Nutsche Filter

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The Nutsche Pressure Filter

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Description
The Nutsche Filter is the industrial version of the well known laboratory scale Buchner Funnel
except that it is designed to operate under either on vacuum or pressure. In their modern version they were developed in the early
80's and the majority operates, usually under pressure, in batch oriented industries such as fine chemicals, dyes, pharmaceutics and
pesticides.
Present day Nutsche Filters are constructed to perform a multitude of tasks including reaction, filtration, cake washing and thermal
drying on a single unit. As such these are very sophisticated machines with tight process control on parameters such as pressure,
temperature and pH. Nutsche Filters are well suited for handling flammable, toxic, corrosive and odor-noxious materials since they
are autoclaved and designed for use in hazardous and ex-proof environments when extremely safe operation is required.
Nutsche Filters are available in almost any size with the larger machines for a slurry filling batch of 25 m3 and a cake volume of 10
m3. Such filters have a filtration area of 15 m2 and are suitable for fast filtering slurries that produce readily 0.5 m thick cakes.
The Nutsche in its full configuration consists of four major components:

The
The
The
The

vessel
filter floor and cloth, woven mesh screen or sintered metal plate medium
re-slurry arms for cake washing and smoothing
cake discharge mechanism

All these components may be constructed from exotic materials of construction and heated to meet
the process requirements.

The Vessel

Feed Inlet
Filtrate Outlet

Nutsche Filters are operating as part of a batch system hence the

vessel's volume is designed to accept an entire charge of slurry

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Cake Discharge Outlet

Emergency Overflow
Cake Wash Manifold

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Air Vent
Reslurry Paddle/Smoothing Arms

from the upstream equipment. Therefore, so that the idle time of

the filter is kept to a minimum, sufficient holding volume is
required for fast charging and emptying of the vessel. The vessels
are generally designed for an operating pressure of 2-3 bars but
higher pressures may be specified if required.

Cake Spreader/Auger Arms

Stirrer Shaft
Hydraulic Cylinder for Spreader Arms
Hydraulic Cylinder for Reslurry Arms

The vessel's cover supports the hydraulic system that controls

the independent raising and lowering of the rotating auger and
reslurry paddle arms as well as the various flanged connections
and maintenance manhole.
There are two types of vessels:
On the larger filters the cylindrical vessel is a separate part
and the dished head cover is bolted on its top. With this
arrangement it is necessary to enter the vessel for the
replacement of the filter medium.
On smaller filters the head and cylinder are in one part that
bolts to the filter floor featuring easy access to the filter
medium. This arrangement has usually swing type fast
locking bolts which are attached to the circumference of the
filter floor.
For applications that require preservation of temperature the
vessel may be double-walled or half-pipe jacketed to provide
effective heat transfer to the product.

The Filter Floor and Filtering Medium

The filter floor consists of a densely perforated plate sufficiently strong to hold the cake weight and the pressure that is exerted on
the cake's surface. On the larger filters additional support to the plate is given by ribs between the vessel's floor and the filter plate.
There are three types of filter medium that cover the filter plate:
Woven metallic mesh screen.
Synthetic filter cloth.
Sintered metallic plate.

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The selection depends entirely on the characteristics of the solids, the liquid and the appropriate materials of construction. Medium
selection cannot be determined on a bench scale leaf test and it is only pilot testing that can establish long term effects such as
medium blinding and fluctuations in the feed properties.
The Arms for Reslurrying, Cake Smoothing and Discharge

These tasks are done by paddle or paddle and

auger systems:

To view the components move mouse pointer over

the menu

The paddle system consists of two arms with

slanted blades that rotate in one direction to
re-slurry the cake during washing and
discharge it at end of cycle. The paddle
arms are rotated in the opposite direction
for cake smoothing to seal cracks prior to
cake drying. In this system one of the
hydraulic cylinders raises and lowers the
paddles depending on the filtration cycle.

Auger Arms
Auger
Paddle Arms
Blades

The auger system consists of two arms that

rotate in one direction to perform reslurrying as described for the paddle
system. In addition two auger arms
smoothen the cake by rotating in one
direction and convey the cake towards the
center for discharge by rotating in the
opposite direction. In this system two
separate hydraulic arrangements raise and
lower the paddle arms and the auger arms
independently depending on the filtration
cycle.

The cake may be conveyed for discharge towards a piped chute that is positioned in the center of
the vessel or towards an outlet positioned on the vessel's cylinder just above the filter plate.

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The two options of cake discharge may be viewed on the image to the right and both discharge a
delumped cake. The image below illustrates a cake that discharges in one piece from an
Inverting Nutsche Filter that is not discussed in this section.

