chemical
engineering. It may be simultaneously combined with other unit operations to process the
feed stream, as in the biofilter, which is a combined filter and biological digestion device.

 Filtration differs from sieving, where separation occurs at a single perforated layer
(a sieve). In sieving, particles that are too big to pass through the holes of the sieve are
retained (see particle size distribution). In filtration, a multilayer lattice retains those particles
that are unable to follow the tortuous channels of the filter.[2] Oversize particles may form a
cake layer on top of the filter and may also block the filter lattice, preventing the fluid phase
from crossing the filter (blinding). Commercially, the term filter is applied
 to membranes where the separation lattice is so thin that the surface becomes the main zone
of particle separation, even though these products might be described as sieves.

 Filtration differs from adsorption, where it is not the physical size of particles that causes
separation but the effects of surface charge. Some adsorption devices containingactivated
charcoal and ion exchange resin are commercially called filters, although filtration is not
their principal function.

 Filtration differs from removal of magnetic contaminants from fluids

with magnets (typically lubrication oil, coolants and fuel oils), because there is no filter
medium. Commercial devices called "magnetic filters" are sold, but the name reflects their
use, not their mode of operation.
.

Filter media
Two main types of filter media are employed in any chemical laboratory— surface filter, a solid
sieve which traps the solid particles, with or without the aid of filter paper (e.g. Büchner
funnel, Belt filter, Rotary vacuum-drum filter, Cross-flow filters, Screen filter), and a depth
filter, a bed of granular material which retains the solid particles as it passes (e.g. sand filter).
The first type allows the solid particles, i.e. the residue, to be collected intact; the second type
does not permit this. However, the second type is less prone to clogging due to the greater
surface area where the particles can be trapped. Also, when the solid particles are very fine, it is
often cheaper and easier to discard the contaminated granules than to clean the solid sieve.
Achieving flow through the filter
Fluids flow through a filter due to a difference in pressure — fluid flows from the high pressure
side to the low pressure side of the filter, leaving some material behind. The simplest method to
achieve this is by gravity and can be seen in the coffeemaker example.
These filter aids can be used in two different ways. They can be used as a precoat before
the slurry is filtered. This will prevent gelatinous-type solids from plugging the filter medium
and also give a clearer filtrate. They can also be added to the slurry before filtration. This
increases the porosity of the cake and reduces resistance of the cake during filtration. In a rotary
filter, the filter aid may be applied as a precoat; subsequently, thin slices of this layer are sliced
off with the cake.
Examples of filtration include

 The coffee filter to keep the coffee separate from the grounds.

 HEPA filters in air conditioning to remove particles from air.
 Belt filters to extract precious metals in mining.
 Horizontal plate filter, also known as Sparkler filter.
 Furnaces use filtration to prevent the furnace elements from fouling with particulates.
 Pneumatic conveying systems often employ filtration to stop or slow the flow of material
that is transported, through the use of abaghouse.
 In the laboratory, a Büchner funnel is often used, with a filter paper serving as the porous
barrier.

REFENCES

1.
 Article on "Water treatment solution: Filtration", retrieved on the 15th October 2013
from http://www.lenntech.com/chemistry/filtration.htm
2.  Lecture notes, Postgraduate course on Filtration and Size separation at the Department of
Chemical Engineering, University of Lougborough, England

Cake filters can be further divided into pressure, vacuum, centrifugal and gravity
operations.

Post-treatment processes involve making improvements to the quality of the solid or liquid
products. In the case of the filtrate, these operations are often referred to as polishing
processes, and may involve micro or ultrafilters to remove finer substances. Further
purification may involve removal of ionic and macromolecular species by, for example,
reverse osmosis, ion exchange or electrodialysis

Particle Shape
Liquid particles almost always approximate a sphere due to the distribution of surface
forces around the particle. In contrast, solid particles are rarely either spherical or uniform.
Certain classes of materials are essentially crystalline and may be made up from fairly
uniform particles, each of which is, for example, cubic or rhombohedral. But even
crystalline materials may be a mixture of shapes, especially if, as often happens industrially,
breakage of the crystals occurs due to handling. Indeed, breakage can be caused within the
separator itself and is a common problem in, for example, pusher centrifuges. The great
majority of particles are of irregular shape: fibrous particles are common, but they may
possess a wide range of length to diameter ratios; they may have smooth surfaces; they may
be fibrillated, and so on. It is rare that the shape of the particles to be handled can be
defined precisely.

