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UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

EXPERIMENT 9: FILTERABILITY INDEX UNIT GROUP B9


MOHD FADZLIN BIN MOHD SAHAILIN NURUL IZZATY FAIZZEN ZULKEFELY TAN SENG YEE XOLILE PETUNIA MSIMANGA ZIYAN ZAYANNA AHMAD 12674 12821 12872 14140 12912

Name of Lecturers

: Prof Dr Khairun Azizi Bt Azizli : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Azmuddin B Abdullah

Date of Experiment Date of Submission

: 29th March 2011 : 5th April 2011

SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION

The objectives of the experiment are to measure the filterability characteristics of a given suspension performance of a standard water quality test, to determine the Ethe specific filter cake resistant (m/kg) and Rm and filter medium resistant (11m) in order to determine the filterability index. The experiment is also conducted to verify the basic principles of filter operation for student study.

SUMMARY Filterability Index Unit is a bench-top unit designed to allow for a water quality test to be made on a suspension to be filtered through a sand or similar granular media. Water fills the pores (open spaces) between the sand particles in the test module and the impurities are left behind, either clogged in the open spaces or attached to the sand itself.

In this experiment, we will measure the filterability characteristics of a given suspension performance of a standard water quality test. We will also determine the specific filter cake resistant and filter medium resistant in order to determine the filterability index and to verify the basic principles of filter operation. We will fill up the filterability index unit apparatus with the Bentonite-Water mixture through the inlet funnel, and the filtered water is to be collected and dried in the oven to determine the slurry concentration. From flow rate and time data, volume can be obtained from area under the curve of flow rate against time.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION In this experiment, we had conducted 9 sub experiments where we varies the concentration of the bentonite with 5g, 10g and 15g of bentonite to be mixed with 2000mL of water as well as the size of the sand particle being used which included 1000m,700m and 500m. The flow rate and the differential pressure will be observed along the filtration process happen for each of 9 sub experiments. We will observe on how these factors changed along the experiments with the variables of concentration of impurities and the size of sand particles changing as well. From the experiment, the size of the sand particles that we had varies in the whole experiments will actually affect the ability of the filter to filter the most impurities out from the bentonite solution. When the size of the sand particles is bigger, the pores between the particles of the sands will become bigger. As the pores are bigger, it will be easier for the bentonite solution or the impurities to flow across the filter or the sand. This will actually lower the efficiency of the filter itself as the filtrate that we obtained at the end is actually concentrated with the impurities itself. This can be also explained in term of filter medium resistance,Rm. As the grain size increase, Rm will decrease. As the grain size is big, it will be easier for the whole impurities to pass through the whole filter. Hence, the resistance or the difficulties for the impurities has lowered. This will also cause changes in the flow rate as well as difference in pressure to be changed as well. The bigger the size of the sand particles, the bigger the pores produced. This will allow the impurities to pass through in an easier way and faster in term of speed. Hence, the flow rate will be faster and the difference in pressure will be smaller for a bigger size of sand particles if we compared it in term of size of particles. We can see that the as the time pass by along the filtration process, the flow rate is decreasing with the increasing of the difference in pressure drop simultaneously. As the

filtration is carried out, the filter medium will actually filter the impurities from the solution itself. The medium will be clogged or in another word, a filter cake is being built up. This will cause the flow of the solution to become slower as there is a filter cake that has been built and thus cause the pressure difference between the two points to increase due to the difference in flow rate itself. We can assume that the filter cake resistance is 0 at the beginning and yet increase throughout the experiments. Different concentration of bentonite solution will affect the whole filtration process. The higher the concentration of bentonite solution, the more particles need to be filtered out and trapped in the sand s pores. However, the number of pores in each of the sand filter has its own limitation. The higher the concentration of the bentonite solution, the more suspended bentonite will be trapped and this cause the production of the filter cake is faster. This goes the same way with the lower concentration of bentonite solution as the production of filter cake will be slower. Due to the thickness of the filter cake itself, it will also affect the flow rate as well as the difference in pressure. From all the data obtained as shown in the results, graph of of t/V vs V is plotted. The values of intercept and slope of each concentration of Bentonite treated on different diameter of sand (filter) is determined. The intercept is the value of B and the slope is the value of Kp/2. These values are used to calculate and Rm.

The equation for B is

B!

Q .Rm A.dP

Kp
The equation for Kp is In order to calculate

Q .E .ms 2. A2 .dP

and Rm, these equations rearranges to:

B. A.dP Rm ! Q

and

E!

.d
s

Q.

ERROR ANALYSIS The result may contain errors due to certain circumstances. Below are some contributors to such errors: 1. The slurry that we pour in (mixture of bentonite and water) is warm. This might cause the rubber tubes to expand slightly. This would adversely affect our results, in terms of flow rate. 2. Air bubbles are developed during the flow because the experiment s inlet is open to the atmosphere, thus allowing air to enter the system. 3. Besides that, human response time between pouring in the slurry liquid and starting the computing data-taking might be different (lagging might occur). RECOMMENDATIONS These are some recommendations to ensure that the experiment will have lesser errors being done: 1. Make sure that after each run of experiment, the filter medium is thoroughly washed (backwashed) to purge unwanted clogged particles which might affect the next run. 2. To ensure steady flow rate, we must ensure that there are no bubbles present in the tubes. This could be done by properly regulating the flow and pressing the tubes. 3. It is better to take a few readings and average them, though this will be very, very time- consuming. Students have to be alert and ready at all times in the course of performing this experiment. 4. To prevent the rubber tubes to expand when warm solution is poured in, tubes of low thermal coefficient of expansion or a glass tube should be used.

CONCLUSION
The objectives of the experiment were achieved. For constant pressure filtration, as we increase the amount of Bentonite to be filtered, the specific filter cake resistance ( ) increases while the filter medium resistance (Rm) decreases. For constant rate filtration (varying pressure), both the specific filter cake resistance ( ) and the filter medium resistance (Rm) increases. The basic principle of filter operation has also been verified. The value of filterability index depends on the size of the material, height of the filter cake and the concentration of solution to be filtered through the material. Sand particles with bigger diameter have higher porosity, and thus lower filter medium resistance. Lower resistance corresponds to higher flow rate of filtrate and lower filterability index too. The built-up cake above it will be less too (less in terms of thickness).

One of the basic filtration principles is that the flow rate diminishes or pressure drop raises to constant the flow rate. Also, the slurry liquid passes through resistances in series, which are of the built-up cake and the filter medium, and flows out filtrate. Flow resistance increases when thickness of cake increases (higher specific cake resistance).

REFERENCE

1. Geankoplis, C. J., Transport Processes and Unit Operations, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, 1995.
2. McCabe, W. L., Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall PTR,

1993.
3. SOLUTION ENGINEERING SDN. BHD. (n.d.). Filterability Index. Retrieved April 1, 2011, from SOLUTION ENGINEERING SDN. BHD.: http://www.solution.com.my/pdf/TR05(A4).pdf

APPENDIX

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