Cake Filtration
also known as filter cake · dead-end filtration
In cake filtration the slurry is driven against a medium by pressure, vacuum or centrifugal force. Solids accumulate as a cake, and that cake — not the cloth or screen — does the fine filtration. Throughput therefore falls as the cake thickens, which is why batch machines are run to a target cake thickness and then opened for discharge rather than run until the flow stops.
Why it matters in practice
Cake thickness, cycle time, and the wash and blow-down steps taken before discharge together set both capacity and cake moisture. Adding wash liquid before air-blowing is what recovers the entrained mother liquor that would otherwise be lost with the cake.
Where this appears on this site
Calculators that use this
Equipment referenced in this entry
Pilot-Scale Plate and Frame Filter Presses
7 Specifications · plate and frame filter presses
Lab-scale plate and frame filter presses
10 Specifications · plate and frame filter presses
Related terms
Reference entry GL-CAKE-FILTRATION. Definitions on this page describe engineering practice in hydrometallurgical process design; they are not a substitute for test work on your own material.