Particle Size
Particles may vary in size from very fine or colloidal matter to coarse granular solids.
Sometimes all the solids may be of the same material, i.e., of homogeneous composition or,
as is often the case with effluent suspensions, the individual particles may have very
different compositions. In general terms particle size has a significant effect on solid/liquid
separation behavior of the suspension. A knowledge of techniques for measuring size
particles is therefore important to the process technologist.

The Solution Environment

Interactions between the particle and the liquid in which it is suspended have the greatest
influence when particles are smaller, particularly when their size is smaller than a few
microns. Origins of interparticle repulsive forces lie in the distribution of solution ions
around the charged surface of the particle, and the resultant electrical charge is dependent
on the chemical species present at the surface.

Reducing the magnitude of the repulsive force causes the dispersion to become unstable,
and generally more easily separated.
a. Repulsive forces can be reduced by either (1) adding a non-adsorbing electrolyte to
the liquid to change the distribution of solution ions around the particle, or (2) altering
the electrical charge on the surface of the particle by the specific adsorption of certain
ions.
Around the isoelectric point of the suspension, the process engineer can expect:
1. faster settling rates;
2. more rapid filter cake formation; and
3. slightly higher moisture content cakes and sediments
due to the aggregation of particles in the suspension, where interparticle repulsion forces
are very small.
At the maximum or minimum z-potential, the engineer can expect:
1. slower settling rates;
2. slower cake formation rates, and
3. slightly lower moisture content cakes and sediments
due to the existence of greater repulsive forces, which maintain the particles better
dispersed throughout the liquid phase.
At pH's beyond those at which maximum or minimum z-potentials first occur, the process
engineer can expect intermediate settling, filtration and expression rates and intermediate
cake and sediment moisture contents. This is due to compression of the electrical double
layer around the particle caused by high ionic strengths in the solution.
The Nature of the Fluid
Apart from the effect of the fluid at the fluid/particle interface, the density and viscosity of
the fluid are most important in industrial filtration. Density is generally only significant
where separation depends on a difference in density between the fluid and the particles,
e.g., in thickeners or centrifugal sedimenters. Whatever difference in density exists must
usually be accepted and cannot often be controlled to any significant degree; occasionally
the influence of temperature may be important, or it may be possible to alter the density to
a very limited extent by varying the amount of dissolved matter.
Viscosity has a more widespread effect and, at the same time, is more amenable to control
since it is usually sensitive to temperature changes. The rate of filtration of liquids can be
greatly accelerated in many instances by a relatively small increase in temperature, which
causes a drop in viscosity.

Interactions Between Separations Equipment and the Feed [Wakeman et al. (1988) and Tiller and
Yeh, 1986)
Compressibility of particulate structures is a key factor in the behavior of all solid/liquid
separation equipment. Particulate aggregation in suspensions determines the degree of
compressibility, which is controlled by suitable pretreatment processes. As increasing
thicknesses of deposits cover the separation surfaces, developing stresses continually
compress the particulate bed. The principal sources of stress are (1) the unbuoyed weight in
gravity thickeners, (2) centrifugal forces, (3) pump pressure converted into Darcian drag at
the particle surfaces, and (4) surface forces developed by pressure-actuated impermeable
membranes.
When stress is applied to a bed of flocculated particles, the bed is compressed by particle
movement into open pores until no further movement into the interstices can occur. Any
further deformation of the bed results in particle deformation or breakage

