Pore characteristics of cake and its effect on cake filtration

ABSTRACT

The pore characteristics of cake formed by cake filtration are quantified. Intra-aggregate pores occupy more than 78% of the total pore content of the cake, but the average pore diameter (~10 μm) of the intra-aggregate pore is far less than that of the inter-aggregate pore (several hundred microns). Inter-aggregate pores are the main channel for water seepage in solid–liquid separation. When the cake is compressed, the inter-aggregate pores in the cake are reduced, and the intra-aggregate pores remain mostly unchanged. However, the inter-aggregate pores are still the main channel for seepage in the vacuum pressure range.

KEYWORDS:

• Pore characteristic
• cake filtration
• inter-aggregate pore
• intra-aggregate pore
• permeability

Declaration of interest statement

No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and the manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described was original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Program on Key Basic Research Project of China (973 Program) under Grant 2015CB057803; Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province under Grant KYCX17_0476; and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant 2017B702X14.