SLURRY-LIQUID SEPARATOR FILTER AND FILTRATION METHOD USING THE SAME

Abstract

A method for separating a slurry-liquid mixture, including using a plurality of filter plates each having a groove, by respectively disposing a plurality of filter disks on the plurality of filter plates, and connecting the plurality of filter plates and filter disks on the wall of a rotational pipe in which the grooves on the filter plates communicate with the inner cavity of the rotational pipe. The method also includes adequately controlling the rotational speed of the rotational pipe and removing the filter residue accumulated on the filter disks. The method of the invention allows for improving the filter efficiency and improving reliability in filtering the slurry-liquid mixture.

Claims

1. A method for separating a slurry-liquid mixture, the method comprising: 1) preheating a separator filter, adding materials to a slurry cavity of a filter body from a material inlet and to reach filter plates; controlling a rotational speed of the filter plates at a range of between 10 and 100 rpm; separating a solid filter residue from the materials on the filter plates, and allowing a filtrate to flow from the filter disks into a pipe of a filtrate outlet via a flow passage of the filter disk, and discharging the filtrate out of the separator filter; 2) continuing the filtration and allowing a filter cake of the filter residues to accumulate on the filter disk to reach a certain thickness until an inside-outside pressure difference of a filter pipe reaches 2.0 MPa; increasing the rotational speed of a motor driving the filter disk to between 100 and 300 rpm so as to remove the filter cake of the filter residues from the filter disk; when the filter cake of the filter residues is removed from the filter disk and the inside-outside pressure difference is less than 50 kPa, controlling the rotational speed of the motor driving the filter disk within a range of between 10 and 100 rpm, maintaining normal filtering operation; 3) when the filtering operation is finished or the filter residues in the bottom part of the filter needs to be discharged, stopping filtering, removing the filter residues for preparation of a next filtration process; and 4) when the filter disk needs to be cleaned, starting a backblow system, stopping the materials from entering the slurry cavity of the filter body, enabling the filtrate outlet to serve as a backblow medium inlet, the backblow medium being a filtrate supernatant or a diesel oil; carrying out backblow operation on the filtrate disk using the backblow medium; controlling the filtrate disk to operate at a rotational speed of between 10 and 100 rpm; and continuing the filtering operation after the backblow operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the slurry cavity of the filter cylinder body has a working temperature of between 200 and 400 C. and a working pressure of between 3.0 and 5.0 MPa (G).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] FIG. 1 is a structure diagram of a high-efficiency dynamic slurry-liquid separator filter of the invention;

[0022] FIG. 2 is a structure diagram showing filter disks of the invention; and

[0023] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a flow pattern of filtration materials on the filter disks.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0024] For further illustrating the invention, experiments detailing a high-efficiency dynamic slurry-liquid separator filter and a filtration method using the same are described hereinbelow combined with the drawings.

[0025] FIG. 1 is a structure diagram of a high-efficiency dynamic slurry-liquid separator filter of the invention.

[0026] A high-efficiency dynamic slurry-liquid separator filter comprises: a filter cylinder body 1 including a filter housing 11 and a filter cavity 12 enclosed by the filter housing 11; a filter pipe 2a including a first pipe end 21a, a second pipe end 22a, a pipe sidewall 23a, and a pipe cavity 24a; a plurality of filter disks 2b; a plurality of grooved plates 2g; a variable-frequency motor 7 including a rotational shaft 7a; and a connecting pipe joint 2c including a first joint end 21c having a first joint opening 211c, a second joint end 22c, a joint sidewall 23c having a second joint opening 231c, and a joint cavity 24c. The filter pipe 2a is disposed in the filter cylinder body 1 and a filter core is disposed on the filter pipe 2a, a material inlet 3 is disposed on the filter cylinder body 1, a solid residue outlet 4 is disposed at a bottom part of the filter cylinder body 1, and a filtrate outlet 5 is disposed at a middle-lower part of the filter cylinder body 1. The filter core comprises the plurality of filter disks 2b connected to the filter pipe 2a, and the filter disks 2b are perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the filter cylinder body 1. The first pipe end 21a of the filter pipe 2a is connected to a rotational shaft 7a of the variable-frequency motor 7. A top part of the filter cylinder body 1 and the rotational shaft 7a of the variable-frequency motor 7 are sealed through high pressure hard sealing. The second pipe end 22a of the filter pipe 2a is connected to the filtrate pipe 5a via the connecting pipe joint 2c. The connecting pipe joint 2c and the filtrate pipe 5a are perpendicularly fixed together. The first joint opening 211c of the connecting pipe joint 2c and the second pipe end 22a of the filter pipe 2a are sealed through high-pressure hard sealing. The second joint end 22c of the connecting pipe joint 2c is sealed.

