Hydroclone separator is valuable equipment for mining industries.
It is used to separate, de-sliming, dewater, and divide different phases from the feed. The benefit of the hydrocyclone separator is to separate different size materials.
There are many applications of the hydrocyclone separators in different other industries like food processing, wastewater treatment plant, civil construction, and manufacturing. There are some applications in which the water from the solid is dewatered to obtain the helpful product.
In most of the hydrocyclone, two outlets are provided. The coarse material is taken out from the apex. The fine material is taken out from the vortex finder.
What is hydrocyclone separator
It is valuable equipment for many industries and plants, including the separation process.
It works with cyclonic material movement that separates the product of different phases. This separation can be possible due to gravity.
The hydrocyclone separator comprises the cylindrical shape feeder with the tangential flow, vortex shape of overflow, and conical shape. There is no moving mechanism or part in hydrocyclone cyclone.
The primary function of the vortex finder is to differentiate fine material and coarse material with spiral shape motion.
What is the function of hydrocyclone
This device is highly used in mining and mineral processing plants.
It is a separation device that works on the gravity principle to separate different phases or weight particles. It can be possible to separate identical size particles with different weights.
This separator can separate particles based on weight and specific gravity. It is also possible to separate particles having the same specific gravity with different size
Hydrocyclone separator design
The hydroclone separator can be designed based on some parameters
- The shape of the solid particle
- Difference between the specific weight of different phases
- The requirement of the feed speed
- The medium’s density
- The pressure at overflow and apex
- Type of phases to be separated, e.g., oil, water, sand, gold, mud, etc.
- Size of the applications
- Chemical properties of the feed product
The design of the separator depends on many parameters, even more than above. The design can be done based on the application of product and size.
The volume of the feed product should not exceed the escaping capacity of the outlet.
Hydrocyclone separator working principle
the working of the hydroclone separator is based on the motion provided by the equipment.
The centrifugal action inside the separator pushes the heavy phases particles outward direction. The apex of shape concentrates the collection of solid.
The shape of the device is such that decreasing continuously to increase the speed. The overflow outlet is used to take out the fluid with spiral movement in the vortex finder. The conical vortex is generated in the hydrocyclone separator.
How to size a hydrocyclone separator
The hydrocyclone separator can be designed on the size of applications.
The separator’s size depends on the stream flow rate, application type, plant size, etc.
The size of the separator can be calculated with the design. The design of the separator depends on some parameters discussed on the above topic (Click here).
The size of the apex is dependent on how much feed product we are supplying. It maintains the required force for centrifugation.
There are three main parameters for sizing the hydrocyclone: the sizing of apex, vortex finder, and the volume of the feed product.
Hydrocyclone sand separator
there are different separators classified based on the material to be separated.
The centrifugal action pushes sand particles outward that are collected in the sediment tank.
The sand separator works on the same principle of the centrifugation action. This action throws the heavier sand in an outward direction. This sand thrown in outward will collect at the bottom sediment tank. The movement of the sand particle is spiral from top to bottom. The lighter phase of liquid is taken out through the top of the separator with an upward motion.
It is helpful in irrigation water when a pile of sand is in water. The applications of the sand separators are deep well pumping, drip irrigation, pre-filtering for lab and industry, and micro-sprinklers.
Hydrocyclone oil separator
this separator is used to separate oil from the wastewater in oil industries.
The higher centrifugation action is required to separate oil due to its higher viscosity. The centrifugal force is the order of 1000 times more than gravity
The construction of this separator is the same as a conical chamber. There are two outlets in this conical separator. The spinning speed of the wastewater is very high to achieve high centrifuge action.
Hydrocyclone water separator
This separator is different from than oil separator in working.
The feed product enters with the tangential flow and achieves high vortex velocity. The bigger oil droplet is collected in the tapered part and tiny in the tail part.
The oil is separated in the small-diameter portion, and the bottom stream outlet separates the clean water. This type of separator is useful for irrigation and industries where water quality is not good.
Hydrocyclone gas separator
This type of separator separates two phases like gas-solid, gas-liquid, etc.
The gas with suspended particles is fed tangentially, and when it achieves the circular spiral motion. The particles with higher weight move outward to get separated.
The spiral motion of the gas is called spiral vortex motion. The decreasing diameter of the conical shape increases the velocity of the gas. The inner vortex flow of the gas moves upward, where it is collected as clean gas.
I am Deepak Kumar Jani, Pursuing PhD in Mechanical- Renewable energy. I have five years of teaching and two-year research experience. My subject area of interest are thermal engineering, automobile engineering, Mechanical measurement, Engineering Drawing, Fluid mechanics etc. I have filed a patent on “Hybridization of green energy for power production”. I have published 17 research papers and two books.
I am glad to be part of Lambdageeks and would like to present some of my expertise in a simplistic way with the readers.
Apart from academics and research, I like wandering in nature, capturing nature and creating awareness about nature among people.
Also refer my You-tube Channel regarding “Invitation from Nature”
Hi Fellow Reader,
We're a small team at Techiescience, working hard among the big players. If you like what you see, please share our content on social media. Your support makes a big difference. Thank you!