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When to Use sludge filter press？

Jul. 14, 2025

Filter Press vs. Centrifuge: Which One Do I Need to Use?

Choosing between a centrifuge and a plate and frame filter press for your sludge dewatering can be difficult if you don’t know their different strengths and weaknesses. While both technologies will effectively produce a dry, solid cake, there are quite a few differences between the two. The following information will help you decide if either a centrifuge or a plate and frame filter press is the best technology for your specific needs.

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Plate and Frame Filter Press

Filter presses are designed to hold a specific volume of material and separate the liquids and solids through pressure filtration. A slurry is pushed into the filter press and subjected to high pressure for dewatering. This type of equipment can be used in a variety of applications in both industrial and municipal fields.

What are the Advantages?

The filter press has many advantages that other dewatering methods cannot provide. These include:

Fewer parts for easy maintenance
Captures a high amount of solids
In some areas, it is the only device capable of producing a cake that is dry enough to meet landfill requirements

When Should I Use It?

The filter press is generally used when sludge characteristics are poor and require more than 35% cake dryness. If sludge characteristics are expected to change, or if minimal conditioning is needed, the filter press can also be helpful.

Centrifuge

A centrifuge is a machine that puts an object into rotation around a fixed axis and uses centrifugal force to separate solid materials from liquids. As the materials are put into rotation, the denser substances are forced outward while the lighter particles are separated and move toward the center. There are many different types of centrifuges that are used for different purposes. Industrial scale centrifuges are often used in manufacturing and waste processing to separate solids and liquids.

What are the Advantages?

Centrifuge is good for the dewatering or separating fats, oils and greases
They allow for the processing of large amounts of materials within a small space, giving larger plants an advantage
Centrifuge can process more volume than a plate and frame filter press

When Should I Use It?

High RPM centrifuge processing is most often used for processing oily sludge. Centrifuges are best used when you have larger volume and lower solid contents. Utilizing this processes will generally produce 18% to 25% solids by weight and is typically reserved for situations where the main goal is for oil recovery and when larger volume processing is necessary.

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The Bottom Line

Filter presses for sludge dewatering - The MBR Site

How filter presses work

A filter press (FP) provides sludge dewatering by pressing the sludge between a series of porous plates. The process forces water from the sludge by applying high pressures to sludge layers held between a series of 20−80 rectangular plates. The plates are recessed to allow them to be filled with sludge, and a filter cloth with an effective pore size of less than 0.1 mm fitted to each.

The FP is the only mechanical thickening or dewatering technology that is limited to batchwise (rather than continuous) operation. It is also the only dewatering technology capable of routinely achieving high concentrations of the dewatered solids cake product – between 35 and 45% DS (dry solids) depending on the feed sludge origin and the chemical conditioning applied.

Operation of the filter press proceeds by slowly filling the recesses between the plates with the sludge before applying pressures of 7−20 bar over a period of 1−2 hours. The water is forced out of the sludge under the pressures applied, the filtrate being returned to the wastewater treatment works influent.

Air is then flushed through the system for 5−15 minutes to displace most of the residual water from the cake formed in the recesses. The filter cake may also be washed at this point to remove contaminants. The plates are then separated and the cake solids, 25−40 mm thick, allowed to fall out. The complete operating cycle of filling, filtering and emptying, and washing down the press can take up to five hours.

Filter press, tons per hour

A modification of the standard FP is the diaphragm/membrane press. In this technology, a flexible diaphragm is sandwiched between the filter cloth and the supporting plate. This provides additional dewatering by pressurising the diaphragm (up to ~20 bar) at the end of the pressing cycle to expand the diaphragm and provide further pressure on the cake trapped in the recesses.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of chamber filter press. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

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