Heel recovery filtration process and apparatus

A novel process for removing suspended solids from a liquid without loss of heel portion comprising circulating a suspension of a precoat filter aid through a closed chamber provided with at least one vertical tubular, liquid pervious filter aid retainer supported on a tube sheet with the lower pervious section level with said tube sheet until a filter cake is formed on said retainer, pumping a liquid with suspended solids through the chamber whereby clear liquid passes through said filter cake into said retainer where clear liquid is recovered and suspended solids are deposited on filter cake, continuing pumping liquid with suspended solids until a maximum differential pressure is reached, reduce the pumping rate of liquid while simultaneously increasing air pressure to a maximum of 15 psig in the chamber, draining liquid from the chamber through the filter cake and retainer while maintaining air pressure of 2 to 15 psig to recover the heel portion, abruptly back washing liquid through the retainer and filter cake whereby the filter cake is destroyed and draining the mixture of filter cake and back wash liquid from the chamber and a novel apparatus for performing the said process.

STATE OF THE ART 
Many liquids are filtered in order to remove suspended solids by building a 
filter cake of filter aid precoat on a wire screen filter element such as 
that described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,253,714 and passing 
the liquid through the filter cake. After a period of operation, the 
filtration process has to be halted to replace the filter cake since it 
becomes clogged Most prior processes required a back wash step which 
resulted in the loss of heel or liquid in the system when the filtration 
process is stopped. 
Losses of this nature may be tolerated when the liquid being filtered is 
inexpensive such as cooling water in a generating plant but when the 
liquid being treated is valuable as occurs in the cosmetic and 
pharmaceutical industries, the losses can not be tolerated. 
One attempt to solve this problem is illustrated by a filter system with 
porous carbon filter elements suspended in a tank with a sloped base or 
tube sheet but it was found that during draining of the heel, the filter 
cake would slide down the filter element and break, contaminating the 
heel. In a second construction, the tubular filter elements were arranged 
on a horizontal tube sheet so that the filter cake would not break away 
but problem arose in draining the heel from the system. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved process for 
removing suspended solids from a liquid without loss of heel portion. 
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel apparatus for the 
removal of suspended solids from a liquid without loss of any heel 
portion. 
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become obvious 
from the following detailed description. 
THE INVENTION 
The process of the invention for removing suspended solids from a liquid 
without loss of heel portion comprises circulating a suspension of a 
precoat filter aid through a closed chamber provided with at least one 
vertical tubular, liquid pervious filter aid retainer supported on a tube 
sheet with the lower pervious section level with said tube sheet until a 
filter cake is formed on said retainer, pumping a liquid with suspended 
solids through the chamber whereby clear liquid passes through said filter 
cake into said retainer where clear liquid is recovered and suspended 
solids are deposited on filter cake, continuing pumping liquid with 
suspended solids until a maximum differential pressure is reached, 
reducing the pumping rate of liquid while simultaneously increasing air 
pressure to a maximum of 15 psig in the chamber, draining liquid from the 
chamber through the filter cake and retainer while maintaining air 
pressure of 2 to 15 psig to recover the heel portion, abruptly back 
washing liquid through the retainer and filter cake whereby the filter 
cake is destroyed and draining the mixture of filter cake and back wash 
liquid from the chamber. 
The required amount of filter aid may be mixed in a separate tank with 
water but is preferably mixed directly with the liquid containing the 
suspended solids. The said mixture can then be recycled between the closed 
chamber with the filter elements and the mixing tank until the filter cake 
is the desired thickness and the liquid passing therethrough is clear in a 
filter sight glass. At this point, the recirculating valve is closed and 
the valve to the clear tank is opened and the filtration is continued 
until the liquid is completely cleaned or the filter cake capacity is 
exceeded as indicated by an increase in differential pressure. 
To stop the filtration, the pumping rate of liquid is reduced while 
simultaneously increasing the air pressure in the closed chamber up to a 
maximum of 15 psig which is necessary to maintain the filter cake on the 
filter elements. The liquid remaining in the chamber is the heel portion 
and is drained from the chamber into the clean tank or another tank while 
keeping the air pressure at 2 to 15 psig. If the air pressure is below 2 
psig, the liquid will not drain or will drain too slowly and if the 
pressure is more than 15 psig, the air will pass through the filter cake 
when the top of the filter elements is exposed and the remaining liquid 
will not be recovered. 
The back washing of the retainer and filter cake is effected abruptly so 
that the filter cake is broken up and washed off the filter retainer or 
element and the wash liquid and suspended filter aid from the cake may be 
washed out of the chamber. 
The back wash may be effected by connecting the interior of the filter 
retainer with a tank filled with wash liquid under pressure and opening a 
back wash valve to allow the wash liquid to forcibly pass through the 
filter retainer and to break the filter cake therefrom. 
