Other Applications
The range of applications for Western Filter presses is very wide and therefore suitable even for the production of products such as carotene extraction with methanol at -15°C, extraction of carrageenan from seaweed using cake ultrathin gels, wine tartrate extracts, or fish oil fractions.
In any case, high demand is placed on the construction of the filter elements being used. Many of these applications are found in the pharmaceutical industry which also requires a high level of hygiene and sterility. Western Filter presses meet all of these needs.
Specific examples of other applications
Plasma
Plate, frame and membrane filter elements are mainly used for plasma filtration. Due to the requirement for a higher level of hygiene, specially designed Western Filter filter cloths are being used which are made from materials of very high surface quality.
TCD dries the cake with heat
In many fields, solids are dehydrated to the required TS content by thermal drying. Standard dryers suffer from high energy costs with wasted energy in inefficient systems. By using heat exchanger plates in the filter press, filtration, pressing and heat drying all take place in a single unit.
It is particularly suitable for the dewatering of toxic sludge as any harmful emissions resulting from subsequent drying are kept to a minimum. The drying is done in the filter press itself so it is not necessary to transport the dewatered filter cake to the drying facility. The TCD process also offers significant savings in treatment costs because of the high degree of drying (beyond 90% if necessary) reduces the weight of the filter cake. The result is lower transportation and storage costs.
The TCD process can also be used in the filtration process to produce additional dry filter cakes.
Existing filter presses are easily converted to TCD systems. All that is needed is 2.5 bar of saturated steam which can be generated by portable steam units in the absence of a main steam supply.
