EP2085510B1 - Device for separating and washing fibres contained in a slurry - Google Patents

Abstract

The device has a truncated cone shaped filtering wall (14) opened towards top, and a transporting conduit (41) for treating a slurry (42) at a top part of the wall. A rotational sprinkling head carries four nozzles aligned parallel to a surface of the wall. The nozzles respectively project plane water jets (26-29) towards the wall, where the nozzles produce the jets (27, 28) respectively having two marks that are spaced with respect to each other. The wall forms an angle of 20 degree with respect to a normal plane at a rotation axis (AX) of the wall.

Description

The invention relates to the treatment of sludge, in particular paper mills.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The paper is produced in a papermaking unit from fibers suspended in water.

These fibers are first laid on a dewatering mat to form a layer, and after dewatering, this layer is mechanically compressed and then heated to form a sheet of paper.

Such a manufacturing unit works with large quantities of water: the production of one ton of paper requires about one hundred and fifty tons of water.

The different stages of production, such as dewatering and compression, generate fibrous suspensions, i.e., water containing less than one to five percent by weight of fiber.

These fibrous suspensions are recycled within the manufacturing unit, the fibers and the water then being separated for re-injection into the production cycle, which contributes to limiting the consumption of fiber and water.

The separation is ensured by draining in a filter which can be conical such as that which is marked by 1 in the figure 1 , in order to concentrate the fibers while recovering the water that contains them.

A similar device is known from the document US-A-5,960,500 which describes a device according to the preamble of claim 1.

The filter according to the figure 1 comprises an enclosure 2 containing a frustoconical filtering wall 3, forming a funnel, and a pipe 4 pouring on this wall the fibrous suspension to be treated, and a rotating head 6 located above the frustoconical wall for watering it with water. water.

Such an installation has a diameter of the order of two meters, the basic cone frustum of the filtering wall having an angle of the order of forty-five degrees, and the rotating head rotates at a speed of between five and fifteen revolutions per minute.

In operation, the fibrous suspension to be reduced is poured into the upper part of the wall 3, and it descends along it forming a mattress covering the entire surface of this wall.

During this descent, part of the water contained in the fibrous suspension flows through the mesh of the filtering wall 3, but the fibrous suspension nevertheless has a tendency to clog the filtering wall 3.

To prevent this clogging, the rotary head 6 has several arms supplied with water, such as the arms 7 and 8, which extend parallel to the generatrices of the frustoconical wall.

Each arm produces a curtain of continuous water formed by several water jets 11 overlapping, which come from different nozzles 9 spaced from each other along the arm.

The water curtain forms a squeegee that lifts the fibrous suspension layer and promotes its flow along the wall 3, while cleaning the wall.

After reduction of fibrous suspension with this dewatering device which is implanted within the manufacturing unit, the fibers and water are reinjected into the manufacturing cycle.

Despite the presence of recycling, such a unit generates waste in the form of wastewater containing up to ten or fifteen percent of sludge composed of various impurities and fibers.

This waste is treated in a wastewater treatment plant separate from the paper manufacturing unit. They are first decanted to form the sludge, which is biologically treated, before being spread or shipped to a landfill.

Such sludge, however, contains fibers of two to three millimeters in length which are lost while they could be recovered for blending with longer fibers to make paper.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide a device for washing the fibers contained in this sludge for use in the manufacture of paper.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a device for extracting and washing fibers contained in a sludge, comprising a filter wall having a frustoconical shape with a vertical axis opening upwards, a pipe conveying sludge. to be treated in the upper part of this filtering wall, and a rotary head carrying at least one series of nozzles aligned parallel to a generatrix of the frustoconical filtering wall, each nozzle projecting a jet of water towards the filtering wall, in which the nozzles a series of nozzles are arranged to produce jets having imprints on the filter wall which are spaced apart from each other.

Due to the spacing of the jets, the mud forms a bead on the inner surface of the filter wall, which has a significant adhesion to the wall. Thanks to this adhesion, the time required for the sludge to descend along the entire wall is large enough that the jets can wash the sludge sufficiently efficiently to extract the fibers.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, wherein the frustoconical filtering wall forms, with respect to a plane normal to its axis of revolution, an angle of between ten and thirty degrees, preferably equaling twenty degrees.

