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Tutorial on using the filtration operation


Example - how to model clarification, crystallization and filtration with this flowchart editor / process simulator


brown sugar --> white sugar

Before you continue...

...you should have a basic understanding of the following:


Topic and recipe of example project


Purify sugar from it's impurities by clarification with activated carbon, and crystallization according to the following recipe:

Dissolve 80 kg crude sugar in 100 litres of water (on about 90°C), and clarify it with 5 kg of activated carbon. Then filter off the hot mixture.

Cool down the filtrate (crystallization begins) and add 50 litres of ethanol to it (more sugar precipitates because of the weaker solubility in alcohol). Then filter the sugar crystals, and wash the filter cake with 10 litres ethanol.

Tip: try to follow this tutorial with the flowchart editor using example project: Sugar crystallization!


Clarification: mix some clarifying material with the liquid and then separate it

Since the program handles the actual content of a vessel as a homogenous mixture (in other words: the program does not distinguish solid and liquid components), "clarification" means "load clarifying material and then filter it off".

1st type of filtration: separate insoluble solids from liquid

Follow these principles during definition of component separation:
  • Use %C unit as often as possible. This makes your project more robust to changes.
  • Use 100 %C for insoluble components. This means: the whole amount of the clarifying material remains on the filter
  • Do not forget that the filter cake remains wet after filtration. This means: every components of the liquid will be remain on the filter cake, up to certain extent. This extent must be determined by some experimental work.
  • For compounds which are adsorbed on the clarifying material should be set at a higher amount on the filter cake than compounds that are not adsorbed.


examples for operation ''filtration''


Some explanations of the component amounts in this example:
  • carbon 100 %C : the whole amount of activated carbon remains on the filter
  • sugar 7 %C : amount of sugar adsorbed by the activated carbon AND contained by the liquid wetting the filter cake. Must be determined by experiments.
  • impurities 10 %C : amount of impurities adsorbed by the activated carbon AND contained by the liquid wetting the filter cake. Must be determined by experiments, too.
  • water 1 %C : amount of solvent wetting the filter cake.
What about washing of the filter cake, i.e. remove some components from the filtered material?
Use the same principles. Nothing else.


Crystallization: separation of precipitated material from the solution

Since the program handles the actual content of a vessel as a homogenous mixture (in other words: the program does not distinguish solid and liquid components), "crystallization" does not have it's own "operation code". The user should keep in mind which components are solid and which are liquid or dissolved, and use this information when these solids are filtered.

2nd type of filtration: separate soluble solids from liquid

Follow these principles during definition of component separation:
  • Use %C unit as often as possible. This makes your project more robust to changes.
  • Use less than 100 %C for soluble components. Look for solubility data.
  • Do not forget that the filter cake remains wet after filtration. This means: every components of the liquid will be remain on the filter cake, up to certain extent. This extent must be determined by some experimental work.






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solubility.info
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DDB SLE data
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