The Ultimate Guide to Choosing sludge filter press

The slurry business is a complex industry filled with myriad physical, economic, and legal considerations. As a project manager, choosing a proven, American-made slurry system can go a long way towards preventing clogs and breakdowns, ensuring your system remains a profitable and resilient wastewater solution.   

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However, not every system is built to handle the same loads or manage slurry in the same way. Understanding the different slurry pump and filtration system options on the market will help you find the right system for your project.  

Choosing a Slurry Pump

Slurry pumps come in various lengths, elevations, and materials. Be sure the pump you choose will perform at your specifications and can integrate well into your existing system.  

Types of Slurry Pumps

Not all slurry pumps are used for the same purposes or at the same processing stages. The first thing to consider when browsing the pump market is what kind of pump you need'horizontal, vertical, or submersible.   

Horizontal Pump

Horizontal slurry pumps move slurry parallel to the ground and handle highly abrasive or corrosive slurries with ease. Because they're so durable, horizontal pumps are popular in heavy industry, including mining, metallurgy, and power generation.  

Vertical Pump

Vertical pumps are used to transport materials to different elevations. Often (but not always), a vertical pump will be partially submerged in a slurry pool to transport its contents to different parts of the project site. 

Submersible Pump

Submersible pumps are fully immersed in slurry. They are specially designed and built to handle the rigors of operating within a liquid, but they can degrade quickly, especially if your slurry is highly acidic.  

Slurry Pump Materials 

Consider what material you will be pumping. Some pumps are perfect for moving sand and mud, while others are more suited to processing sludge and other waste. Before making a purchase, ensure the pump's material can handle the density, pH, viscosity, and temperature of the material you process. Full Circle Water's 'Waterbender' system automatically controls pH and bacteria in wastewater by implementing chemical intervention. 

Flow Rate

Different pumps process materials at different speeds, and the flow rate that's best for your system will depend on what materials you process and during what stage of processing the pump will be used. For example, slurries that contain a lot of solids need to be pumped at a higher flow rate to prevent material from settling inside the pump and its connected hoses.  

Discharge Head

Any slurry pump you choose needs to be able to exceed the discharge head of your entire discharge system; otherwise, the system will not operate at peak efficiency and may suffer abrasion.  

Knowing the answer to these questions before you make a purchase will help you choose the best pump for your operation and avoid the costs associated with an inefficient or damaged slurry system.  

Integrating Your Pump into a Wastewater Filtration System

After you've selected a pump, you can pair it with a new or existing filtration system to optimize your entire water treatment process. Full Circle Water offers many different water filtration systems, including industrial slurry silos, portable filtration plants, and rapid resettlement systems.   

WAVE XP Plants

WAVE XP (formerly All-in-One) slurry silo filtration systems are turnkey solutions designed to provide efficient wastewater decanting regardless of the type of operation you run. Full Circle Water's WAVE XP system was designed based on feedback from over 600 stone fabricators and is among our smartest and most effective slurry silo plants.  

Trailer Plants

Trailer filtration systems are designed to offer clean water on-the-go. Their compact, portable design makes them ideal for projects that need to set up or tear down quickly.  

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Rapid Settlement Systems

Wastewater decanting is one of the most important phases in any slurry management system. Rapid resettlement systems are designed to recycle up to 90 percent of wastewater and feed it back into production, ensuring your operation never has to wait for water again.  

Find the Right Slurry System with Full Circle Water

Full Circle Water offers both turnkey and customizable slurry treatment systems. We seek innovative solutions and have a passion for helping our customers find the best systems for their industry.  

Plate Size
Once the cubic foot capacity of a filter press has been determined the next step is, the proper selection of the size of the filter plates, frame, components and any accessories.  This will allow you to see exactly where the cu. ft. capacity fits in relation to the volume of each size press. For example a 5 cu. ft. can be sized as a 470 mm, a 630 mm and also an 800 mm. The size selected is determined by the amount of expandability desired. After the plate size is selected, there are many options from which to choose. The following information is a summary of what needs to be considered in order to make the proper selection, Please read each section in turn and note your requirements.

Plate Construction
Select the type of filter plate material. The standard material is an industrial grade polypropylene. An optional FDA approved food grade polypropylene material, or a high temperature glass filled polypropylene material are also available. Special materials are also available such as Carbon Steel , Stainless steel and Kynar.

Plate Style
The standard is a 100 psi recessed gasketed plate with EPDM seals. Viton seals are available as an option. Also available are non-gasketed plates with quick removal latex edged cloths, where the cloth acts as the gasket. The Non gasketed plates allow for easier change out of the filter cloth, are lower in cost, but are not completely liquid tight during the processing stage.  Special membrane squeeze plates have the ability to expand after the chambers are full to 'squeeze' additional process liquid out of the filter cake.  A 'mixed stack' of plates will be provided where every other plate will be a special membrane squeeze plate

Optional Backing Plate
If a shorter cycle is desired, when running low volume applications for example, the capacity of the filter press can be temporarily reduced. This is done by moving the follower (tail) plate forward in the plate stack. The backing or 'blank plate' is then placed behind the follower plate acting as extra support. The follower plate will not flex or break when used in this manner.

Plate and Press Pressure Rating
The 100 psi design is standard for most dewatering applications and will produce a cake with approximately 30-35% solids. A 225 psi design can be used to provide an increased yield per cycle and depending on the application can increase the solids in the cake to 50% or more.

Cake Thickness
The 32 mm cake thickness is standard. Options include 25, 38 and 50 mm cake thickness. 25 mm would be used for high viscosity (slimy) materials and 50 mm would be used for easily filtered material.

Cloth Type
ErtelAlsop can provide filter cloths in many different materials, weaves, thread styles, and air permeability values resulting in a wide array of performance characteristics. If possible ErtelAlsop would like to receive samples of the process liquid to conduct filterability tests for cloth selection. If testing is not possible then we will furnish our standard polypropylene filter cloth, a monofilament x multifilament, Sateen weave with a CFM<1.0.

Frame Design
All ErtelAlsop frame configurations are sidebar design.  Frames can be designed in Carbon Steel or Stainless Steel.

Volume of Plates/Expansion Spacer
All filter presses are available with optional removable expansion spacer. On presses ordered with a spacer, the first number denotes current plate capacity. The second number in the nomenclature is the maximum capacity the frame will allow.

Discharge/Air Blow-down Piping
The discharge/air blow-down piping is available in either manual or in automatic operation. An optional core blow-down is available to purge the center feed line of residual fluid. Available materials of construction are schedule 80 CPVC, or schedule 40 Stainless Steel.

Feed Style'
The feed style can vary for special applications such as pharmaceuticals and some type of food processing. Center feed is standard, however a choice of any corner feed is available.

Automation versus Manual Operation
Manual or semi automatic operation requires input from an operator to start and operation of the filter press, including opening and closing, blow down, plate shifting etc. Fully automated presses require initial start up of operation and then close fill, blow-down, plate shift, discharge and cloth wash is automated. Restarting the press cycle still requires operator input.

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