Lenzinger Berichte 76197 49

HIGHPURITY
FILTRATION
ASMEANS
FORCLOSED
CYCLES
PRODUCTION
A. Patrick Mller, Dr. M. Dr. Mller AG, Switzerland

Introduction Construction and basic Operation

The quality of the final product is of foremost importante in
the production of the viscose fiber and represents an impor-
tant selling factor. Therefore, sophisticated washing Steps are
rmplemented after the spinning to maintain and guarantee the
purity. Especially the final acid water treatment must wash out
the impurities left in the fiber from the previous stages. This
acid water ennches with dissolved and undissolved impurities
and must be treated to eliminate an accumulation. High quali-
ty filtration at this Stage has therefore become indispensable
for the removal of undrssolved solids.
At first sight this filter System resembles a normal candle filter.
However, a closer look identifies discrete differentes such as
the missing head plate and the numerous nozzles. Instead,
the vertical tubular elements are mounted on horizontal regi-
Sters which exit the filter through individual nozzles in the cylin
der just below the main flange.

lt was shown that conventional filtration Systems such as sand

filters were not capable in attaining the quality requirements on
the process water. Furthermore, the amount of backwash or
reject liquid produced for the cleaning of these filters were too
high to justify their use.

Therefore, a System was searched which could fulfill the

following criteria:

1. The filtrate quality in terms of undissolved solids must be

high enough for not deteriorating the final product quality.
2. The amount of reject must be reduced to a minimum in
Order to minimize disposal costs and water consumption.
3. Operator involvement must be kept at the lowest possible
level and continuous Operation must be guaranteed.
4. The System must be virtually maintenance free to reduce
spare Parts tost to a minimum.
5. All Parts in contact with the liquids must be designed to
resist the temperature and the aggressivity of the chemi- Further differentes only become apparent when dismantling
cals. the filter element: lt consists of six perforated tubes around a
Single Center tube. As a filter medium, round woven plastic
The search for the ideal equipment was ended with the intro- cloths are used.
duction of the FUNDABAC Filter design. All of the above
mentioned critena could be met without sacrificing on any
other process requirements. Its unique design, simplicity and
scalability resulted in an immediate Performance improvement
after the installatron of the first full scale System. Further equip-
ments were soon added to finally have the complete stream
treated with the System.

The Paper describes in detail the design and Operation of the

filter System, Shows its advantages and highlights essential is-
sues to be considered when incorporating such a System in
an existing process.

The Filter System

The FUNDABAC Filter belongs to the class of pressure vessel
filters, is a batch filtration equipment and uses hyperbaric
pressures to create a large driving forte across the filter medi-
um, resulting in higher flux rates and therefore higher through-
puts when compared to vacuum-driven filtration equipment.
During filtration, the liquid Passes from the outside through the
fitter medium into the six concentric perforated tubes and
flows down into the bottom of the candle where the filtrate is
deflected into the Center tube, flowing up into the horizontal
register and out through the filtrate outlet.
At first, this seemingly complicated configuration makes no
sense until filtration is terminated. However, during draining
and drying of the cake, this design ensure that all liquid from
inside the cindle is completely purged and replaced by gas.
For discharging the cake, pressurized gas is passed into the
candle from the filtrate side which blows up the filter cloth ar-
ound the tubular element. This sudden dynamic expansion of
the cloth makes the cake break, drop into the cone of the filter
vessel and out through the disch?rge valve.
A patented heel volume filtration process can be applied in
cases where batch integrity is required. This is accomplished
by recirculation of the heel and using pressurized gas as a dri-
ving medium.
There are a number of advantages which make this equip-
ment distinct from other types:
Efficient cake drying due to tubular element design which is
less prone to cake cracking than flat sheet elements
Exmllent solids discharge behaviour
High reiiabili due to separate filtrate outlets
Low investment and maintenance cost compared to other
designs in its category (absence of mechanidly moving
parts1
Low operating cost due to complete automation
High resistance against aggressive environments (all inter-
nais constructed in high performance mdded or extruded
plastic components)
Lenzinger Berichte 76197

