Sedimentation and water electrolysis effects in electrofiltration of kaolin suspension

SedimentationandWaterElectrolysisEffectsinElectrofiltrationofKaolinSuspensionO.LarueandE.VorobievChemicalEngineeringDept.,UniversityofCompie`gne,Compie`gne,BP20529-60205,FranceDOI10.1002/aic.10227PublishedonlineinWileyInterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com).Filtrationcombinedwithanelectricfield(electrofiltration)enhancesthefiltrationkineticsofaqueoussuspensions.Althoughelectrophoresisandelectroosmosislargelycontributetoelectrofiltrationbehavior,sideeffectssuchaswaterelectrolysis,heatproduction,andgravitationalsedimentationofparticlesmaybeinfluential.Amathemat-icalmodelwasdevelopedtoincludegravitationalsedimentationofparticlesandelec-trolyticgasinelectrofiltrationtheory.Themodelsuccessfullyrepresentedelectrofiltrationdataobtainedfromkaolinsuspensionswithalaboratoryhorizontalfilter.Electrolyticgascontributedtoanincreaseof13%inelectrofiltrationrate.Settlingparticlesincreasedcakeresistancetodownwardelectrofiltrationflowandcouldsubstantiallyoffsetelectro-kineticeffectsathighsettlingvelocities.Because