CONTINUUM APPROACH

TO OPTIMIZING
DOWNSTREAM FINAL DRYING
WITH UPSTREAM
SOLID-LIQUID FILTRATION
Barry A. Perlmutter
President & Managing Director
BHS-Sonthofen Inc.

© BHS-Sonthofen
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

• Most often when analyzing a new process

development approach, engineers take a
“silo” approach and look at each step
independently
• This presentation illustrates that by taking a
holistic approach and looking at each step not
individually but as a continuum, the process
solution becomes much more efficient
• Data is presented showing how to balance
each of process steps for maximum efficiency

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-Sonthofen Inc. and AVA-GmbH
• Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries of BHS-Sonthofen
GmbH and Part of the BHS Group of Companies
• The BHS technologies provide for thin-cake
filtration, cake washing and dewatering based
upon pressure or vacuum, for batch or continuous
operations from high solids slurries to clarification
applications with solids to 1% to PPM levels
• The AVA technologies provide for turbulent mixing,
reacting and drying of wet cakes, powders and
process slurries. The vertical and horizontal
technologies are vacuum/atmospheric, batch/
continuous, for final drying to “bone-dry” powders
© BHS-Sonthofen
EXISTING PROCESS
- This specialty chemical process has crystals in a
methanol slurry which must be filtered, washed
and dewatered and then dried to a final
moisture of less than 1.0 %

- The standard approach is to optimize the solid-liquid

filtration step with maximum washing and drying
efficiency and then with this information optimize
the downstream drying

© BHS-Sonthofen
EXISTING PROCESS
- The operating company, however, took a different
approach and looked at the process as a
continuum from solid-liquid filtration through
cake washing and dewatering to final drying.

- The Continuum Approach” resulted in operational

energy and nitrogen savings as well as lower
capital and installation costs for a more efficient
and reliable process.

© BHS-Sonthofen
EXISTING PROCESS
• The operating company had several objectives in
mind for this process:

- Maximum solid-liquid filtration performance

- Low wash ratios for minimum wash media
consumption
- Lowest possible residual moisture in
discharged filter cake
- Final moisture of <1.0%

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

◼ Pressure Filtration
◼ Displacement Cake Washing
◼ Countercurrent Cake Washing
◼ Solvent Exchange & Extraction
◼ Steaming
◼ Drying
◼ Atmospheric Cake Discharge

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

Wash Inlet

Drying Gas Inlet

Outlets

Separating
Element
Solids
Discharge

Slurry Inlet Cloth Rinse

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

Drive
Control Head Housing
Separating
Element

Drum

Cell Inserts
Cake Discharge
Chute

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER:
DRUM & CELL INSERTS

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER

Packing
Synthetic
Filter Media
Installed on
the Cell
Insert

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
SOLIDS DISCHARGE

Scraper
Knife for
Cake
Discharge

© BHS-Sonthofen
 BHS ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
SOLIDS DISCHARGE

Page 15 © BHS-Sonthofen
BHS LABORATORY TESTS

© BHS-Sonthofen
SELECTION OF
FILTRATION TECHNOLOGY
CAKE STRUCTURE /PROCESS
PARAMETERS FROM LAB TESTING
• Cake Thickness and Filtration
• Filter Media
• Cake Washing
• Cake Drying
• Cake Discharge

© BHS-Sonthofen
ROTARY PRESSURE FILTER
PILOT UNIT, 0.18 M2

© BHS-Sonthofen
CONCLUSION FROM THE LAB &
PILOT TESTING AND SCALE-UP
• Media = 14 micron and a cake thickness of 25 mm
• Filtration times and filtrate quality were achieved.
• Efficient wash ratios of 0.7 to 1.2 kg MeOH/kg DS
• The moisture content varied between 11 – 30%
based upon the nitrogen for blowing for drying.
• Sizing of the RPF for moisture of 11% resulted in a
filtration area of 2.88 m2 with a nitrogen solvent
recovery package to reduce the nitrogen usage.
• This is the important point which led to the
optimization testing of the AVA dryer.

© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-AVA
Scope MIXER & DRYER
TECHNOLOGIES
Horizontal Vertical
Capacities to 60,000 liters Capacities to 60,000 liters

Design Conditions: FV to 30 bar; -30°C to 700°C

20 © BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-AVA MIXER & DRYER
APPLICATIONS
◼ Mixing/Homogenizing
◼ Drying/Humidifying
◼ Reacting/Crystallizing
◼ Evaporating/Cooling/Stripping
▪ Sterilizing/Roasting
◼ Granulating

21 © BHS-Sonthofen
AVA VERTICAL DRYER

22 © BHS-Sonthofen AVA GmbH & Co. KG

AVA VERTICAL DRYER

▪ Intensive mixing reduced

mixing times

▪ Low shear forces due to

vertical vortex movement

▪ Bearing / sealing of the shaft

outside the product space

23 © BHS-Sonthofen
AVA VERTICAL DRYER
PILOT TEST UNIT

24 © BHS-Sonthofen AVA GmbH & Co. KG

PROCESS DRYING RESULTS
IN THE AVA TEST CENTER
Max.
Initial product Vacuum Drying Final Dryer Size
moisture temp. (mbar) time moisture
100 - 300 2.4 m3
17.5% 65°C 45 min <1.0%
5-120 1.9 m3
11.6% 95°C 35 min <1.0%
100 - 300 3 m3
30 % 65°C 63 min <1.0%

The conclusion from the testing shows a small

increase in the drying time and dryer sizing from a
cake moisture of 30% moisture as compared with
11.6%.
25 © BHS-Sonthofen
PROCESS DRYING RESULTS
IN THE AVA TEST CENTER

26 © BHS-Sonthofen
CONTINUUM APPROACH &
SUMMARY
• Initial Design
• Filter Size: 2.88 m2 with 11% moisture
• Dryer Size: 1.93 m3
• Dryer Cycle Time: 35 minutes
• Optimized Design
• Filter Size: 1.44 m2 with 30% moisture
• Dryer Size: 3.0 m3
• Dryer Cycle Time: 60 minutes
• “Continuum Approach” saved energy & nitrogen
plus capital savings of a smaller filter area and a
small increase in the dryer capacity
© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS PROCESS FILTRATION &
DRYING SOLUTIONS SUMMARY
• Process Design with lab and pilot testing
• BHS & AVA Technologies:
• Pressure/Vacuum, Batch/Continuous;
High Solids/Clarification
• Turbulent mixing, reacting and drying for
vacuum/atmospheric, batch/ continuous,
for final drying to “bone-dry” powders
• Project & Process Engineering
• Full skid packages with PLC Controls, Tanks,
Pumps, Instrumentation, Piped and Wired
• Commissioning, spare parts, service
• Performance Guarantee & Testing
© BHS-Sonthofen
BHS-SONTHOFEN INC.

Barry A. Perlmutter, President & Managing Director

E-mail: barry.perlmutter@bhs-filtration.com
Telephone: 704.814.7661
BHS Blog: www.perlmutterunfiltered.com
BHS Book: Practical Guides in Chemical Engineering:
Solid-Liquid Filtration
Published by Elsevier
www.bhs-filtration.com
https://perlmutter-ideadevelopment.com/

© BHS-Sonthofen