Solid-Liquid Separation is a major unit operation that exists in almost every flowscheme related to the chemical process industries, ore beneficiation, pharmaceutics, food or water and waste treatment. The separation techniques are very diverse and the objective of this site is to provide a platform for plant and design engineers, research personnel and students to discuss practices, experiences and new developments in this fascinating unit operation.

The site is still under construction and so far the following sections have been completed:

• Vacuum Filters - the entire section
• Pressure Filters - the entire section
• Thickeners - the entire section
• Clarifiers - the section on Lamella Settlers

Sections that will be soon added:

• Clarifiers - the sections on Conventional and Sludge Blanket Clarifiers

The site, when completed, will review the following topics:

• Filtration by vacuum and pressure filters.
• Polishing by vacuum precoat filters and pressure filters.
• Centrifugation by filtering and sedimenting centrifuges.
• Sedimentation by conventional, storage and high-rate thickeners .
• Clarification by conventional, solids-contact and sludge-blanket clarifiers.
• Ancillary equipment, vacuum pumps, filtrate pumps, vacuum receivers, moisture traps

This site does not cover separation methods such as screening, hydrocycloning, froth flotation and dissolved-air flotation due to my limited experience in these applications.

Other related subjects that will be discussed are:

• Coagulation and flocculation by bridging polymers.
• Moisture reduction by wetting agents.
• Particle analysis and its influence on performance.
• Defining a Relative Filtration Index during the research phase.
• Establishing diminishing returns on wash efficiencies and drying.
• Filtering medium and its selection.
• Evaluating long-term effects on separation rates.

Please do not hesitate to comment on any of the topics, your opinion, open discussion and criticism are most welcome!

Special thanks to the Chemical Engineering Faculties of the following Universities and Institutions for adding a link to my site

University of Connecticut (USA) Columbia University (USA) University of Edinburgh (UK) University of Karlsruhe (Germany) University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) Qatar University (Qatar) Universidade do Rio Grande Norte (Brazil) Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) IST Technical Institute (Portugal) Bergsskolan School of Engineering (Sweden) Cettem Institute (Chile) ChemIndustry Search Engine (USA) Chinese Science Digital Library (China) Chemistry Information Centre (FIZ)(Germany) Northwestern University (USA) China University of Petroleum (China) Loughborough University (UK) Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland) Shenzen University (China) Engineering Pathway Digital Library (USA) Institute of Technical Education (Singapore) Process Engineering Associates (USA) Excelente Univercidad (Peru) Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (Ecuador)

American Filtration & Separations Society (USA) The University of Manchester-INTUTE (UK) The National Science Digital Library (USA) SMETE Digital Library (USA) Silpakom University (Thailand) Process Design Resource Center (Peru) Institute of Physical Chemistry (Greece) German National Library of Science and Technology (Germany) Chemical Engineering Information Exchange (India) BPC Portal (USA) International Directory of Chemical Engineering URLs (USA) ChIN Institute (China) Wikipedia Minerals Engineering International (UK) Alexa Web Information Service (USA) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA) Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (Argentine) Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) The Filtration Society (UK) Chemical Processing Digital Resource (USA) Chinese Academy of Sciences·Institute of Process Engineering (China) Högskolan Dalarna University (Sweden) Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan) Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria (Peru)

Likewise thanks to the following companies for letting me scan photos from their bulletins
AMA, BHS, Bird, Comber, Dorr-Oliver Eimco, Dr.M, Ellerwerk, Ferrum, Filtres-Phillipe, GFT, Krauss-Maffei,
Larox, Netzsch, Pannevis, Rosenmund, Tema, Ucego, Vernay, Westfalia, Paques, Metso