System and apparatus for control and optimization of filtration process
First Claim
1. A process control method of dewatering a solids ladened slurry of water and waste water in a filter press of the kind in which the solids are removed from the slurry and concentrated in the filter press, said method comprising,feeding an influent solids ladened slurry to an inlet of the filter press,removing the solids from the slurry in the filter press and concentrating the removed solids within the filter press,conducting a relatively solids-free effluent from the filter press,measuring the cumulative volume flow versus time of the effluent from the filter press,correlating the percent of solids in the influent with the measured cumulative volume flow versus time of the effluent to continuously monitor the solids concentration increase in the dewatering unit, andmeasuring the rate of change of solids concentration increase with respect to time within the filter press and generating a resource factor control signal from said measured rate of change of solids concentration increase.
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Abstract
A process control apparatus and system for dewatering a solids ladened slurry of water and waste water embodying one or more of four primary process control techniques, depending upon the particular process application.
The four process control techniques are (1) monitoring of the instantaneous solids concentration increase in the dewatering unit, (2) measurement of the rate of change of the solids concentration increase with respect to time, (3) controlled pumping to produce a substantially constant flow rate in the effluent from the dewatering unit until the terminal dewatering pressure is reached, and (4) variation of the amount of conditioning agents added to the influent slurry in response to one or more control signals derived from other components of the dewatering system and apparatus.
84 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A process control method of dewatering a solids ladened slurry of water and waste water in a filter press of the kind in which the solids are removed from the slurry and concentrated in the filter press, said method comprising,
feeding an influent solids ladened slurry to an inlet of the filter press, removing the solids from the slurry in the filter press and concentrating the removed solids within the filter press, conducting a relatively solids-free effluent from the filter press, measuring the cumulative volume flow versus time of the effluent from the filter press, correlating the percent of solids in the influent with the measured cumulative volume flow versus time of the effluent to continuously monitor the solids concentration increase in the dewatering unit, and measuring the rate of change of solids concentration increase with respect to time within the filter press and generating a resource factor control signal from said measured rate of change of solids concentration increase.
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10. A process control method of dewatering a solids ladened slurry of water and waste water in a filter press dewatering unit of the kind in which solids are removed from the slurry and concentrated in the filter press in dewatering cycles, said method comprising,
feeding an influent solids ladened slurry to an inlet of the filter press, removing the solids from the filter press and concentrating the removed solids within the filter press, conducting a relatively solids-free effluent from the filter press measuring the rate of change of solids concentration increase with respect to time within the filter press, generating resource factor control signal from said measured rate of solids concentration increase, and terminating the dewatering cycle in response to the attainment of a minimum resource factor signal.
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12. A process control apparatus and system for dewatering a solids ladened slurry of water and waste water in cycles in a filter press dewatering unit, said system comprising,
a filter press having an inlet, filter cloth chambers for removing solids from the slurry and for concentrating the removed solids in filter cakes within the filter cloth chambers, and an outlet, influent feed means for feeding an influent solids ladened slurry to the inlet of the filter press, effluent means for conducting a relatively solid-free effluent from the filter press, measuring means for measuring the rate of change of solids concentration increase with respect to time within the filter press and for generating a resource factor control signal from said measured rate of solids concentration increase, and control means for terminating the dewatering cycle in response to the attainment of a minimum resource factor signal.
Specification