We discussed about dark colored centrate.
In the optimization of decanter centrifuges, there are other considerations.
- Gray, forming centrate
- Sometimes the discharged centrate carries gray color, and sometime with foams on it. Dosage of flocculants needs to be adjusted according to accommodate the changing solids concentration
- Optimization of liquid ring. When decanter centrifuge is in operation, there is a liquid ring on the wall of rotating bowl. A thin liquid ring means dryer solids
- The strength of flocculants. When flocculants comes into rotating bowl, its relative speed to solids rotating together with the bowl is the rotating speed of bowl, which can be a big number. The flocculants needs to be accelerated to this speed. In order to accelerate, flocculants particles will be exerted a strong shearing force. The flocculants needs to be strong enough to withstand the huge force and will not collapse. Some companies have developed some kinds of strong flocculants;
- Low dryness
Solids dryness depends on many factors. Below is a summary of the impact of different parameters on the dryness of solids
- If feed flow rate is lowered, solids dryness increases;
- If flocculants flow rate increases, solids dryness increases;
- If auger torque increases, solids dryness increases;
- If differential speed decreases, solids dryness increases;
Factors impacting solids concentration of discharged liquid:
- If feed flow rate increases, solids concentration in liquid increases;
- If flocculants dosage decreases, solids concentration in liquid increases;
- If auger torque increases, solids concentration in liquid increases;
- If differential speed decreases, solids concentration in liquid decreases.
It can be seen that it is impossible to optimize the performance of decanter centrifuge without some kind of automation. And all the influencing factors needs to be taken into the algorithm to make performance optimization. Field optimization is much more complex than what we can see on paper.
Optimization of decanter centrifuges is a post from: Drilling Mud Decanter Centrifuge
