Communications
l The specific plant costs are considerably higher because the
throughputs are far smaller than in the case of processes for
power generation. Nevertheless, savings due to the pre-
viously removed water can allow a profitable operation (the
disposal costs, e.g., are in the case of galvanizing sludge
between several hundred and 3000 DM/t).
l On account of the low achievable water content and the
small energy demand, also residues from the paper and
wood processing industry, such as paper pulp and bark, that
otherwise need to be burned with high energy consumption,
can be dewatered for later energy-efficient use.
l Compared to purely mechanical dewatering, the higher
energy demand is more than equalized by the savings due to
the low water content of the product and shorter process
times leading to smaller plants. Compared to drying
processes, the energy demand remains comparatively small.
Values between 1/3 and 1/25 of the latent heat of water can
be achieved after optimization of plant engineering.
l During dewatering, one can avoid further chemicals (e.g.,
flocculants) or at least reduce the amount used.
Further advantages for the process engineering which also
affect the plant costs in a beneficial manner are:
l The temperatures during mechanical/thermal dewatering of
organic materials are considerably lower than during
normal thermal dewatering processes.
l The low mechanical pressures (compared to mechanical
dewatering) facilitate the commercial implementation of
the process.
l It is possible to dewater even materials with large particle
sizes since the energy supply by conduction is sped up by
means of direct heat exchange with hot water and steam.
8 Summary and Outlook
With the development of the mechanical/thermal dewater-
ing a new energetically and technologically optimized
technique is available for the dewatering of moist solid
materials.
The existing pilot plant at the Rheinbraun AG research
center Sibylla with a throughput of approximately 2 t/h covers
a wide range of the demands in processing applications. Based
on this concept the technology is also tested for further
materials at this time. Apart from the dewatering of moist
fossil fuels, the process is especially suitable for the dewatering
of suspensions containing ultrafine particles (d < 10 mm) which
are difficult to dewater nowadays. The significant shortening
of process time and the reduction of the plant size result in
lower costs and provide the economical application of the
MTE procedure.
For this reason, these new fields are a major goal of further
scientific and technical investigations since the application of
the procedure in the field of brown coal dewatering in
conventional power stations is successfully implemented and
tested. At the Niederauûem power station of RWE an MTE
Chem. Eng. Technol. 22 (1999) 11, Ó WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, D-69469 Weinheim, 1999
unit with a capacity of 25 tons per hour is under construction.
The commissioning of this unit is planned for July 2000.
Received: June 29, 1998 [K2445]
References
[1] Strauû, K.; Berger, S.; Bergins, Chr.; Bielfeldt, F. B.; Erken, M.; Hoffmann,
M., Mechanisch/thermische Entwässerung als Vortrocknungsstufe
für braunkohlegefeuerte Kraftwerke, VDI Berichte Nr. 1280 (1996) pp.
165±173.
[2] Bergins, Chr.; Berger, S.; Strauû, K., Verfahrenstechnik der mechanisch/
thermischen Entwässerung, Aufbereitungstechnik 39 (1998) 2, pp. 58±70.
[3] Strauû, K.; Berger, S.; Bergins, Chr., Mechanismen bei der thermischen
und mechanischen Entwässerung von Braunkohle, VGB Konferenz
ªForschung in der Kraftwerkstechnikº (1998) VGB-TB 233 A.
[4] Bergins, Chr.; Berger, S.; Strauû, K.; Elsen, R. O.; Erken, M.; Bielefeld, F.
B., Mechanisch/thermische Entwässerung ± Ein neues Verfahren zur
Veredelung von Torf und Kohlen, DGMK Tagungsbericht 9802 (1998) pp.
37±44: DGMK Fachbereichstagung ªEnergetische und stoffliche Nutzung
von Abfällen und nachwachsenden Rohstoffenº 20.±22. April 1998 in
Velen/Westf.