[0027] A structure of filter disks is shown in FIG. 2. Each filter disk 2b separately communicates with the filter pipe 2a; the filter disks 2b and the filter pipe 2a form groove connection. The filter disk 2b is fixed on a grooved plate 2g for collecting a filtrate. The filter disk 2b and the grooved plate 2g form a sealed cavity 2d, and a pipe opening 2e at an inner side of the sealed cavity 2d communicates with an inner cavity of the filter pipe 2a. The grooved plate 2g is connected to the filter pipe 2a via a clamp. The collected filtrate from each grooved plate 2g is accumulated in the filter pipe 2a. The filter disks 2b are sintered porous metal materials having a pore size distribution of between 15 and 160 m, a thickness of between 1 and 3 mm, and a working temperature range of between 200 and 800 C. An upper surface of each filter disk is coated with a surface agent. The sintered porous metal materials of the filter disks 2b have different porosities, pore sizes, and pore size distributions, and the arrangement of bore paths entangled into networks. The filter disks 2b have a broad range of adaptable temperature, high-temperature resistance, and thermal shock resistance. In addition, the filter disks are anti-corrosive thereby being adapted to a plurality of corrosive acid or alkali media, and has a high strength and good toughness thereby being applicable to high pressure environment. In addition, the material has stable bore shapes, so that stable filter performance and good renewable performance are ensured. The filter performance can be recovered by 90% after being renewed. The upper surface of the filter disk 2b is coated with a surface agent (a thickness of a coating layer of between 10 and 1000 m) to prevent the filter residue from being attached to the filter disk when using the filter to filter the materials.

[0028] The bottom part of the filter cylinder body 1 is in a conical structure. An outer wall of the filter cylinder body 1 is provided with an insulation jacket layer 1a. A vapor inlet 6 is disposed at a middle-upper part of the filter cylinder body 1 for communicating with the insulation jacket layer 1a. An insulation medium in the jacket can be a water vapor, a high pressure hot water, or a conduction oil. The filter adopts the design of the insulation jacket so that the liquid slurry having a large viscosity is filtered at a relatively high temperature and is not attached to the filter when being condensed, thereby ensuring smooth progress of the filter operation.

[0029] The bottom part of the filter cylinder body 1 adopts the conical structure. An aperture of the solid residue outlet 4 of the bottom of the filter cylinder body 1 is designed to be relatively large so that it is convenient to clean the filter residue in the bottom part of the filter. An outer wall of the filter cylinder body 1 is provided with an insulation jacket layer 1a.

[0030] A height of the material inlet 3 is higher than a height of the filtrate outlet 5 by H1 being between 200 and 700 mm. A distance between the filtrate outlet 5 and the bottom is H2 being between 400 and 700 mm. The height of the material inlet 3 herein is designed to be higher than that of the material inlet of a common filter, so that a viscous liquid having a relatively high solid content can smoothly enter the body of the filter and is prevented from blockage in the bottom of the filter.

[0031] A straight cylinder body and an upper part head of the filter cylinder body 1 are connected by a flange 1b.

[0032] The lower part of the filter cylinder body is provided with a remaining material outlet 10. A height of the remaining material outlet 10 is higher than a height of the solid residue outlet 4 by H3 being between 200 and 300 mm. When malfunction of the filter occurs or when the filtering process is accomplished, incompletely filtrated materials can be discharged from the remaining material outlet 10 so as to ensure production safety. A condensate outlet 8 is disposed between the filtrate outlet 5 and the solid residue outlet 4. A ventilation opening 9 is disposed on an upper part of the filter cylinder body 1.

[0033] The slurry cavity of the filter cylinder body has a temperature of between 200 and 400 C. and a pressure of between 3.0 and 5.0 MPa (G).

[0034] A high-efficiency dynamic slurry-liquid filtration method comprises: introducing an insulation medium (vapor, high temperature hot water, or conduction oil) into a filter cylinder body to preheat the filter, and maintaining introduction of the insulation medium until the filtering operation is finished.

