Solid-fluid industrial operations

... almost everything is granular !

Solid-Fluid industrial operations

Lecturer: Andrea Santomaso

(NEW! in preparation)
Knowledge, skills, and competencies to be acquired: Upon completion of the course, students who have passed the exam will be able to:

  • Understand the main separation techniques for recovering products in particulate solid form, typical of the mining industry and raw materials, chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries, as well as plants for treating pollutant emissions.
  • Size and verify equipment for solid-fluid separation such as settlers and clarifiers, filters, crystallizers, and dryers.
  • Estimate the energy impact of the separation plants described.
 Content: GENERAL OVERVIEW OF SOLID-FLUID SEPARATION PLANTS (2 hours): typical applications of fluid-solid separation processes: mining and raw materials industry, rare earth and mineral recycling, pharmaceutical manufacturing, food industry processes, processes for treating pollutant emissions. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF SOLID-FLUID INTERACTION (4 hours): Relevant properties of solids for their separation (size, shape, density); solid-fluid interaction forces in dilute and dense systems. GRAVIMETRIC SEPARATION (10 hours): industrial applications; settlers and clarifiers, flotation, cyclones, centrifuges: principles of operation and design; numerical exercises. PRESSURE-BASED SEPARATION (6 hours): industrial applications; filters and presses: principles of operation and design; numerical exercises.
Learning activities and teaching methodologies: Classroom lectures, solving numerous exercises in the classroom with discussion of some case studies, questions, and a self-assessment homework. All classroom lectures will be recorded in audio and video and made available through the Moodle platform. THERMAL SEPARATION (6 hours): industrial applications; dryers: types, principles of operation, and design; numerical exercises. WASHING AND PERCOLATION EQUIPMENT (4 hours): industrial applications; equipment and their operating principles, design criteria, and selection; numerical exercises. ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS (4 hours): energy aspects characterizing the separation of solids from liquids (typical example: mining industry). Environmental impact of these operations (water consumption).
Reference Texts:

  • R. Holdich, Fundamentals of Particle Technology, Midland Information Technology and Publishing, Leicestershire, 2002.
  • K. R. Sinnott, Coulson and Richardson’s Chemical Engineering: Volume 6: Chemical Engineering Design 4th edition, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2005.
 Examination: Written exam (80% of the final grade) and homework related to sizing and verification exercises of the equipment (20%). The written exam will consist of two numerical exercises requiring calculation (sizing, verification, or selection) of equipment and two theoretical questions on any of the topics covered during the course.

Applied and fundamental research

on particles, powders and particulate materials

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