[5] Berger, S.; Bergins, Chr.; Strauû, K.; Bielfeldt, F. B.; Elsen, R. O.; Erken,
M., Mechanisch/thermische Entwässerung von Braunkohle, VGB Kon-
ferenz ªForschung in der Kraftwerkstechnikº (1998) VGB-TB 233.
This paper was also published in German in Chem. Ing. Tech. 71 (1999) No. 4.
_______________________
Recycling of Abrasives and Process
Water in the Abrasive Water Jet
Technique
By Matthias Kretschmer and Eckhard Aust*
Abrasive water jet cutting is an innovative manufacturing
method, which gets increasing importance for the processing
of technical materials. Especially the broad application
spectrum of this machining technique with geometrically
undefined cutting edges has to be emphasized, which includes
jetting for deforming, surface treatment, machining, cleaning
and surface strengthening. A key function for the successful
introduction and acceptance of this new technology is the
possibility to recycle all components of the obtained mixture of
water, used abrasives, and metal chips. This article summarizes
an advanced recycling concept, which has proven in laboratory
tests to be an economical and environmentally gentle solution
to close the material circuit of cutting water and abrasives.
1 Introduction
The cutting operation with abrasive water jets produces a
big amount of process waste compared to conventional
±
[*] Dr.-Ing. M. Kretschmer, SMS Schloemann-Siemag Aktiengesellschaft,
Schweisfurth 8, D-57271 Hilchenbach; Dr.-Ing. E. Aust, GKSS-For-
schungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH, Max-Planck-Straûe D-21502
Geesthacht, Germany.
0930-7516/98/1111-0927
0930-7516/99/1111-0927 $$ 17.50+.50/0
17.50+.50/0 927
 Communications
machining with geometrically defined cutting edges. The
process waste is a water-based suspension with abrasive
particles and metal from the treated workpiece. The abrasives
used are mainly minerals, especially quartz and garnet sand
[1]. The size of the abrasive particles is limited to a narrow
range for an optimal performance in the cutting cell. The
upper limit of the particle diameter is depending on the cutting
head. Cutting heads used in industry have a focus nozzle
diameter of 1.0 mm, which results in a maximum particle
diameter of 500 mm. The lower limit of the particle diameter is
determined by the cutting performance of the abrasives. This
leads to a minimum particle diameter of 80 mm [2].
The narrow size range of the abrasive particles requires a
precise preparation of the minerals. In conclusion, the price for
garnet sand is approximately 1.000 DM/t and approximately
300 DM/t for quartz sand. Industrial abrasive water jet cutting
machines work with an abrasive flow from 0.5 kg/min to 2.0 kg/
min and a water flow from 2.0 l/min to 12.0 l/min. Based on a
daily working period of 7 hours, this leads to an abrasive
quantity of 210 kg/d to 840 kg/d. The daily water consumption
is between 1 m3 and 5 m3. This consumption of resources
indicates the recycling potential of this manufacturing process.
It further shows that the reuse of abrasives and process water is
interesting for environmental and economical reasons.
2 State of the Art
Today, two different systems are used in the abrasive water jet
technique. Both systems differ in the way of introducing the
abrasives into the high-speed water jet (Fig. 1). The injector
system is the most commonly used setup in industry (Fig. 1a).
After passing the water nozzle the pressurized water jet is
enteringthemixing chamberwithhighspeed.Duetotheair flow
caused by the injector effect, abrasives are sucked into the water
jet under an angle of 90. This system requires dry, floatable
abrasives to avoid blockages in the feeding pipe or in the mixing
chamber. The mixing process of the solid and liquid phase itself
takes place at the entrance section of the abrasive nozzle.
The advantage of this system is a compact construction of
the cutting head. The injector cutting head creates a fine, very
energetic abrasive water jet. This three-phase jet consists of air
by 90 vol.-%, of water by 9 vol.-%, and finally of abrasive
particles by 1 vol.-% [3].