[0035] The method further comprises the following steps: [0036] 1) starting filtering operation by a filter after preheating the filter, allowing materials to enter a slurry cavity of a filter body from a material inlet and to reach filter plates; controlling a rotational speed of the filter plates at a range of between 10 and 100 rpm; separating a solid filter residue from the materials on the filter plates, and allowing a filtrate to flow from the filter disks into a pipe of a filtrate outlet via a flow passage of the filter disk so as to discharge the filtrate out of the filter; [0037] 2) continuing the filtration for a period, accumulating a filter cake of filter residues on the filter disk to reach a certain thickness until an inside-outside pressure difference reaches 2.0 MPa; increasing the rotational speed of a motor driving rotation of the filter disk to between 100 and 300 rpm so as to remove the filter cake of the filter residues from the filter disk; when the removal of the filter cake of the filter residues from the filter disk is finished and the inside-outside pressure difference is controlled at 50 KPa below, controlling the rotational speed of the motor driving the rotation of the filter disk within a range of between 10 and 100 rpm again, maintaining normal filtering operation, and repeating the above process; [0038] 3) when the filtering operation is finished or the filter residues in the bottom part of the filter needs to be discharge, stopping filtering, removing the filter residues for preparation of a next filtration process; and [0039] 4) when the filter disk needs to be cleaned, starting a backblow system, stopping the materials from entering the slurry cavity of the filter body, enabling the filtrate outlet to serve as a backblow medium inlet; selecting the backblow medium from a filtrate supernatant or a diesel oil; carrying out backblow operation on the filtrate disk using the backblow medium; controlling the filtrate disk to operate at a rotational speed of between 10 and 100 rpm; and continuing the filtering operation after the backblow operation.

[0040] The backblow medium is the filtrate supernatant which will neither result in secondary pollution in the materials nor produce any waste water.

[0041] The processes are repeated as described in the above and the filtration will not be stopped until the filtration is accomplished or the filter residue in the bottom of the filter is required to be discharged. The filter residue is removed in timely for the preparation of the next filtration.

[0042] The variable-frequency motor is adopted herein by the invention so as to realize the direct and dynamic filtration. The principle of the direct dynamic filtration (also called thin layer of filter cake filtration or restricted filter cake filtration) is different the conventional filter cake filtration in that the dynamic filtration enables the materials to flow in parallel with a surface of the filtration medium (as shown in FIGS. 1, 3) so that the solid particles are not prone to accumulate on the surface of the filtration medium, thereby maintaining at a relative high filtration speed. The dynamic filtration is the filtration process alternating between filtration in the presence of the filtration cake and filtration in the absence of the filtration cake. The most fundamental purpose of the dynamic filtration is that the formation of the filtration cake is prevented or only a thin layer of filtration cake is formed during the filtration process so as to prevent the enlargement of a filtration resistance and the decrease of the filtration rate resulted from the thickening of the filtration cake. The direct dynamic filtration method makes the filter applicable for long period removal and purification of large quantities of particles.

[0043] The filter cylinder body 1 of the invention adopts a fully sealed structure. During the rotation of the filtration disk 2b and the filter pipe 2a, the pipe of the filtrate outlet 5 is fixed and immovable. The connecting part between the filter pipe and the pipe of the filtrate outlet adopts hard sealing and is sealed using a high pressure sealing ring (O-type ring), which therefore effectively solves the rotation sealing problem and achieves zero-leakage. The straight cylinder body and the upper part head of the filtrate cylinder body 1 are connected by the flange 1b which is easy to be disassembled, so that it is convenient for repair and replacement of the filtration components.

[0044] The slurry cavity of the filter cylinder body has a temperature of between 200 and 400 C. and a pressure of between 3.0 and 5.0 Mpa (G). The filtration accuracy is controlled between 1 and 25 m. The separator filter of the invention is adapted to intermittent filtration operation. The materials needing to be filtrated are filtrated by the specialized filter, the filter residues are accumulated at the outlet of the conical bottom part of the filter; when the filter residues reach a certain thickness, the filtration operation is stopped; a valve disposed at the outlet of the conical bottom part of the filter is then opened to discharge the filter residue (solid noble metal catalyst), thereby providing possibility for further recovering of the filter residue. The filtrate product after the filtration contains a part of solid impurities of small particles (possessing a grain size of 5 m below), that is, the noble metal spent catalyst, which can be introduced into another filter apparatus having a higher filtration accuracy for carrying out a next step of refined filtration treatment if necessary.

[0045] While particular embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects, and therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.