Removal of Moisture from the Ultra Fine Particles Using Both High Centrifugal Force and Air Pressure

A newly developed centrifugal batch dewatering unit was developed and used to remove the moisture contents of ultra fine particles (e.g., kaolin clay, silica, talc, and precipitated calcium carbonate). In the present method, air pressure was applied into the vessel of a conventional centrifuge to improve the efficiency of the dewatering. The experimental results showed that the moisture reductions of the samples could be enhanced more than 50% depending on dewatering conditions (i.e., G-force, spin time, applied pressure, cake thickness, particle size, surface hydrophobicity, and particle agglomeration). As a result, when the new centrifuge modification is used for the fine particle dewatering, cost and environmental concerns of thermal dryers could be considerably reduced and the handleability of the filter cakes could be significantly increased.