Research and development
In solid/liquid separation, research and development work has focused on meeting the requirements in various applications.
For decanters used in the environmental sector, efforts concentrate on reducing energy consumption. Today a reduction of up to 40% is achieved depending on the size of the decanter and the throughput. The range of high-speed single-cell drum filters used especially in the plastics industry is expanded to handle larger throughputs; at the same time the specific filtration costs are reduced.
Successful separation of solid particles from liquids starts by analyzing the constituents and their interactions
Thermal solid/liquid separation
A pilot-scale belt dryer has been developed and is scheduled to go into operation in Q3/2012. The design of the belt dryer allows testing of a wide range of materials to be dried at different drying conditions.
Development of exhaust air treatment section of sewage sludge drying plants
Non-thermal VOC and odor reduction processes have been analyzed at an existing BDS dryer plant. Different combinations of biofilter, bio-trickling filter, activated carbon, non-thermal plasma, and condenser are tested.
Mechanical solid/liquid separation
- A decanter with 20% more throughput is being developed for municipal sludge dewatering. This is accomplished mainly by improving the flow situation in the feed zone.
- For filter presses used in ore mining, the plate opening times are being shortened, thus leading to drastically reduced operating cycles with the benefit of a significantly higher specific throughput.
- A drum filter is being developed for applications in the polymer industry that allows easy maintenance, even at higher throughputs.
- For centrifuges, a new drive system has proved its long-term reliability. As a result, this concept is now also utilized in other centrifuge sizes.
- New intermittent sizes are being developed in the hyperbaric disk filter (HBF) and vacuum disk filter product groups.
- A novel, dynamic cross-flow filter is being developed and has already been applied successfully in several industrial processes.
- In Framework Program 7 of the European Union, a new type of centrifuge with a strong magnetic field was designed and will be tested for selective separation of proteins by functionalized magnetic particles.