The choice of a frustoconical filtering wall having a high opening angle contributes to further reducing the speed of travel of the sludge towards the lower opening of this filtering wall, in order to increase the time and efficiency of the washing of this sludge.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, wherein the rotary head comprises at least one arm carrying a series of nozzles producing flat water jets having on the filtering wall indentations spaced from each other, and at least one other arm carrying another series of nozzles producing so-called conical water jets having on the filter wall disk-shaped impressions which are spaced apart from each other.

With this solution, the mud forms a helical bead which dilutes when it passes under a conical jet, and which is gathered on itself as it passes between two adjoining planes.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, in which the pipe is carried by the rotating head while being positioned to deposit sludge on the filtering wall at a position situated upstream of a conical jet taking into account the direction of rotation of the rotating head.

In this way the sludge is first diluted by a conical jet, and then collected when the flat jets pass, so that it takes very early form having good adhesion to the filter wall.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, comprising at least one nozzle producing a flat jet having a so-called forward orientation, to produce a jet having on the filtering wall an offset offset forwardly relative to to an orthogonal projection of this nozzle on the filtering wall.

With this forward orientation, the flat jets form squeegee able to take off the mud from the wall to better collect it as a bead.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, comprising at least one nozzle producing a flat jet having a so-called upward orientation, to produce a flat jet having on the filtering wall an inclined imprint towards an upper edge of the filtering wall with reference to the direction of advance of the impression when the head rotates.

This substantially upward orientation of the jets opposes the descent of the cord along the filtering wall.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, comprising at least one nozzle producing a flat jet having a so-called downward orientation, to produce a flat jet having on the filtering wall an inclined imprint towards an orifice of the wall. filtering by reference to the direction of advancement of the footprint when the head rotates.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, comprising an arm carrying at least one nozzle pointing upwards and at least one nozzle pointing downwards, these nozzles being situated respectively at the upper part and at the lower part of the arm. wearing them.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, comprising an arm carrying a series of nozzles producing flat jets, wherein the nozzles located on the upper two thirds of this arm are oriented upwards, and in which the other nozzles carried by this arm are oriented downwards.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, in which the oriented nozzles upwards are inclined at a decreasing angle from the upper edge of the filter wall.

The invention also relates to a device as defined above, wherein the downwardly directed nozzles are inclined at a decreasing angle from the lower edge of the filter wall.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

• The figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional representation of a known device for draining sludge containing fibers;
• The figure 2 is a schematic representation of the device according to the invention seen in cross section;
• The figure 3 is a schematic representation of the flat jets in lateral view and the impression of the flat jets on the filtering wall in the device according to the invention;
• The figure 4 is a schematic representation of the conical jets in lateral view and the impression of the conical jets on the filtering wall in the device according to the invention;
• The figure 5 is a schematic representation in top view of a device according to the invention in operation;
• The figure 6 is a schematic representation of a conical jet seen from above when sprinkling a bead of mud;
• The figure 7 is a schematic representation of the orientation of a flat jet showing the relative positions of its imprint on the filtering wall and the projection on this wall of the nozzle seen in a direction locally normal to this wall;
• The figure 8 is a schematic representation of an alternative orientation of the jets along an arm carrying the nozzles producing these jets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The idea behind the invention is to adapt a separation device fibrous suspension operated within a paper manufacturing unit, the treatment of waste from such an installation.

This is achieved by arranging the jets in such a way that the sludge is gradually diluted, but extends in the form of a bead on the filtering wall to decrease its rate of descent along this wall. This makes it possible to have a sufficient treatment time to carry out a washing capable of correctly extracting the fibers from the sludge.

In the example below, this is ensured on the one hand with first jets called flat jets which agglomerate the cord to pick it up on its own and secondly with second jets called conical jets which spray the cord for wash it.

The device according to the invention which is schematically represented in figure 2 being identified by 12 has a general structure of the same type as that of the apparatus of the figure 1 .