The second system used in industry is working according to
the suspension principle (Fig. 1b). The abrasives are dispersed
into a partial water flow in a pressurized vessel, working in a
bypass mode. The pressure in the vessel is equal to the system
pressure. This suspension is afterwards mixed with the main
part of the water flow and expands into the surroundings after
leaving the focus nozzle [4]. The suspension system creates a
two-phase abrasive water jet which consists of water by 95
vol.-% and of abrasives by 5 vol.-%.
The advantage of the suspension system is the spatial
independence between the feeding of the abrasives and the
place where the cutting process takes place. The disadvantages
928 Ó WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, D-69469 Weinheim, 1999 0930-7516/99/1111-0928 $ 17.50+.50/0
Figure 1. Technical variants to create abrasive water jets.
of this system are the complex setup and the high wear of the
fittings.
First investigations are made on the reuse of the abrasives in
the cutting process using the injection principle. Guo et al. [2]
found that the cutting performance is dependent on the
abrasive particle size and that the cutting performance shows a
maximum between a particle size of 125 and 200 mm. They
could employ 68 % of the used abrasives in their cutting
process again based on a minimal particle diameter of 90 mm.
In a patent application Louis et. al. [5] presented a system
and a mock-up to separate and reuse the abrasives in the
abrasive water jet technique. The classification of the
abrasives is performed by two hydrocyclones. The drying
process takes place in a turning drum oven. A different
solution to prepare the used abrasives is given by Doll [6]
presented in his patent. The solid phase of the waste
suspension is carried out of the beam catcher, dried under
infrared lamps and finally classified in a gas classifier.
The reduction of the waste produced in the process is
necessary to improve the competitive abilities and acceptance
of abrasive water jetting compared to conventional machining
with geometrically defined cutting edges. Three different
solutions are feasible:
1) the optimization of the cutting tool and the periphery
under the premise of a minimal usage of resources,
2) the reuse of the capable particles in the waste suspension,
and finally
3) the preparation of the process water for reuse in the high
pressure water pump.
This article presents the results of the investigations
concerning the last two issues.
3 Particle Breakup in the Abrasive Water Jet
The pressurized water expands into the mixing chamber
after passing the water nozzle. When passing through the
mixing chamber the water jet carries away air due to the
injector effect and creates an underpressure of 0.2 to 0.3 bar.
This pressure difference to the surroundings is used to
pneumatically feed the abrasives into the mixing chamber
and to mix them with the water jet. Impacts between the solids
and the walls of the mixing chamber and the focus nozzle occur
Chem. Eng. Technol. 22 (1999) 11

during the acceleration process of the particles. As a
consequence of the particle breakup during these impacts,
the particle size spectrum changes [7].
After passing the cutting head the abrasive water jet hits the
workpiece. The particles are further reduced in size due to the
impulse exchange during the abrasion [1]. But the particle
breakup taking place in the cutting groove is small compared to
that in the cutting head (Fig. 2). On the one hand, the particle
breakup depends on the geometry of the cutting head, the
water pressure, the abrasive mass flow, the kind of abrasives
and the particle size distribution of the new abrasives. On the
other hand, the cutting speed, the cutting depth and the
material of the workpiece have an influence on the change in
the particle size, too. This article presents the investigations
made on the cutting parameters based on a complete cutting
through the workpiece by the abrasive water jet.
Figure 2. Particle breakup in the cutting head.
One conclusion of this research is that the recycling capacity
decreases after the first usage of the abrasives, e.g., the first
recycling cycle (Fig. 3). This characteristic is not depending on
the kind of mineral particles used in the cutting process. The
share of particles, which can be reused after one cutting
operation, for the mineral garnet sand is about 75 % of the
initial mass. The remaining 25 % need to be replaced by new,
fresh abrasives. The recycling capacity, that means the share of
abrasive particles which can be reused for cutting operations,
remains constant after the second cycle. The share is about
75 % for the abrasives garnet sand.
