A power ultrasonic technology for deliquoring

Solid-liquid separation is a topic of permanent interest in many areas such as mineral recovery, food processing and sewage disposal. The adequate application of high-intensity ultrasonic fields may contribute to improve the efficiency of conventional deliquoring processes. Deliquoring refers to removal of liquid from a product without changing its phase. Different effects are involved in the application of high-intensity ultrasound for deliquoring, the most important of which are: the alternating acoustic stresses, the radiation pressure, the acoustic streaming, interface instabilities and cavitation. One of the main advantages of the ultrasonic energy in deliquoring processes is its ability to release the strongly bound moisture. This paper deals with the application of an ultrasonic procedure for deliquoring of slurries in which a high-intensity vibration, homogeneously distributed, is directly applied to the wet particulate material. The vibration travels through the solid-liquid medium and the rapid series of alternative compressions and rarefactions produce a kind of "sponge effect" which favours the migration of moisture through natural or acoustically created channels. The obtained results show that the new technique is very promising to assist filtration processes for solid-liquid separation of highly concentrated suspensions of fine particles. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.