A UNIFIED THEORY ON SOLID-LIQUID SEPARATION - FILTRATION, EXPRESSION,SEDIMENTATION, FILTRATION BY CENTRIFUGAL FORCE, AND CROSS-FLOW FILTRATION

Based upon a new conception that the solid compressive pressure on a c ake surface is not null, almost of all solid-liquid separation operati ons have been re-examined. For cake filtration, the phenomenon caused by the solid compressive pressure on a cake surface is discussed for t hin cake. New expression and hindered sedimentation theories are devel oped by above new conception using Darcy's equation. Application of th e new conception to centrifugal filtration and tangential filtration i s also discussed. Above results lead to the conclusion that cake filtr ation, expression, hindered sedimentation, centrifugal filtration and tangential filtration can be described with a unified theory, and the main difference between the operations is only the boundary condition of cake.