The Fournier Rotary Press is an evolutionary step in the dewatering of slurries and sludge to form cake material. Effective handling of the solids generated by clarifier or thickening operations has been an ongoing problem waiting for a good solution. Centrifuges, belt presses, screw presses, plate compression devices and other techniques have all been less than stellar in their ability to cost-effectively produce a high solids product that is easily handled..

Municipal:

• Primary Sludge
• Mixed Primary/WAS (digested and biological sludge)
• Biological sludge for composting (amendment added)
• Septage sludge
• Primary (digested)

Industrial:

• Pulp and paper clarifier sludge
• Brewery
• Agricultural

– Pig manure
– Cow manure

• Organic solids recovery
• Food process

– Milk transformation
– Bagasse

• Plastic recycling
• Rolling Mill

The Rotary Press uses very little energy – a single press unit has a 5 HP (3.7 kW) motor while a 6 press unit has just a 20 HP (15.0 kW) motor.

The Rotary Press requires very little maintenance –few moving parts and slow rotating speed.

The Rotary Press has an automated self-cleaning cycle – it uses very little water during a 5 minutes/day purge.

Consistently High Cake Solids – High Capture Rates – Robust Construction

Dewater sludge to very high solids using high pressure plate and frame filter pressing that is well suited to smaller applications and manual operation.

The Faure Filter Press fulfills the objective of processing sludge into clarified water and high solids cake, regardless of the type of solids to be dewatered. Through hundreds of installations, this very old technology has evolved and been refined to deliver exceptional dewatering and provide ease of operation with long term reliability. Whether the need is for infrequent daily operation or continuous cycles through the operating period, the Filter Press provides consistent performance.

The Faure Filter Press feeds slurry at high pressure into the chamber between the recessed plates and the filter cloths that are specifically selected to provide the rate of dewatering, cake solids and filtrate clarity desired. A mechanical closing and opening of the plates can be provided for ease of operation. This includes a safety feature that requires an operator to have both hands safely away from the plates through the closing function. If required, cloth plates can be washed in-situ or easily removed to a washing station.

Each Faure Filter Press is designed for the application and processing requirements. Plate size, number of plates, cloth specifications, pumping requirements and frame sizing are all closely calculated.

The Faure Filter Press is now designed, manufactured and marketed in North America by Fournier Industries of Thetford Mines QC.

Samples of sludge are lab tested at no cost to determine what results can be expected from the Faure Filter Press. A mobile unit can be brought to site to process sludge for actual performance determination.

Fully automated and unattended filter press operation delivers the highest possible solids that can be gained through pressurized water removal.

The FullAuto^tm Filter Press has been installed and proven on some of the largest dewatering applications in the world. Whether it is biological sludge, industrial chemicals, food processing or sand and gravel, the FullAuto Filter Press continuously delivers high solids cake without the need for operator oversight or participation. The robotic actions ensure cake is fully removed, the plates and cloths are cleaned and the unit is ready for the next batch.

Each unit is sized to deliver the performance required – cake density, filtrate clarity, cycle time – and includes all the equipment necessary to feed, discharge and remove the separated materials. No polymers are required for most slurries. Operator protection is ensured and additional corrosion protection is provided where deemed necessary.

The FullAuto Filter Press handles abrasive materials easily.

Some of the key features include:

• 24/7 performance without operator intervention
• Integration into continuous process control operations
• Simple, robust and very reliable
• High performance cake dryness
• Municipal and industrial applications
• Individual plate weighing to ensure discharge
• Individual plate shaking to discharge sticky materials
• Automated core blower to clean material flow chamber
• Automated wash system cleans plates and cloths
• Cloths guaranteed for 2500 cycles for most applications

Also available are conveyors, transfer pumps, dosage pumps, agitators, flocculation tanks, settlement tanks, reactors or large solids pre-filter systems.

Fournier offers no cost sludge/slurry sample testing in their lab to project the solids and filtration rate that can be obtained and the sizing of equipment that would be needed for any operation. A FullAuto Filter Press mobile unit is available for site testing to determine the actual performance that can be expected and to demonstrate the entire system operation.

Huge changes are occurring with solids management in wastewater treatment operations when new measurement devices provide insight that was not possible until now.

