The characterisation of slurry dewatering

Abstract

The dewatering of flocculated suspensions presents a significant challenge to water and waste water processing operations world-wide. Traditionally the dewatering process is enhanced through the use of flocculants or a surface chemical modifier to draw together fine particles and increase settling rates and sediment permeabilities, however, present methods of gauging chemical performance are somewhat empirical. Recently, Landman and White developed a theory of suspension filtration which incorporates the compressibility and permeability of a sediment into a filtration diffusivity, D(φ). D(φ) is a material property used to calculate the time scale of a dewatering process from first principles..