4-02: Solid-liquid separations in biomass processing

As processes developed in the laboratory transition to the continuous demonstration scale, a multitude of technical challenges arise.  Solid-liquid separations are among the most common process operations that require large and oft times unanticipated capital and operational costs, due to insufficient development effort in the research phase.  Often separation technologies from established industries can be applied to new processes to mitigate the risk involved with scale up.  The presentation will focus on Hazen’s experience with solid-liquid separations, and present data from flocculation and sedimentation studies performed on pretreated biomass slurries.  An economic study will be presented, which addresses the potential capital and operating costs to achieve the desired separation and product recovery.