Pressure filtration of destabilized colloidal systems in an unstirred batch cell: Experimental investigation

A simple model for the filtration of a destabilized colloidal suspension was proposed by Cohen (3). It was shown mathematically that the cake permeability was a function of flocculation rate $\omega$. Thus by controlling the flocculation rate it is possible to alter the structure of the cake formed which in turn affected the efficiency of the filtration process. The mathematical model provided two equations that related the transmembrane velocity to the rate of coagulation; one for the stable case and the other for the destabilized case. In the following thesis an experimental investigation was carried out to determine the validity of the above mathematical model. Several experiments were conducted both for the stable and the destabilized feed, and the data obtained was compared to those predicted by theory. Analysis showed that an excellent correlation exists between the gathered data and those predicted by the model. Thus the validity of the model proposed by Cohen (3) was established