The complete System is specifically adapted to the process Accommodation to cake volume:
and during start-up fine tuning is generally necessary Early in- l The distance between the filter elements tan be varied ac-
volvement tn the detail engineering IS required to assure cor- cording to the cake thickness required (from IO to 50 mm)
rect prpe layout.
Heel volume filtration:
l The heel volume is filtered by means of a patented heel volu-
Usually, such equipment exposes rts strengths primarily in fully
automated procress lines where operating and maintenance me filtration step
tost reduction is the marn goal.
Simple construction:
Summary of main features . Because of the static elements with dynarnic characteristics
there is no need for rotating or otherwise moving Parts and
A closed System: this advantage brings with it /OW investment and maintenan
l Safe processing of toxic and inflammable, pyrophoric or ce costs
otherwise sensitive products
Takes up little room:
l The vessel geometry is slender and consunes a minimum of
Small maintenance costs:
l No rotating or othewi/ise moving Parts floor space

Minimal operating costs: Wide range of solids/concentrates:

l The System permits full automation even for dry cake dis- l Filtration of suspensron ranging from a few ppm to 30% v/v
Charge solids
Filtrate quality:
l Because of the finely woven hoses, the filtration remains ex-
Materials of construction:
cellent, even when particle srze is 0,5 um
lVast range of materials that tan be utilized for vessels and
internals (PVDF, Halar, PTFE, PFA, FEP, PP, PPS, Polysul
Phon, HRL and exotic alloys), which permit filtration of vir-
Viscose Fibres Production
tually every product

Self-cleaning hoses:
l Seamless and loosely mounted hoses permit a high pressu-
re for back-wash (2 barg), allowing for self-cleanrng before
each filtration or wash-liquid cycle
1
Efficient cake discharge:
l Back-pulsing the loosly mounted hoses assures complete
discharge of the filter cake

Extensive instrumentation:
lInstrumentatron for measuring cake thickness, concentration
of thickened slurty, turbidity, etc. permits continuous control
of the entire filtratron cycle
Treatment of Acid Water Recycle
Cake washing:
Its main use in the viscose fibre production is the treatment of
l Conventional or spray-washing for reduced wash-liquid con-
the acid wash recycle stream. For an implementation of a fil-
sumption tration System at least the following two main criteria had to
l Even cake build-up, without Segregation of particle sizes (re- be fulfilled:
lated to overflow to prevent Sedimentation)
1. The recycle stream must be pure enough to reuse the wash
Cake drying: watet-.
l The central tube ensures complete draining of the candle by
means of displacement with air or resp. nitrogen pressure 2. The generated solid waste must be minimized to reduce
the disposal costs.
Modular construction providing for individual filtrate
exits: Furthermore, the applied materials had to be completely resi-
l Filtrate exrts (i.e. registers) tan be shut off singly, to isolate stant against the medium, which had the following basic cha-
defective filter hose racteristics:
l Filter cake tan be discharged sequentially, or by groups, to
prevent bridging of the dry cake solids at the discharge end Liquid: Acid water
of the filter 6 7 g/l sulphuric acid
pH: 3-4
Many-sided filter use: Temperature: 90 95 C
l Dry and/or slurry discharge
l Washing of the filter cake These conditions restricted the material selectron consrderab-
l Thickening for continuous Operation (CONTIBAC) ly. lt was decided to apply high Performance PVDF thermopla-
l Filtrate polishing filter stic material for this application.
 i c
t

Id be increased
Vent
and body teed
m%n'.h units of
the standard sae of47 W filter area have been chosen. The
filtration k t s several days and the r e s d d solids are dned
with pressurized air and discharged in batches of roughly
1.5 rnJat 70% dry solids content.

