Putsch Membrane Filter Presses installations and results

Waste water regulations require minimizing impacts to surface and ground water including lime pond systems. Western Sugar Cooperative's Fort Morgan factory installed three Putsch PKF-140 pressure leaf filters to replace the existing rotary vacuum drum filters. This change allowed the lime cake to be handled on a dry basis where the drum filters required the cake to be slurried and pumped to a pond. This was a rare environmental project that had return as the lime sewer loss was reduced from 0.15-0.20% OB to 0.03% OB. Besides eliminating the need for precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) pond, sugar losses to the PCC, condenser water and flume water were reduced increasing extraction by 3%, amounting to additional 28,576 kg sugar/day valued at $2.6million-$4 million annually. The installation design and start up issues with the project are described and the first three months of operational performance is discussed.