The Rotary Drum Filter

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Description
The Rotary Vacuum Drum Filter belongs to the bottom feed group and is one of the
oldest filters applied to the chemical process industry.
The filter consists of the following subassemblies:

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Drum
Valve
Piping
Drive
Scraper
Agitator
Tank

A drum that is
supported by a
large diameter
trunion on the
valve end and a
bearing on the
drive end. The
drum face is
divided into
circumferential
sectors each
forming a
separate vacuum
cell. The internal
piping that is
connected to
each sector
passes through
the trunion and
ends up with a
wear plate
having ports that
correspond to
the number of
sectors.

A valve with a bridge setting which controls the

sequence of the cycle so that each sector is
subjected to vacuum, blow and a dead zone.
When a sector enters submergence vacuum
commences and continues through washing, if
required, to a point that it is cut-off and blow
takes place to assist in discharging the cake.
The valve has on certain filters adjustable blocks
and on others a fixed bridge ring. Adjustable
bridge blocks enable the optimization of form to
dry ratio within the filtration cycle as well as the
"effective submergence" of the drum when the
slurry level in the tank is at the maximum.

The valve has three bridge blocks: (please refer to Operational Sequence)
1. Vacuum and blow zones separating bridge. This bridge cuts off the vacuum so
it is slightly wider than the internal pipe port.
2. Dead zone bridge. This bridge opens to vacuum once a compartment
submerges.
3. Start-up assist bridge. At start-up the upper vacuum zone is open to
atmosphere and a cake may be formed only when closing the valve that
controls this zone. Once the cake starts to emerge from the tank the valve is
gradually opened and fully opened when the entire drum face is wrapped with
the cake. Since in continuous operation both lower and upper zones are under
vacuum this bridge is slightly narrower than the internal pipe port so that the
vacuum is continuous and the cake is held onto the drum.

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Pipe Plate
Wear Plate
Main Valve
Bridge Block
Cake Form Conn.
Cake Dry Conn.

The drum deck piping is arranged so that each sector has a trailing pipe to
collect the filtrate on the rising side of the drum and a leading pipe to collect
the remaining filtrate from the descending side to ensure complete evacuation
prior to cake discharge. However, in some instances, only leading or trailing
pipes are provided and this depends on process requirements.

A cake discharge mechanism that can be either a scraper, belt, roll and in
very rare cases a string discharge. Blow is applied only to filters with scraper
and roll discharge mechanisms but not to filters with a belt or string
discharge.
The following images illustrate the various mechanisms:

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The selection of a suitable type of mechanism depends largely on the release

characteristics of the cake from the filter media and will vary from process to
process. Scraper discharge mechanisms will suit cakes that release readily and roller
discharge mechanism are better for thixotropic cakes.

A drive with a variable speed that rotates the drum at cycle times that
normally range from 1 to 10 MPR.
An agitator that keeps gently the slurry in suspension and reciprocates
between the drum face and tank bottom at 16 or so CPM.
A tank with baffled slurry feed connections, an adjustable overflow box to set
a desired drum submergence and a drain connection. The tanks are normally
designed for an "apparent submergence" of 33-35% however on certain
applications 50% and more is possible. With these special designs the tank
ends are higher in order to accommodate stuffing boxes on both the drive
shaft and valve end trunnion.
On applications where cake washing is required, 2 or 3 manifolds with
overlapping nozzles are mounted to a pair of splash guards bolted to the tank

ends. The position of the manifolds and the

quantity of wash liquid are adjustable
depending on the wash characteristics of the
cake.
Optional controls may be used to automate
settings such as drum speed, applied wash
liquid and drum submergence for a desired
cake thickness or throughput. The monitoring
of drum submergence controls the slurry feed
valves so an adjustable overflow weir is not
necessary except for a fixed connection in case
of emergency.

