The cake filtration is considered to be a low cost process for the continuous separation of inorganic and organic particles and also provides a very gently product treatment. The continuous sedimentation in the centrifugal field or the precoat filtration on a vacuum drum filter is currently used for the separation of biological microparticles. Separation in a centrifugal field with a low density difference between the particles and the continuous phase requires a high centrifugal force to achieve the desired separation efficiency. Therefore a large amount of energy is required to accelerate the suspension. Using a filter press would cause a long filtration time due to the compressible materials which are used here. Also a discontinuous batch filtration process of the filter press reduces the overall throughput of the filtrate which leads to a less efficient process. An alternative separation method for biological microparticles as well as compressible particles would be the cake filtration, but a high filter cake causes a high filter cake resistance and results in a reduction of the throughput.

The aim of this project is to develop a continuous thin film filtration method for the cake filtration...