Filtration principles and troubleshooting

Abstract

Removal of the insoluble solids from the carbonatation juices in juice purification is often the bottle-neck in the beet slicing capacity of a beet sugar factory. It is crucial to produce good filterable precipitates in the different steps of juice purification, which in fact depends on the achieved particle size and particle size distribution of the formed precipitates. The principle of filtration will be described wherein permeability and thickness of the filter cake, as well as the juice viscosity are the most important parameters. The most likely causes of problems in the filtration of the 1st carbonatation, respectively 2nd carbonatation slurry will be presented. In addition, recommendations are given on how filtration problems can be solved. Some alternative ways of processing in order to get around particular filtration problems will be mentioned too.