(679b) Laboratory Tools Available to Solid-Liquid Separations Consultants in Industry

Solid-liquid separations have a long history in the chemical industry from catalyst or product recovery to impurity removal to wastewater treatment.  Although the two primary separation methods are filtration or centrifugation, the variety of devices available can seem endless.  The critical first step is a good understanding of the process and separation goals.  From there, laboratory testing further guides and narrows the selection process.  A thorough laboratory slurry characterization can include several analytical measurements as well as preliminary filtration and/or centrifugation evaluations.  Standard testing devices are available and briefly described.  Scale-up to the commercial process should then include pilot operation of all solid-liquid separation steps with representative feed stocks.  This is of particular importance for processes utilizing bio-derived feed stocks where impurity profiles are significant and more varied than traditional feed stocks.  It is well known that commercial processes involving particles are slower to achieve nameplate production rates; proactive laboratory and pilot testing of separation steps is one strategy to address this commercialization phenomenon.