It also comprises an enclosure 13, a frustoconical filter wall 14 oriented vertically, open upwards and having a lower opening 15, and a rotating spraying head 16 engaged in the upper part of this filtering wall. The filtering wall 14 is made of a material comprising meshes measuring between one hundred and two hundred and fifty microns so as to let the sludge particles pass and recover the fibers.

This rotating head comprises firstly one or more arms such as the arm 17 carrying nozzles 21 to 24 which produce flat jets 26 to 29, and secondly one or more arms such as the arm 18 carrying nozzles 31. 34 which produce jets 36 to 39 called conical.

The arm 17 extends parallel to the filtering wall, which means that the distance separating it from the latter is substantially constant all along the arm 17. The nozzles 21 to 24 that it carries are spaced apart from each other along this arm by distances such that the jets 26 to 29 they produce do not overlap. On the contrary, there is a substantial gap between the successive jets along the arm 17.

So, as illustrated on the figure 3 , the footprints e27 and e28 on the wall 14 of two consecutive flat jets that are the jets 27 and 28 are spaced apart from each other. Each imprint has a rectilinear shape, length L between seven and eight centimeters, and the footprints e27 and e28 are spaced from each other by a gap e of about one centimeter, parallel to the arm 17.

The arm 18 also extends parallel to the filtering wall 14, the distance separating it from this wall being the same all along this arm 18. The nozzles 31 to 34 that it carries are also spaced apart from each other. a distance such that the jets 36 to 39 produced by these nozzles do not overlap, and are instead spaced apart from each other.

Two consecutive conical jets such as jets 37 and 38 have imprints on the filtering wall 14 which are marked by e37 and e38 in the figure 4 . Each imprint has a disc shape, of a diameter noted L ', and two consecutive jet impressions along the arm are spaced apart by a difference noted e'.

In the figure 2 only one arm producing flat jets, namely the arm 17, and one arm producing conical jets, namely the arm 18, are shown.

However, the device according to the invention advantageously comprises a number of arms that are much greater, being for example provided with four arms producing flat jets and four arms producing conical jets. Each arm producing conical jets then being interposed, in plan view, between two arms producing flat jets.

The rotating head then comprises eight arms, spaced from each other by an eighth of a turn, as in the example of the figure 5 which partially shows such a device in top view.

Advantageously, this head also carries a pipe 41 for supplying sludge 42. This pipe extends radially so as to deposit the sludge at the upper part, that is to say peripheral, of the filtering wall 14 by rotating with the head to form the bead of mud.

This cord moves very slowly down the filter wall 14 due to its own weight. With reference to the direction of rotation of the head 16, which rotates at a speed of between five and fifteen revolutions per minute, after having been deposited on the filtering wall 14, the cord is sprayed with a first conical jet 36.

This causes a first wash in which part of the impurities of the mud 42 constituting this bead passes through the filtering wall so as to be eliminated. Taking into account the pressure of the water of the jet which is applied to this cord, it crushes on the wall 14, so that its width has increased after passage of the conical jet 37.

After this first wash, the large-width cord continues to descend slowly along the wall 14, until it is reached by flat jets produced by the arm 17. The cord of large width then has its center located between the two consecutive flat jets 26 and 27, but its width is greater than the spacing e which separates the footprints e26 and e27 of these two jets on the wall 14.

These two flat jets 26 and 27 then sprinkle the edges of the cord to bring them closer to one another, so that it takes again a more compact form: its thickness increases while its width decreases.

After being reformed by the flat jets 26 and 27, the bead is again swept by a conical jet, not visible in the figure, which corresponds to a new washing step in which other impurities of this mud are evacuated through the filter wall 14, this step causing a new crushing of the bead.

The cord thus passes at the level of different arms not visible in the figure, which alternately wash it by crushing it, then put it back in the shape of a cord. Before ironing again under the tapered wash arm 18, the bead was reshaped by passing under the arm 48 which produces the flat jets 43 to 47.