The process of the invention allows complete recovery of the heel remaining 
in the filter system at the end of the cycle as filtered liquid and there 
is no need to reprocess the heel. The back wash step is simple and does 
not require the manpower and time required for the cleaning of flat leaf 
filters. Maintenance is simple since there are no moving parts except 
valves which can wear out and have to be replaced and the apparatus is 
compact, requiring a minimum amount of floor space. 
The novel apparatus of the invention is comprised of a closed chamber 
provided with at least one vertical, tubular, liquid pervious filter aid 
retainer element supported on a horizontal tube sheet with the lowest 
pervious section being level with the tube sheet connected to a tank for 
the liquid to be cleaned, means for removing cleaned liquid from the 
interior of retainer element, means for supplying air pressure to the 
closed chamber while simultaneously reducing the pumping rate of liquid, 
means for providing back wash liquid to the interior of the filter 
retainer element and means for draining the closed chamber.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
In the apparatus of FIG. 1, Tank 1 which holds the liquid with suspended 
solids to be cleaned is connected by line 2 to filter 3 which is connected 
by line 4 to tank 1 for recirculation of the liquid with suspended solids 
and suspended filter aid to build up the filter cake on the filter 
retainer elements. The filter at its top is provided with inlet 5 to vent 
the filter 3 during start up and to add air pressure to the filter 3 
during the draining operation. A holding tank 6 is connected to the 
interior of the filter retainer elements by line 7 which also allows the 
recovery of cleaned liquid. Tank 6 is filled with back wash liquid under 
sufficient pressure so that when the valve 8 connecting the tank 6 to the 
filter is opened, the liquid will pass from tank 6 to filter 3 with 
sufficient velocity to remove the filter aid from the retainer element. 
Wash water can be added by line 9 to wash out the filter 3 after the back 
wash step through drain 7a. 
FIG. 2 shows the interior of filter 3 which is provided with sight glasses 
10 and inlet line 2 is preferably at the upper portion of the filter above 
the filter retainer elements 11 which are connected to horizontal tube 
sheet 12 so that the lowest pervious portion of elements 11 is level with 
the tube sheet 12 which is essential to the operation of the process of 
the invention. If the lowest pervious section is spaced above tube sheet 
12, the filter cake on elements will slide down to the tube sheet during 
the draining step and break apart, thereby contaminating the heel still in 
the filter. 
While the filter retainer elements have been indicated as being tubular, it 
does not mean that they have to have a circular cross-section although 
this is preferred. The cross-section could have any suitable cross-section 
such as oval or rectangular. The filter retainer elements are preferably 
wedge wire elements such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,253,714 with a 
suitable spacing between the wires to permit passage of liquid 
therethrough while retaining suspended filter aid to permit the formation 
of a filter cake. 
In the following example there are described several preferred embodiments 
to illustrate the invention. However, it is to be understood that the 
invention is not intended to be limited to the specific embodiments. 
EXAMPLE 
Using the apparatus of FIG. 1, a filter with a capacity of 150 gallons 
containing 26 filter retainer elements 30 inches long and having a 
diameter of 23/8 inches with wedge wires spaced 0.001 inches apart was 
filled with liquid with suspended solids to be removed and suspended 
filter aid while venting the filter and the liquid was recirculated 
between the holding tank 1 and filter 3 until the liquid passing through 
the filter retainer was clean, viewing through the sight glass showed a 
buildup of filter aid on the retainer elements and this took approximately 
5 minutes. Valves were then closed to stop recirculation and opened to 
obtain cleaned liquid. 
At the end of the filtering operation, the pumping of liquid to the filter 
was reduced to zero while simultaneously admitting air at the top of the 
filter and then the air pressure was maintained at 2 to 15 psig preferably 
about 6 to 8 psig, while draining liquid from the filter. When the filter 
was empty, the air pressure was released and tank 6 containing wash water 
under pressure, i.e. 60 to 100 psig was connected to filter 3 by opening 
the valve 8 quickly. The compressed air in the hydro-pneumatic tank 
expands forcing the water in the tank through the filter elements in a 
reverse path flushing all filter cake and retained solids out the drain. 
The backwash inlet valve is then closed and the filter vent and backwash 
flush valves are opened. The system is flushed for approximately one-half 
minute to make sure all spent cake is removed from the filter and drain 
piping and the backwash flush valve is closed and the drain valve in the 
filter outlet piping opened, to make sure the bottom head of the filter 
and the outlet piping are empty. Steam can be used in place of flush water 
to clean out the filter. 
The filter drain filter vent and filter outlet drain valves are closed and 
the filter is now clean and empty, ready to be returned to service. 
Various modifications of the process and apparatus of the invention may be 
made without departing from the spirit or scope thereof and it should be 
understood that the invention is intended to be limited only as defined in 
the appended claims.