Evaluation of Separation Efficiency in a Tubular Bowl Centrifuge

Abstract

AbstractCentrifugal sedimentation, a well‐known solid‐liquid separation process, is typically used for the separation of solids from low concentration feeds because of its high separation efficiency due to high settling velocities. The performance of the tubular bowl centrifuge (TBC) can be studied by using the sigma theory, which assumes plug flow and rigid body motion inside the rotating bowl wall. The separation efficiency of the system is evaluated by determining the effective fluid layer thickness from the experimental data. A method suitable for evaluating the separation efficiency at different parameters for a given TBC is explained along with experimental validation. By using this method, different case studies are performed which depict the influence of each parameter on the separation efficiency. Also, it is demonstrated that the same higher separation efficiency (98 %) at 20 000 rpm could be achieved at higher bowl capacities.