Experience tremendous improvement in throughput and operational stability when solids are accurately measured. Operators are able to regulate solids pumping of primary sludge (PS), return activated sludge (RAS) and waste activated sludge (WAS) to avoid low solids transfer.
This contributes stability to plant operations and induces significant throughput improvement

improve performance of their clarification operations by measuring and regulating the removal of sludge residuals from their filtration beds. The desired Cake Density can be achieved by manipulating a number of process variables surrounding the equipment that is used for dewatering.

For municipal sludge the target Dry Cake Total Solids is typically in the range of 25-35%. The target depends on the type of sludge and its components. Higher solids are better to minimize disposal costs – transport, dumping, incineration. As well, the centrate produced needs to be as low in Total Suspended Solids (TSS) as possible so that the dead-load of solids recirculating in the wastewater treatment process is minimized.
At the same time, there is a need to regulate Polymer addition to minimize those costs while not overdosing and causing foaming problems. Polymer must be added to provide the flocculation of solids in the sludge feed so that dewatering can occur and the capture rate is high.

With the introduction of online solids measurement wastewater treatment operations are experiencing greater than 50% reduction in polymer cost.

The most common equipment used in municipal wastewater treatment plants for dewatering sludge is a Centrifuge. Other technologies include the Fournier Rotary Press and various types of Screw Presses. The stable delivery of constant solids sludge from a digester is one of the most important factors but other variables are used to attain the desired results at the Centrifuge.

Multivariable control uses all the available inputs to calculate setpoints that will be used to achieve the required results. The inputs include the targets or setpoints (SP) for each control variable (CV) and the measured values (MV) that are available.

In the algorithm, each of these is tested for their influence on each other and the multivariable block is established. The outputs from relationships are used in a Multivariable Predictive Controller (MPC) to determine the output values that regulate the controlled variables.

The entire control is pretested in a simulator to verify the operation, constraints and validity of the model that is created.

Sludge Dewatering to produce high Cake Density is a multivariable challenge. It is no wonder that good operators take time to learn and understand how to manage their processes without the aid of control.

What a Multivariable Control can accomplish is to do what the best operators are capable of doing but they do it from minute to minute, continuously.

Inputs:
– MetsoTS Solids of feed sludge
– Flow of feed sludge
– Polymer Flow
– MetsoLS Solids & Foam of centrate
– Dry Cake Solids (MetsoTS or Lab value)
– Centrifuge Torque (Speed)

Outputs:
– Polymer Flow Setpoint
– Centrifuge Torque (Speed)

Save fiber, clarify water.

An evolutionary step in fiber solids removal from process water, the Rotary Drum Microfilter ensures the separation of fibers from water. Filter fabric can be selected to accomplish fast rates of filtration or to clarify water so that only very minute particles remain. Water can be clarified to use in place of fresh water on mill showers or as a final clarification before mill effluent discharge. The Rotary Drum Microfilter is often used after existing Disc Savealls and DAFs, or as upgrade replacements for these units.

• Fine filtration, water clarification, raw material recovery depending on the application.
• Controlled max size of solid particles for fine filtration application.
• Simple machine, compact design, complete stainless steel construction.
• No vacuum required, no drop legs allows ease of installation locations.
• Large filtering area due to V-shaped filtering cloth profile.
• Polyester shrinkable filtering cloth mounted on the metallic frame of the rotating drum.
• Filtering cloth available at openings as fine as 10 microns, selection depends on the application and expected results.
• Inside and outside continuous clean showers prevent buildup.
• Modular design for customized sizing.

Where shower nozzles plug because the water being used contains solids, including fiber or large particle sizes, a continuous operation solution that provides long term, trouble-free performance is the ideal solution.

The Osprey^tm Gravity Strainer is designed to strain large amounts of “white water”, or water with large amounts of suspended solids. These units are ideal for applications where the concentration and flows are too high for pressurized filters.

The key reasons why the Osprey should be part of your operation are:

• No trapping or driving solids through screen openings, no backwash.
• Fibers that ‘staple’ are continuously removed by bottom up spray showers.
• Easy visual performance inspection and infrequent maintenance. (1-2/years)
• Performance is fine tuned with the variable speed motor to adjust concentration or flow rate.
• Self-contained modular unit is easy to install.
• Small floor space compared to many inline strainers.