Figure 3. Recycling capacity depending on the number of recycling cycles.
Chem. Eng. Technol. 22 (1999) 11, Ó WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, D-69469 Weinheim, 1999
Communications
4 Concept of the Recycling System
The recycling and waste handling system in the abrasive
water jet cutting technique for industrial application must
meet the following requirements and an adequate equipment:
The first step is the classifying of the used abrasives in the
fraction, which can be reused, and the waste fraction. If a
cutting head based on the injector technology is used, the
abrasives need to be dry and floatable. Due to this requirement
the classification unit is followed by a drying system for the
reusable fraction. In order to optimize the energetic consump-
tion for the drying process, the water content of the material
has to be a minimum. Consequently, the classification should
be combined with the dehydration of the classified abrasives.
A sophisticated preparation of the liquid phase is necessary if
theprocesswaterisreusedinthe high-pressurepump.Following
the information given by the pump manufacturers, the solid
content in the feed water has to be below 20 ppm in combination
with a maximum particle size of 10 mm. The wide range of the
particle size requires a separation process in two steps.
Fig. 4 gives the schematic setup for the preparation of the
abrasives and the process water in a recycling system.
Classification and dehydration of the abrasives are performed
in a wet sievingunit. The liquidphase of the fine fraction coming
from the sieve is stepwise cleaned of the remaining particles in
the following units and fed into the high-pressure pump. The
first step is the separation of the fine particles in a vacuum belt
filter. In order to use the belt filter economically, the particle
concentration is upgraded by a hydrocyclone at the entrance.
The solids content in the filtrate is still too high. Therefore,
additional ceramic microfiltration modules are necessary for
the further cleaning of the process water. The water quality
achieved in this unit is sufficient to meet the requirements for
the reuse of the process water in the high-pressure pump.
Figure 4. Concept of the recycling and waste handling system.
5 Preparation of the Abrasives
The process and engineering characteristics of the units of
the recycling and waste handling system are discussed in this
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section. At first, the process suspension is divided into a

fraction with coarse particles (dp > 80 mm) and into that with
fine particles (Fig. 4). The coarse particles are capable of being
reused in the cutting process and the fines are considered to be
waste. This requirement is best met with a wet sieving unit. In
addition to a good, sharp classifying operation in the wet sieve
the remaining humidity in the coarse fraction should be low to
keep the drying costs low, too. The overflow of the sieve is dried
until the solids are floatable in the following dryer. The fine
fraction, which is the underflow of the sieving unit, is going to
be cleaned in the following preparation units (Fig. 4) for reuse
the remaining process water in the high-pressure pump.
The next process step is the separation of the fine particles in
the vacuum belt filter. Due to the high concentration of very
Figure 5. Specific filtrate volume flow through the ceramic membrane in the
fine particles, a cake with a high hydraulic resistance is created crossflow filter.
quickly on the filter media. This layer reduces the filtrate flow.
Experiments showed that the specific filtrate volume flow is reused. A further reduction in the operation costs can be
independent of the particle concentration if the particle achieved by preparing the process water for reuse in the high-
concentration exceeds 10 % in the feed suspension. pressure pump. On the other side, the preparation of the
An economical operation of the vacuum belt filter requires process resources causes additional costs: The setup of the
an increase of the particle content at the entrance. This recycling system leads to investment costs and the operation of
demand is met by the hydrocyclone. The upgraded underflow the system results in costs for energy consumption and
of the hydrocyclone is fed to the vacuum belt filter. The maintenance.