The Control System

The control system for modern Nutsche Filters is very sophisticated since it activates and deactivates many components as may be
seen in the section Operational Sequence.

Selection Criteria
Advantages
Nutsche Filters are best selected in the following instances:
When minimum floor space is required.
When several unit operations upstream and downstream filtration, such as reaction and thermal
drying, are required by the process flowscheme.
When there is a risk of environmental hazard from toxic, flammable or volatile cakes.
When handling saturated brines or process conditions require elevated temperatures the vessel,
filter floor and paddles may be heated.
When reslurry washing, being more efficient than in-situ displacement washing, is required.
When sharp separation between the mother and wash solutions is required.
When the cake tends to crack smoothing avoids the wash liquid, air or gas purge from bypassing.
Disadvantages
They should be selected with care:

When
When
When
When

cakes are slow to form.

the cake is sticky and does not part readily from the filter medium.
the process chain is continuous.
the product deteriorates during long downtime.

Operational Sequence

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The operation of Nutsche Filters requires a complex manipulation of valves and hydraulics so
present day installations are always semi or fully automated.
Filtration
The filter is charged with slurry and pressure is applied to displace the filtrate leaving the
cake retained over the filter medium. For slurries with a wide distribution of coarse fast
settling solids and slow settling fines there is a risk of segregation with the finer fraction
settling over the coarse fraction. When this happens the fines seal the cake and slow down
the cake formation so keeping the slurry in suspension with rotating arms during filtration
assists in forming a homogeneous cake.
Cake Washing
In the washing stage a spray ring or connections on top of the cover introduce the wash
liquid over the cake. This displaces the mother solution with the wash liquid but with such
in-situ washing the efficiency may be quite low if the cake forms with an uneven thickness.
One of the advantages of the Nutsche Filter is the ability to smoothen the cake's surface
prior to applying spray wash so that the entire bed is washed evenly.
Washing efficiency may be further improved if air or gas are not allowed to enter the cake in
a multi-washing system so the wash liquids always displace the solutions in a "piston" like
manner. This is achieved by a special detector that monitors the surface of the cake for
moisture and once air or gas start entering the bed a signal is transmitted to close the
filtrate valve and reopen it once next washing commences.
Cake Repulping
Many processes require high washing efficiency to remove the contaminating liquid from the
product and washing the cake by repulping yields the most efficient product purity. This is
done by resuspending the cake with the paddle arms for thorough mixing with the wash
solution. During resuspension the rotating arms are moving slowly downwards and are
"shaving" the bed gradually layer after layer until the entire cake enters the slurry.
Pressure Drying
In the drying stage air or gas purges the cake until the captive moisture is reduced to an
asymptotic level and in practical terms the cake is considered to be as dry as possible.
To obtain minimum moisture the cake is smoothened by reversing the rotation of the paddle
or auger arms and exerting controlled pressure on its surface with the hydraulic system.
This seals cracks in the cake so that air or gas will not bypass the bed.

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Vacuum Drying
Further reduction in cake moisture may be obtained by slowly rotating and lowering the
paddle arms to scrape and delump the cake. To take advantage of the drying ability of the
Nutsche Filter it is worth considering the option of heating components such as the vessel,
filter floor and paddles to enhance drying.
Cake Discharge
Once all the stages are completed the cake discharge valve opens and the paddle arms on
the smaller machines or the auger arms on the larger ones are rotated and lowered to
convey the dry cake towards the center. The same procedure also applies to side discharge
machines however it should be noted that in this case the cake comes out intermittently and
not continuously. This may have a layout impact on the downstream facility such as the
conveyor that handles the product to storage.
On some filters the cloth or woven mesh screen may be backwashed with water to dislodge
and remove any cake residue that adhered to the medium after cake discharge.

Maintenance
The Nutsche Filter requires attention on a regular basis to safety devices and automation
features that accompany modern filters.
The major components to take care of are:
The filter tank must conform to an Unfired Pressure Vessel code, such as ASME, and
checked periodically as required by the safety regulations.
The pressure relief valve that is located on the top of the dished head must be
checked for emergency functioning.
The large diameter caulking gasket of the dished top head cover. The ends must be
cut in an angle to ensure a perfect seal.
The swing type locking bolts that attach the head and cylinder on the smaller
machines to the filter floor.
The cleanliness of the filtrate sight glass that enables the inspection of filtrate clarity.
The interlock that disables opening the cake discharge valve or opening when the
vessel is still under pressure.
The condition of the filter medium, cloth or mesh screen, must be done periodically to
ensure that they are not damaged.
The vent on top of the head must be checked for free evacuation of air.

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