RESULTS Table 1.

Determination of the pressure drop (p) and filter medium resistance (Rm) Volume (V), L t/V, s/L2 0.5 34.20 1.3 42.15 1.6 45.69 Table 1 shows the t/V and V data of the plate and frame filtration. These two groups of data will be used to calculate for the pressure drop and filter medium resistance of the filtration process by plotting t/V vs. V (from equation 8) then obtaining the slope and the y-intercept of the generated line which are a function of the pressure drop and medium resistance.

46 44 42 40 t/V, s/L 38 36 34 32 30 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 V, L 1.2 1.4 1.6 y = 10.34x + 28.96 R = 0.998

Figure 1. Graph of t/V vs. V for determination of p and Rm The figure below shows the plot of t/V vs. V. The slope of the said line is 10.34 s/L2 with a y-intercept of 28.96 s/L. The coefficient of determination (R2) has a value of 0.998 which is very close to one which would then imply that t/V and V has a strong direct relationship between each other and the slopes and y-intercepts could be used without much error from the actual.

Table 2. Determination of mass ratio of wet cake to dry cake (m) Trial Mass Wet Cake, g Mass Dry Cake, g m 1 41 37 1.11 2 107 98 1.09 3 108 100 1.08 4 221 208 1.06 Table 2 shows the determination of mass ratio between the wet cake to the dry cake. The average ratio between the two masses is 1.085. This value will be used to solve for the mass of particles deposited in the filter per unit volume of filtrate (c) through equation 7.

Table 3. Summary output of the plate and frame filtration process Slope, s/L2 10.34 Y-intercept, s/L 28.96 Pressure drop p, Pa 916.46 Filter medium resistance Rm, m-1 4.01 x 109 Table 3 shows the desired results for the plate and frame filtration. Plotting t/V vs. V would generate a slope of 10.34 with a y-intercept of 28.96. Using equation 8 and the definition of its parameters, the pressure drop of the process is 916.46 Pa with a filter medium resistance of 4.01 x 109 m-1.

DISCUSSION From equation 8, plotting t/V vs. V would give a slope of Kc/2 and a y-intercept of 1/qo. From results, these values are 10.34 s/L2 and 28.96 s/L. Using equations 9 and 10, the pressure drop and the filter medium resistance was determined with values of 916.46 Pa and 4.01 x 109 m1 . For the calculation of the two, refer to the appendix. Pressure drop exist because there are resistances brought by filter medium and filter cake which is gradually forming as filtration goes on. Thus, the pressure before the slurry is filtered should be not equal (lesser) compared to the pressure of the slurry after it has filtered. Hence the constant pressure drop that is used to push the slurry to overcome the resistance brought by the constant filter medium resistance (4.01 x 109 m-1) and the increasing cake resistance is 916.46 Pa. This pressure drop is almost negligible compared to the atmospheric pressure (101,325 Pa) which is the basis for measurement of most of the pressure meters. This is the reason why the pressure gauge in the plate and frame filter press (inserted to a pipe which guides the lime slurry to the filter press) does not move because it (pressure) is too small to be detected. To increase the pressure drop of the filter press, either (1) one uses a finer filter cloth (smaller mesh size) in order to build up more cake in the filter medium which would hinder the flow of the slurry (thus increasing the pressure drop needed to

overcome the resistance), (2) increase the lime concentration of the slurry to increase the cake build-up or (3) decrease the filter medium area. One assumption made in order to calculate for the pressure drop of the system is that the cake is incompressible which means that the cake resistance is independent on the pressure drop of the slurry. In reality, this is impossible to achieve because the resistance brought by the cake is affected by the pressure drop of the system. The cake resistance is the resistance brought by the filtered cake. Thus, additional pressure drop is needed to overcome this resistance together with the resistance of the medium. Again, this cake resistance increases as the filtration process continues because the filter cake builds-up in the medium.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Filtration is the process of removal of solid particles from liquids or gases with the help of a filter medium (septum). One common equipment used for filtration in industrial plants is the plate and frame filter press. In this type of filtering equipment, the filter medium is inserted between the plates. The slurry moves (with a help of a pump) to the medium via a hole in the plate. Thus, the solids would deposit on the medium (filter cake) and the filtrate would be less concentrated with the solid. In the experiment, the time it would take for a certain volume of the filtrate was obtained. By plotting t/V vs. V from the data gathered, one could calculate for the pressure drop of the system and the constant filter medium resistance. The pressure drop of the system is 916.46 Pa and the filter medium resistance is equivalent to 4.01 x 109 m-1. One bold assumption made by the experimenters is that the specific cake resistance is independent to the pressure drop of the system. The experimenters believed that though in reality, the said proposition is impossible to occur, still the error between the pressure drop calculated from its true value is small to consider. The actual pressure drop should be obtained manually through the experiments but because of the limited pressure meter devices in the laboratory, it could not be obtained. From these results, the experimenters formulated these recommendations to achieve the best results for the next experimenters. 1. The pressure drop between the slurry before it is filtrated and after it is filtrated (filtrate) could be obtained through the use of pressure meter devices such as pressure gauges. Pressure gauges must be available with scaling ranging from 10000 Pa to 1000000 Pa. 2. Incompressible cake is a very bold assumption made in this experiment. This is done for ease in the calculation of the pressure drop and cake resistance. The next experimenters should develop equations relating the pressure drop to cakes of compressible condition because this will result into the true pressure drop. 3. Use a standard filter cloth to ensure the validity of the results obtained.