The entire cord thus has a general shape of axis AX helicoid projected on the frustoconical filter wall 14, which corresponds to a spiral view from above. As shown in the figure, the cord extends over several turns of the inner surface of the wall 14, and in operation, it travels vertically downwards thereof, that is to say towards its lower opening 15.

This cord thus has its upper end continuously renewed by the supply of sludge 42 deposited by the end of the pipe 41, while its lower end is continuously discharged through the lower central opening 15 of the filtering wall 14.

As illustrated schematically on the figure 6 , the jets and the sludge flow delivered by the pipe 41 are dimensioned in such a way that after being collected or picked up by a pair of plane jets, ie before being washed by a conical jet, the bead has a width 1 which is between half and fifth the diameter D of a conical jet on the wall 14.

The nozzles forming the conical jets may be placed opposite the middle of the interval between two flat jets. But the position of these nozzles depends on the operating conditions, in particular the speed of descent of the mud bead and the angle between two successive arms. These nozzles should simply be placed to be in the path of the mud bead.

In the symbolic illustrations of the figures, each arm carries four nozzles to produce four jets. But in practice, given the dimensions of the device which is of the order of two meters in diameter, each arm carries a number of nozzles much greater than four.

In order to further reduce the speed with which the bead of mud descends along the filtering wall 14, the jets advantageously have specific orientations.

In general, the jets producing the flat jets 21 to 23 which are located in the upper two thirds of the arm 17 are oriented upwards to oppose the descent of the cord, and the nozzles located on the lower third of the arms are oriented downward to facilitate its evacuation to the lower opening.

On the other hand, nozzles producing flat jets are all oriented to produce inclined jets such as squeegees so as to effectively peel off the sludge from the filter wall 14 to effectively gather this bead.

Thus, as shown schematically in figure 7 the upwardly directed nozzle 22 produces a flat stream 27 whose rectilinear footprint e27 extends along an axis a27 which is inclined with respect to the line of greatest slope p17 of the wall 14.

The axis a27 thus forms an angle Dα noted with the axis p17, this axis p17 also corresponding to the projection on the wall 14 of the arm 17, that is to say at the intersection with the wall 14 of a plane containing the axis of rotation AX of the head 16 and the axis of the arm 17.

The impression e27 thus has a lower end i27 which is having more than its upper end s27, in the direction of advance A of the jet along the wall 14. The distance dhi separating the lower end i27 and the axis p17 is greater than the distance dhs separating the upper end s27 and this axis p17.

The orientation of the nozzle 21 also gives the flat jet 27 that it produces a forward inclination so that it constitutes a squeegee, which results in the fact that the whole of the footprint e27 is located in before the axis p17. The projection p27 of the nozzle 27 on the wall 14, which is carried by the axis p17, is thus separated from the center c27 of the cavity by a horizontal distance denoted DH.

Regarding the nozzles carried by the lower third of the arm 17, as the nozzle 24 they are inclined downward, which means that they each have a footprint whose upper end is more or as far advanced as the end The lower nozzles are further oriented so that the jets they produce are inclined forwardly.

The upward orientation of the upper nozzles of the arm 17 is intended to slow down the descent of the mud bead when in the upper part of the filtering wall 14. On the contrary, the downward orientation of the lower nozzles of the arm 17 is intended to promote the evacuation of the portion of the cord located in the lower part of the wall 14.

The orientations of the nozzles 21 to 24 may, instead of being identical for two successive nozzles, evolve gradually along the arm, as in the example of the figure 8 .

In this case, each nozzle 21 to 23 inclined upwards has an inclination | Dα | all the more important as it is close to the upper edge of the frustoconical wall 14. Similarly, each nozzle 24 inclined downwards has an inclination | Dα | all the more important as it is close to the lower edge of the wall 14, that is to say of the opening 15.

Thus, the angle oriented Dα, from the axis of the impression considered towards the axis p17, decreases gradually from the top of the arm 17 towards the bottom thereof, as visible on the figure 8 .

It should also be noted that the inclination of the flat jets 26 to 29, upwards or downwards, can also be accentuated by orienting the corresponding nozzle to offset the impression of the jet that it produces, either upwards or downwards. downwards, with respect to the orthogonal projection of this nozzle on the wall 14.

