Dewatering microcrystalline cellulose: The influence of ionic strength

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of the ionic strength on the dead-end filtration of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) suspensions in the range of 0.1–1 g/L NaCl, in altering the electrostatic interactions between particles. The formation of larger agglomerates of increasing ionic concentration was observed using Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM®). Local filtration properties were investigated as the experimental set-up allowed for measurements of local hydrostatic pressure and solidosity to be made. The results show that the addition of ions decreases both the average and local filtration resistance. The formation of a resistant skin layer was observed for the suspension without the addition of NaCl but was counteracted when ions were added. Furthermore, the ionic strength did not seem to have any notable effect on the structure of the cake in the range 0.15–1.0 g/L NaCl. However, the pressure dependency of the solidosity at lower ionic concentration was higher. The local filtration properties were fitted to semi-empirical relations, which indicated the formation of moderately to highly compressible cakes when NaCl was added.