(524d) Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Flow in a Filter Press

The management of mineral processes tailings has gained attention in the past few years, greatly related on the solid-liquid separation, due to the recent tailings dam failures as well as it is a production limiter and the hazard to the surrounding areas environment. Thence the environmental agencies around the world increased the restriction for the approval and operation of new and existing tailings dams. As an alternative proposal to these dams is to reduce the amount of water in the slurry disposed, thus becoming a dried disposal. The dry stacking method regards the filtration as one of the most common dewatering techniques where the press type filters present themselves as a viable alternative. In this regard, it is necessary to accomplish studies that enable the performance increment of this equipment likewise the process intensification. The present work shows a three dimensional and transient simulation of the multiphase flow, of specific suspension, in a single filter press chamber within a three filter plate stack. The Euler-Euler model in laminar flow was applied to the chamber of the pilot-scale recessed plate filter press. The geometry studied had the feed entrance, the filtrate output and the exit to the sequential chambers. Associated to this numerical study, physical experiments were handled aiming its corroboration, with scale-up intent. Data as membrane resistances, cake mass and solids, filtrate volume and concentration and cake thickness complement the study. It was substantiated that the model manages to be used in real industrial scale cases in simulation.