overflow is combined with the filtrate of the belt filter and An assessment of the economical benefit for the reuse of the
further prepared in the following crossflow filter. process resources can be made by the comparison of the costs
The crossflow filtration is used for the separation of for an abrasive water jet cutting cell with and without the
suspensions containing a large amount of very fine particles recycling system [9]. The relation between the single costs
[8]. The feed suspension is flowing horizontally over the filter (manufacturing costs per workpiece) and the recycling
media, which acts as a membrane. The pressure difference capacity, the mass flows of the resources and the method of
across the membrane is responsible for the flow through the preparation are given in Fig. 6. The break-even point for the
filter media. Due to this flow, particles can reach the filter and a recycling process in abrasive water jet cutting cells with high
cake is built up on the membrane with increasing time. The consumptions is already given at small shares of reusable
amount of disposed particles depends on the pressure abrasives. The cost reduction is given above recycling
difference across the membrane and on the overflow velocity capacities of 15 %. The preparation and reuse of the process
of the suspension. The yielded forces on the particle layer water has no distinct influence on the single costs, independent
created by the horizontal flow limit the growth of the filter cake of the recycling capacity. In cutting cells with a low resource
becausethey transport particleson top of the layer back into the consumption a cost reduction for the recycling of abrasives is
core flow. The filtrate volume flow decreases with an increasing given above a recycling capacity of 40 %.
particle layer. An equilibrium is found between the deposition
and removal of particles, whichresults in a constant filtrate flow.
Fig. 5 shows the mean value of the specific filtrate flow as a
function of the pressure difference across the membrane for a
garnet sand suspension with a solid concentration of 0.1 %.
With increasing pressure the flow of the multiphase suspen-
sion through the filter media is linear, depending on the
pressure difference across the membrane. The slope of the
filtration straight line is lower than the one found for the
filtration of pure water. The created particle layer is an
additional filtration resistance for the filtrate.

6 Costs for the Recycling and Reuse of the Process

Resources Figure 6. Single costs depending on the recycling capacity.

The financial expense for the abrasive jetting operation The considerations of the single costs as a function of the
decreases clearly if a part of the abrasives can be recycled and recycling capacity indicate that just the recycling of the

930 Ó WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, D-69469 Weinheim, 1999 0930-7516/99/1111-0930 $ 17.50+.50/0 Chem. Eng. Technol. 22 (1999) 11
 Communications

abrasives improve the economics of the abrasive water jet
operation in total. The integration of the process water
preparation into the recycling system does not result in a
distinct cost reduction, because of the low fresh and waste-
water costs at this time. Water preparation gets economical
importance, if abrasive water jetting is used for the decom-
missioning of ammunition, for work in nuclear installations or
for the cleaning of tank plants. The process water is in these
cases enriched with toxic impurities, which leads to a clear
increase of the disposal costs for contaminated waste.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank Prof. Dr.-Ing. D. Mewes, Head of
the Department for Process Engineering at the University of
Hannover, who provided valuable suggestions during the
conduction of these investigations at the GKSS Research
Center.
Received: July 29, 1998 [K 2459]
[2] Guo, N. S.; Louis, H.; Meier, G.; Ohlsen, J., Modelling of Abrasive Particle
Desintegration in Abrasive Water Jet Cutting in Relation to the Recycling
Capacity, in: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Jet
Cutting Technology, Rouen (France), Oct. 25±27, 1994, pp. 567±587.
[3] Himmelreich, U., Fluiddynamische Modelluntersuchungen an Wasser-
abrasivstrahlen, VDI Fortschrittsberichte, Reihe 7: Strömungstechnik,
VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989 (No. 219).
[4] Fairhurst, R. M.; Heron, R. A.; Saunders, D. H., DIAJET ± A New
Abrasive Water Jet Cutting Technique, in: Proceedings of the 8th
International Symposium on Jet Cutting Technology, Durham (England),
Sept. 9±11, 1986, pp. 395±402.
[5] Louis, H.; Ohlsen, J.; Meier, G., Verfahren und Anlage zur Trennung und
Rückgewinnung von Abrasivmitteln bei der Wasserabrasivstrahlanwen-
dung / Deutsches Patentamt (1994) ± Offenlegungsschrift DE 43 03 868 A1.