Filtration is the separation process of removing solid particles, microorganisms or droplets from
a liquid or a gas by depositing them on a filter medium also called a septum, which is essentially
permeable to only the fluid phase of the mixture being separated. The particles are deposited
either at the outer surface of the filter medium and/or within its depth.
The permeation of the fluid phase through the filter medium is connected to a pressure gradient.
The liquid more or less thoroughly separated from the solids is called the filtrate, effluent,
permeate or, in case of water treatment, clean water. As in other separation processes, the
separation of phases is never complete: Liquid adheres to the separated solids (cake with residual
moisture) and the filtrate often contains some solids (solids content in the filtrate or turbidity).
The purpose of filtration may be clarification of the liquid or solids recovery or both. In
clarification the liquid is typically a valuable product and the solids are of minor quantity and are
often discarded without further treatment.If however, the solids are to be recovered, they very
often have to be washed, deliquored and dried. In this article, washing means the cleaning of a
product (filter cake) and it is distinguished from cleaning parts of the filter itself, which will be
called rinsing (e.g., rinsing a filter screen or a filter cloth by jets of water). A further distinction is
to be made between washing and extraction or leaching. Washing eliminates liquid contaminants
from the pores between the particles of a filter cake
1. Location of particle retention. The particles can be separated on the outer surface of the filter
medium (surface filtration, cake filtration) or inside of the filter medium (depth filtration, deep
bed filtration)
2. Generation of the pressure difference. Pressure filtration, vacuum filtration, gravity filtration,
centrifugal filtration
3. Operation mode. discontinuous, continuous, quasi-continuous. Dynamic filtration and static
(normal) filtration. In case of dynamic filtration are during the filtration process mechanisms
active which helps to reduce the build-up of a filter cake. The most common dynamic filtration
process is cross-flow-filtration
4. Application. For example water filtration, beer filtration Filtration is effected by application
of a pressure difference which can be produced by a pressurized fluid, by a vacuum, by the
gravity or by centrifugal force (see Fig. 2). Pressure filtration typically requires a pump for
delivering the suspension to the filter
The pressure difference across vacuum filters is very limited, and the residual moisture of the
filter cake is higher than with pressure filters. Pressure filters allow high pressure differences.
They are preferred when the product must be kept in a closed system for safety reasons, or if the
residual moisture content is important. The handling of the filter cake is obviously more difficult
in a pressure filter. Filtration by centrifugal force requires more technical equipment, but as a
general rule it yields solids with lower residual moisture. During a dynamic filtration the
collected solids on the filter media are continuously removed, mostly with a tangential flow to
the filter medium (cross-flow filtration). Crossflow filtration is a standard operation with
membranes as a filter medium. The flow parallel to the filter medium reduces the formation of a
filter cake or keeps it at a low level. So it is possible to get a quasi-stationary filtrate flow for a
long time. Various models have been developed to describe the physical process of filtration.
This chapter concentrates on four idealized filtration models depicted in Figure 3.
Cake filtration is the most frequently used model. Here it is assumed that the solids are deposited
on the upstream side of the filter medium as a homogeneous porous layer with a constant
permeability. As soon as the first layer of cake is formed, the subsequent filtration takes place at
the top of the cake and the medium provides only a supporting function. Thus, if the flow rate
dV/dt is constant, the pressure drop will increase linearly, proportional to the quantity of solid
deposited

2. Centrifugal filtration

Separation systems with multicyclone elements are designed for separation both of liquid and solid
contaminants from gas, air or vapor flows and have the following advantages: absence of moving parts,
reliable operation under the temperature up to 500 °С, high efficiency, stable pressure drop value,
simple maintenance and wide range of application.
Major property of design – installation of cyclone tubes section, fixed between two tube sheets. Gas
enters the cyclone section and then enters each tube, where fast spinning and gravity force move
contaminants (both solid and liquid) from inside the tube to its outer wall. Further on the contaminants
under gravity influence move to the bottom sump and then are forced out by the operator or
automatically. Clear gas passes through gas nozzles, located at the upper tube sheet and then leaves
the vessel.

3. Inertial-centrifugal filtration
LCK® side-stream separation system
This gas purification system incorporates two methods of filtration: inertial filtration in the stage side-
stream separator and centrifugal filtration in vortex tube of the liquid collection section.
 