The flow scheme of a Rotary Drum Filter Station will

generally look like this:

Selection Criteria
In broad terms drum filters are suitable to the following process requirements:

Slurries with solids that do not tend to settle rapidly and will remain in a
uniform suspension under gentle agitation.
Cakes which do not require long drying times to reach asymptotic moisture
values.
Cakes when a single washing stage is sufficient to remove residual
contaminants from the cake or yield maximum recovery of filtrate.
Filtrates that generally do not require a sharp separation between the mother
and wash filtrates. Some complex valves, however, enable atmospheric
purging of the sectors and internal piping to facilitate a sharp separation of
filtrates.
Filtrates that are acceptable with a low quantity of fines that pass trough the
filter cloth in the first few seconds of cake formation. Broadly, and depending
on particle size and cloth permeability, the filtrate may contain 1000 to 5000
ppm insolubles.

Operational Sequence
The entire filtration cycle on a rotary drum filter must be completed within a
geometry of 360 degrees. Let us follow the cycle sequence of a single sector
assuming that the drum rotates in a clockwise direction while viewing the valve end:

Cake Formation

With the overflow weir set to a maximum the "apparent submergence" is normally
33-35% so the slurry levels between 0400 and 0800 hrs. Once a sector enters

submergence vacuum is applied and a cake starts to form up to a point where the
sector emerges from the slurry. The portion of the cycle available for formation is the
"effective submergence" and its duration depends on the number of sectors, the
slurry level in the tank and the bridge setting which controls the form to dry ratio.

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Cake Formation Zone

Cake Predrying Zone
Cake Washing Zone
Cake Final Drying Zone
Cake Discharge Zone
Dead Zone
All Zones

Cake Washing and Drying

After emerging from submergence the drying portion of the cycle commences
and for non-wash applications continues to about 0130 hrs where the vacuum
is cut-off. If cake washing is required the wash manifolds will be located from
about 1030 to 1130 hrs and the remaining time to vacuum cut-off at 0130 is
the portion allocated to final cake drying.

Cake Discharge
After vacuum for the entire sector is cut-off air blow commences at about
0200 hrs in order to facilitate cake discharge. The blow, depending on the
position of the tip of the scraper blade, will cut-off at approximately 0300 hrs.
Drum filters are normally operated with a low pressure blow but on certain
applications a snap blow is applied and to avoid the snapping out of the
caulking bars or ropes wire winding of the cloth is recommended . Blow is
used on scraper and roll discharge mechanisms but on belt discharge filters
vacuum cuts-off when the filter media leaves the drum.

Dead Zone
Once the blow is cut-off the sector passes through a zone blocked with
bridges so that no air is drawn through the exposed filter media which might
cause the loss of vacuum on the entire drum surface.

Maintenance
The slow rotation of the drum and reciprocation of the agitator reduce maintenance
requirements to a minimum but the following should be inspected periodically:

The strip liner of the trunnion bearing at the valve end will normally wear at
the lower half. However, in cases when the slurry has a high specific gravity,
the drum may become buoyant causing a wear to the upper half. At this point
it should be mentioned that one way to remove the lower half of the liner,
when hoisting facilities are not available or operational, is to float the drum by
filling the tank with a sufficiently concentrated solution.
The stuffing boxes on high submergence filters should be inspected for
leakage and, if necessary, the stud nuts should be tightened. It should be
noted that excess tightening can increase substantially the load on the drum
drive so the use of a torque wrench is recommended.
The face of the wear plate should be checked periodically and remachined if
necessary. A whistling noise during operation is an indication the wear plate is
worn out or the valve spring requires tensioning.
The drum has a bailer tube that protrudes from the drive end shaft and must
be kept open at all times since its blockage may cause the collapse of the
drum. The bailer tube is a tell-tale indication to the following:
If a lighter flame is drawn through the bailer tube to the inside of the
drum it indicates that a vacuum leak exists in the drum shell or the
internal piping. It should be noted that in certain instances there is a
possibility that explosive gases build-up inside the drum and may pose
a safety hazard. In such cases the use of aerosol type smokes or a
light tissue paper should be used instead of an open flame to identify a
vacuum leak.
If liquid leakage is observed from the bailer tube it indicates that a
hole exists in the drum head causing penetration of slurry from the
tank into the drum.
The on-line filter on the wash headers manifold should be checked periodically
for pressure build-up due to progressive blockage. Likewise, the nozzles on
the wash headers should be kept clean in order to ensure overlapping for full
coverage of the washed cake.