[6] Doll, F., Verfahren und Anlage zur Rückgewinnung abrasiven Schleif-
mittels beim Wasserstrahlschneiden / Europäisches Patentamt (1992),
Europäische Patentanmeldung 0 502 461 A1.
[7] Simpson, M., Abrasive Particle Study in High Pressure Water Jet Cutting,
in: Int. J. of Water Jet Technol. vol. 1 (1990) No. 1, pp. 18±28.
[8] Ripperger, S., Berechnungsansätze zur Cross-Flow Filtration, in: Chem.-
Ing.-Tech. 65 (1993) No. 5, pp. 533±540.
[9] Warnecke, H. J.; Bullinger, H. J.; Hichert, R.; Vogele, A., Wirtschaftlich-
keitsrechnung für Ingenieure, Carl Hanser Verlag, München 1990.
This paper was also published in German in Chem. Ing. Tech. 71 (1999) No. 4.
_______________________

Symbols used
Photocatalytic Treatment of an Industrial
AM [m2] area of the membrane
Wastewater in the Double-Skin Sheet
cP [±] particle concentration in the
suspension Reactor
dAb [mm] diameter of the abrasive nozzle
dp [mm] particle diameter By Ralf Dillert, Stephan Vollmer, Mirko Schober,
DpM [kPa] differential pressure through the Jörn Theurich, Detlef Bahnemann, Hans-Jürgen Arntz,
membrane Klaus Pahlmann, Jörg Wienefeld, Tobias Schmedding
dw [mm] water nozzle diameter, focus nozzle and Günther Sager*
diameter
CS [DM/min] single costs
lAb [mm] abrasive nozzle length, focus nozzle
length 1 Introduction
MAb [g/s] abrasive mass flow
MW [l/min; g/s] water mass flow The cleanup of polluted industrial wastewater with the aim
nR [±] number of recycling cycles of reusing it in the production is state-of-the-art technology.
pW [bar] water pressure From an economic point of view chemical oxidation processes
Q3(dP) [±] accumulated volume distribution of the are of interest operating at ambient temperature, employing
particle diameter molecular oxygen dissolved in the wastewater as the only
REP [±] recycling capacity of the abrasives oxidant, and utilizing solar irradiation as the necessary
tM [s] filtration time activation energy.
V́ [l/(m2 h)] specific filtrate volume flow Presently, photocatalysis is the only technique obeying all
VS [l/min] suspension volume flow these prerequsities [1]. In this technique the degradation
vS [mm/min] cutting speed reaction is initiated by illumination of suspended semicon-
vS,0 [mm/min] cutting speed of the recycling cycles ductor particles employing light of an energy exceeding the
number 0 band gap energy of the semiconductor. The absorption of
xM [mm] pore width of the membrane
rGarnet [kg/m2] density of the abrasive garnet
J [C] suspension temperature ±
[*] Dr. R. Dillert, Ecotransfair, Rebenring 33, D-33106 Braunschweig, Dipl.-
Ing. (FH) S. Vollmer, Dipl.-Phys. M. Schober, Dipl.-Chem. J. Theurich,
Dr. D. Bahnemann, (author to whom correspondence should be
References addressed), Institut für Solarenergieforschung GmbH Hameln/Em-
merthal, Auûenstelle Hannover, Sokelantstr. 5, D-30165 Hannover; Dr.
[1] Foldyna, J.; Martinec, P., Abrasive Material in the Process of AWJ Cutting, H.-J. Arntz, Dipl.-Ing. K. Pahlmann, Dipl.-Ing. J. Wienefeld, Dipl.-Ing. T.
in: Jet Cutting Technology (A. Lichtarowicz, ed.) Kluwer Academic Schmedding, Dipl.-Ing. G. Sager, Volkswagen AG, Abt. K-EFUW
Publisher, New York 1992, pp. 135±147. Umweltplanung, D-38436 Wolfsburg, Germany.

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