Description and operation principle
First stage of filtration – side-stream separator
Key feature of the separator is a stage separation device inside the body, integrated in the
concentrator (2).
The gas flow comes into the separator and through the venturi pipe (1) gets to the concentrator. Inside
the concentrator the incoming contaminated gas flow divides into two flows: the cleaned main flow
and the secondary flow. The secondary flow with solids is separated from the main flow and funneled
to sedimentation tank.
Going between the lamellas inside the separation unit, the main flow changes its direction several
times. With that solid and liquid particles (aerosols) with low surface tension (<50-60 mN/m – glycols,
corrosion inhibitor, hydrocarbons and oils) collide with the lamellas and jump off into the secondary
gas flow. On the contrary, liquid particles and aerosols with high surface tension (>50-60 mN/m –
water, oils, condensate, tars) coalesce when hitting the lamellas and go adrift until the edge of
lamellas as the main flow passes through the separator. After that the main flow with the coalesced
particles goes to the liquid collection section.
The secondary flow in which solids and liquids are concentrated adds up to 10% of the main flow. As
going through the concentrator, the secondary flow is gradually separated from the main flow, and
then it goes to the sedimentation tank through the drain pipe (3). Due to the low gas velocity, solid
particles and liquid droplets with low surface tension get separated from the flow and sediment in the
first section of the sedimentation tank.
Passing through the second section of the sedimentation tank the secondary flow hits the lamellas (4)
that deflect the stream, providing a better sedimentation of particles inside the vessel.
The cleaned secondary flow that might carry leftover particles goes through the outlet nozzle of the
sedimentation tank (5) and comes back to the side-stream separator via pipe (6). Recycling of the
secondary flow into the main flow happens due to the venturi pipe’s diffusor, which causes pressure
loss at the inlet and consequently provides velocity and flow rate increase. After that the combined gas
flow passes through the concentrator once again.
Second stage of filtration – Liquid collection section
After the first stage the main gas flow with coalesced liquid particles comes into the liquid separator
where it accelerates tangentially due to the vortex (7) fixed inside the separator body. With that the
coalesced aerosol particles start circulating near the vortex lamellas and by centrifugal force get
thrown off to the separator body internal surface. The separated aerosol particles pass through chuting
system set inside the perforated pipe (8) and are removed to the sump via the drain pipe (9).
After that the cleaned gas flow passes through the vortex’s outlet blade system where a gas current
free from swirls/rips takes shape. The gas flow completely cleaned from liquid droplets and solid
particles goes inside the outlet nozzle of the liquid collection section.
LCK® side-stream separation system advantages:
1. A compact design provides a relatively easy installation within the existing pipeline.
2. Sedimentation vessels can be cleaned without the system shutdown.
3. High fineness of filtration of fractions over a wide operational range.
4. Filtration efficiency comparable with that of a quality cartridge filters.
5. Due to automated self-cleaning feature, the system does not require maintenance over a long
period of time.
6. Relatively low pressure loss inside the system depends solely on media density and flow rate.

Filtration mechanisms

There are two fundamental mechanisms by which particles can be removed from a stream
of gas passing through a porous fabric. The most obvious of these is a ‘sieving’ mechanism
in which particles too large to pass through the mesh of the fabric are caught and retained
on the surface of the filter. The caught particles gradually build up a cake on the fabric
surface so that the labyrinthine nature of the gas flow path continually increases while the
effective mesh size decreases. The collecting efficiency of the filter will therefore tend to be
improved by use, but the pressure drop across the filter will increase, of course, and so
regular cleaning is essential to maintain the pressure drop at an operational level.

The less obvious, but for very fine particles, more important, mechanism of filtration is that
in which the particles are caught by impingement on the fibres within the filter fabric. This is
often referred to as ‘depth filtration’ to distinguish it from ‘sieving’. It is for this reason that
filters usually consist of a fibrous mat, called needlefelt, rather than a single woven fabric
screen. The actual flow paths followed by the gas passing through a depth filter are thus
extremely tortuous, and a particle unable to follow these paths is given a trajectory which
sooner or later brings it into contact with a fibre where it adheres, largely as a result of Van
der Waal’s forces.