Referring to the nozzle 27 shown in figure 7 this amounts to introducing a vertical offset between the center c27 of the footprint e27 of its jet 27 relative to the projection p27 of this nozzle.

The device according to the invention thus makes it possible to treat a low-viscosity sludge, such as a sludge comprising fibers having lengths of less than two millimeters and a half, by regulating the descent of this sludge along the filtering wall 14, in such a way that to avoid that this descent is too fast, thus making the washing of the fibers sufficiently effective.

The conical wall advantageously has an opening angle of between one hundred and twenty and one hundred and sixty degrees, so that the angle of inclination of this wall is between thirty and ten degrees.

Claims (11)

1. A device for extracting and washing fibers contained in a slurry, the device comprising a filter wall (14) of upwardly open frustoconical shape with a vertical axis (AX), a pipe (41) for feeding the slurry (42) to be treated to the top portion of said filter wall (14), and a rotary head (16) carrying at least one series of nozzles (26-29, 36-39) in alignment parallel with a generator line of the frustoconical filter wall (14), each nozzle (26-29, 36-39) projecting a jet of water towards the filter wall (14), the device being characterized in that the nozzles (26-29, 36-39) of a series of nozzles are arranged to produce jets presenting footprints (e27, e28) on the filter wall (14), which footprints are spaced apart from one another.
2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the frustoconical filter wall (14) forms an angle lying in the range ten to thirty degrees relative to a plane normal to its axis of revolution (AX), which angle preferably has a value of twenty degrees.
3. A device according to claim 1, wherein the rotary head (16) includes at least one arm (17) carrying a series of nozzles (21-24) producing flat water jets having footprints (e27, e28) on the filter wall (14) that are spaced apart from one another, and at least one other arm (18) carrying another series of nozzles (31-34) producing so-called conical jets of water having footprints (e37, e38) on the filter wall (14) that are in the form of disks that are spaced apart from one another.
4. A device according to claim 3, wherein the pipe (41) is carried by the rotary head (16), being positioned so as to deposit the slurry (42) on the filter wall (14) at a position relative to a conical jet (36) that is upstream therefrom, given the direction of rotation of the rotary head (16).
5. A device according to claim 3, including at least one nozzle (21-24) producing a flat jet (26-29) of orientation that is said to be forward, so as to produce a jet (26-29) having a footprint on the filter wall (14) that is offset forwards relative to an orthogonal projection of said nozzle (21-24) on the filter wall (14).
6. A device according to claim 5, including at least one nozzle (21-23) producing a flat jet (26-28) of orientation that is said to be upward, to produce a flat jet (26-28) having a footprint (e27) on the filter wall (14) that is inclined towards a top edge of the filter wall relative to the direction (A) in which the footprint advances when the head (16) turns.
7. A device according to claim 5 or claim 6, including at least one nozzle (24) producing a flat jet (29) having an orientation that is said to be downward, to produce a flat jet (29) having a footprint (e27) on the filter wall (14) that is inclined towards an orifice of the filter wall (14) relative to the direction (A) in which said footprint advances when the head (16) turns.
8. A device according to claims 6 and 7, including an arm (17) carrying at least one nozzle (21-23) that is oriented upwards and at least one nozzle (24) that is oriented downwards, these nozzles (21-24) being situated respectively in the upper portion and in the lower portion of the arm (17) carrying them.
9. A device according to claim 8, including an arm carrying a series of nozzles (21-24) producing flat jets, wherein the nozzles (21-23) situated over the upper two-thirds of the arm (17) are oriented upwards and wherein the other nozzles (24) carried by said arm (17) are oriented downwards.
10. A device according to claim 9, wherein the nozzles (21-23) that are oriented upwards are inclined at an angle (|Dα|) that decreases going from the top edge of the filter wall (14).
11. A device according to claim 9, wherein the nozzles (24) that are oriented downwards are inclined at an angle (|Dα|) that decreases from the bottom edge of the filter wall (14).

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