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The Horizontal Belt Filter
http://www.solidliquid-separation.com/vacuumfilters/belt/belt.htm
Description
Horizontal Belt Filters are, in broad terms, the most commonly used vacuum filters in the industry
due to their flexibility of operation, adaptation to corrosive slurries and suitability to handle large throughputs.
The development of the Horizontal Belt Filters for the chemical process industries was closely associated with
the progress in rubber technology since they incorporate an endless and thick rubber belt of a complex design
to support the cake retained by the filter cloth.
The first known filters were the Landskrona and Lurgi built in the 20's and the Giorgini which was a belt filter but
with attached trays. The belts were very narrow and short, with a 30 cm wide by 4-5 meters length, and were
primarily applied to the washing of phosphate rock. Later, being top feed filters that facilitated multi-washing
stages, they were applied in phosphoric acid plants to replace the chains of 3 or 4 internal feed rubber covered
Drum Filters used for gypsum washing. As the demand for area has gone up filters were manufactured with three
and four 30 cm wide belts running in parallel since the rubber manufacturers were unable to catch-up with the
growth of the chemical plants. For this reason the main rivals over the years to belt filters were the Tilting
Pan and Table Filters so when rubber belts were the constraint to filtration area growth these filters were in
demand and vice versa. Nowadays it is high time for belt filters since rubber technology has made a big step
forwards in the past 10 years. Belts 4 meter wide for 120 m2 filters weigh more than 10 ton and are
manufactured in one piece from sophisticated rubber compounds.
Belt speed is another parameter that sets forth a race among the designers of filters since for many applications
a short cycle time is essential. The constraining factor on belt speed is purely mechanical and depends largely
on the supporting method of the heavy belt with its cake on it. Belt filters are the fastest filters available today
and the speed of modern filters can reach over 50 m/min and yield very short cycle times.
Typical flowschemes and their operating sequence is shown below:
Belt Filter without Washing
This shows a basic flowsheet existing in all applications that require straight forwards dewatering. In these
applications the objective is to produce a cake with the lowest moisture and there is no importance that
remaining liquid in the cake retains its original quality.
Belt Filter with Washing
This flowsheet shows the addition of a cake washing stage at some point downstream cake formation. In this
application water, or any other wash liquid, is used to displace the mother liquid whenever the process requires
a cake that is free of substances that contaminate the discharged cake.
Belt Filter with Counter-Current Washing
This flowsheet shows a counter current wash system that better utilizes the wash water than a co-current
system. In this arrangement solids move in the direction of belt travel and the wash liquid in the opposite
direction. For efficient washing and sharp separation between the wash filtrates the wash boxes are positioned
close to the partitions that are inside the vacuum box. The wash efficiency is defined as a percent of remaining
contaminants in the final cake to the contaminants prior to wash.
Belt Filter with Counter-Current Washing and Cloudy Recycle
When a slurry is applied onto the permeable filter cloth a small amount of solids passes through the pores and
finds its way to the mother filtrate. This can be avoided by inserting a partition in the vacuum box just at the
point where the slurry feed meets the filter cloth. It requires incorporating a small vacuum receiver with a seal
tank the removes this fraction of "cloudy" filtrate that contains the solid particles. The top of this receiver has a
valve set to low vacuum so that a thin heel of cake forms on the filter cloth that serves as a filter medium over
the porous cloth and produces a solid free mother filtrate.
This flowsheet is applied to the production of phosphoric acid and the cloudy filtrate is recycled to the upstream
reactor or back onto the filter cake as shown in the diagram.

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The Horizontal Belt Filter

Typical flowschemes and their operating sequence is shown below:

Belt Filter without Washing

Belt Filter with Washing

Belt Filter with Counter-Current Washing and Cloudy Recycle

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