-
Spin bath Back Wash Filtration
The standard design tor the treatment of the spin bath has al-
ways h n Me san However, it produces a large amo-
unt of sluny which disposed of. As enormous ecol0-
gical burdens arise from the spin bath losses into wast water PrefiltrationI Precoating
by back washing the spin bath sand fiiter and the production
Used for Glanfying filtrste pnor filtration. Time requirement from
losses are considerably, Lenzing has designed a concept to a few seconds to 2 minutes
reduce theses wastes to a minimum by the appltcation of a
dry discharge filtration system
If preeoating is done the initial precoat layer (roughiy 3 mm)
The FUNDABAP Filter has proven to be the ideal has to be built for about 10 minteS.
for the treatment of this back wash water. Filter aid
used as precoat and body to enhance the filtrabillty. As
the solids are discharged in nearly dry state,the loss of spin
bath liquid is marginal.

Trestment of Spin Bath

In cases where no spin bath filters am mstailed, direct filtration
with the FUNDABAP Filter is also possible. The filtration con-
cept is idemal to the acid water recycle treatment.

Treatment of Stmtchingl Bath

Finally, the treatment of the stretching bath recycle is another
application for the FUNDABAP Filtw Its advantages are as
already described for the acid water recycle.
Filtration
Filter ald is added as body feed. For quickiy sedimentmg so-
iids, overRDw or undetflow muSt be used.
Limits: Without pfewat: Parthde size > 0.5 pm
With precoat' Particle sue > 0.1 pin
Sedimentation speed of solids

. ,..

Main Process Step.

Filter filling with Pump
Pump to be sized for filling in approx. 5 minutes
Fiiiing volume (m7 x 12 = m3/h
static height + height of filter + pressure drop in lines =
required pump pressure.
If precoating Is applied the filter is Riled with filter aid suspensi-
on. Otherwise, the feed suspension is used.
Draining with gss pressure
After filtratim end pnor &ids discharge, the suspension in the
filter has to be pressed back into the feed tank.
Gas enters the filter and pwses the liquid heel through the
heel volume outlet in the cone of
tank. Dunng this procedure, the
guard a positive dtfferentlal pressure on the cake.
Note: elevation of m e w vessel relatw to filter to be known
for plant design
Lenzinger Berichte 76197 53

Gas Gas

The Firm
Cake drying (dewatering)
The Company is purely specialized on this one filtration System
Used as means to mechantcally dewater the cake. In this pro-
and this has proven to be a successful strategy throughout
cedure the gas enters the filter and Passes the filtered cake
these years. lt was shown that pure size based on diversity
from the outside to the inside, thus removing the free liquid
does not improve the value of the product supplied to the
between the solid particles.
customer.
Note: The gas flow rate through a cake tan vary between
We have accumulated an immense process know-how and
20 and 200 Nm/m- x h
our own application data bank enables rapid access to pro-
cess and Performance data, which tan also be applied to new
solid/liquid Separation problems. Customer-specific perfor-
mance data are optlmized in our test and pilot plant facilities.
Gas
Furthermore, around 50 lab, Pilot and industrial scale filtration
Systems are at our customers disposal on EI rental basis

Together with the customer as our Partner, we determine the

most favourable long-term Solution. Exchanges of information
between staff, agents and external experts are regular and
these are likewise an integral part of the quality handbook
(constructed and cetiified according to ISO 9001).

In many cases, not only the individual filters are incorporated

into existing process plants, but complete filter Systems, as
skid-mounted units, are supplied.
Solids Discharge (of mechanically dewatered cake)
Cake is discharged by groups of registers with the following The Company is self supporting with the FUNDABAC System
advantages: over a very broad market range thanks to its specialised
l smaller air supply line know-how in the filtration sector. This also explains the suc-
l smaller discharge opening cess in applications ranging from food, through Chemical, pe-
l discharge of cake in different Containers possible trochemical, pharamceutical and steel industries to the many
As a variant, the cake tan also be discharged as slurty by li- FUNDABAC System applications in environmental protection.
quid back-flush.
Gas consumption is in the Order of 30 - 80 Nm/m h during 5 The Company is an ASME certified pressure vessel manu-
seconds facturer and has been certified according to ISO 9001 by Det
Note: collector tan be sized as gas buffertank Norske Vertitas.