Estudo da sedimentação gravitacional de suspensões floculentas

Abstract

The settling vessels are equipment destined to solid-liquid separation; usually have continuous operation, with a circular section, presenting one conic and one cylindrical part. The solid particle splitting with small granular becomes difficult through the operation of conventional sedimentation. An expedient very used in the industry is the flocculant substance addition, whose objective is to promote the precipitation of particles, in which decantation speed is upper than the single one. The present work aim the study of the burst operational conditions that influence the formation and the stability of these aggregates, the flake and the effect of pH and the concentration of flocculant in the capacity of conventional settling vessel, which area of the transversal remains constant, considering this operational conditions. The experiments were made using a kaolin suspension, with pH adjustment and iron sulfate as flocculant. It was made batch sedimentation tests to find great points of pH and flocculant concentration on sedimentation and calculate the maxim rate of sedimentation by Kynch (1952) method. The experimental design results in a great pH of 7,5 and flocculant concentration of 0,0031mL/g of kaulim; using the flocculation process the diameter particle raised of 5,06 to 311_m; the batch sedimentation experiments were very efficient in spite of simplicity, obtaining a good adjustment of experimental data by constitutive equations of TILLER e LEU (1980) for pression and permeability; the area of transversal section had an influence in sedimentation velocity, the biggest one provide a bigger velocity, indicating a wall effect in the process; calculating the settling vessel capacity by Kynch (1952) method, a great performance was showed up with flocculation process, showing its importance in sedimentation of very small particles, and this study ended in a suggestion of a procedure to a continuous operation of a conventional settling vessel with suspensions previously flocculated.