A filter press is one of the oldest and most reliable types of dewatering equipment, widely used in wastewater treatment across various industries. Its primary function is to separate solids from liquids, removing impurities and suspended particles from industrial wastewater. This process allows for easier waste handling and enables clean water to be returned to the system.
You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.
Filter presses operate by using pressure filtration across a filter media. Slurry is pumped into the press and dewatered under pressure, separating the liquid (filtrate) from the solids (cake).
Frame: Supports the entire system.
Filter Plates: Provide the structure for holding the filter cloth and forming the dewatering chambers.
Manifold: Includes piping and valves for slurry distribution and filtrate removal.
Filter Cloth: Essential for optimizing performance and capturing solids.
The design and size of a filter press depend on the volume and type of slurry being treated. ChemREADY offers a wide range of press types and capacities tailored to specific application needs.
The filter press originated in the mid-19th century in the United Kingdom and was initially used to extract vegetable oil. Significant technological developments in the mid-20th century led to the automatic horizontal-type filter press. Today’s modern designs offer significantly lower energy and maintenance costs than belt presses or centrifuges, with operational costs as low as one-sixth of those alternatives.
Filter presses are especially valued because the dewatered solids (filter cake) are easier and cheaper to handle than untreated slurry. Clean water recovered from the process can be discharged to local municipalities or reused in a closed-loop system.
Compared to settling ponds, which require large space and ongoing maintenance, filter presses are a more efficient long-term solution. Settling ponds accumulate solids over time and lose effectiveness, requiring dredging or replacement.
During operation, slurry is pumped into the press and distributed evenly. Solids accumulate on the filter cloth, forming a “cake” within the plate chambers. Clean water exits through the filter plates via designated ports. Once the chambers are full, the filtration cycle ends, and the cake is released.
High-capacity presses often feature automatic plate shifters to speed up the process. Matec designs presses for fully automated, 24-hour operation, even in harsh environments like mines and chemical plants.
Filter presses can be tailored to individual needs with options such as:
High-pressure systems (21–30 bar) like those from Matec improve performance for even the most difficult slurries.
Industries that benefit from filter presses include:
View Our Filter Press Products
Filter presses work best with slurries containing 50–60% solids. For lower solids content (5–10%), a clarifier should be used first. Clarifiers help concentrate solids via gravity and polymer flocculation before they reach the press.
Types of clarifiers include:
Vertical Deep Cone: Uses natural sedimentation.
Horizontal Rake Style: Uses mechanical rakes to stir and settle solids.
When used together, clarifiers and filter presses can recover up to 95% of process water.
Xuda Filtration are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.
ChemREADY provides comprehensive support for water treatment systems. Our team evaluates water chemistry to determine optimal chemical treatments (flocculants, coagulants, pH balancers) that work in tandem with mechanical systems like clarifiers and filter presses.
Whether you’re a small business or a large industrial operation, ChemREADY can help you implement a complete and cost-effective dewatering solution.
When people purchase a bottle of edible oil, be it sunflower oil, coconut oil, groundnut oil or any other, they expect a level of purity and quality which will protect their and their family’s health. They trust the producers of their oil to keep the product free of any chemical or other impurities which might impact its safety, and naturally, they also want any visible physical impurities eliminated. This is where an oil mill with filter press technology comes in – by guaranteeing production of oil of the finest quality, it will help you ensure customer safety and satisfaction and set you apart from your competitors as an oils and fats producer who can be trusted.
What is filter press technology?
Filter presses are hardly specific to the oils and fats industry; they have applications in any industry which requires the separation of solids and liquids. Filter presses can be either lab-scale or industrial-scale. And they generally can’t be operated in a continuous process, so you have to rely on batch refining to use a filter press.
At the industrial scale, they are used in cement production, mining, power generation, chemical manufacturing and as in our case here, in food and beverage processing – particularly, in the oil extraction and refining ecosystem. Given these various applications, naturally, specific use cases, like an oil mill filter machine will have a design, capacity, material of construction, filter plate size and type, and additional features including automation which suit the particular purpose. Additionally, since filter presses are more suited to batch processing, there is often more than one oil press filter machine in use – one is cleaned while the other is being operated.
In the oils and fats industry, an oil press filter machine is at the very centre of the process of manufacturing clean, clear, clarified edible oil. They transform crude oils – visibly full of solid impurities which remain even after the initial extraction process – into clear edible oils which people would trust enough to use in their kitchens
How does a filter press work in an oil mill? Usually, it consists of filter plates (or diaphragm boards) and frames, chambers into which the slurry is injected, and filter paper, cloth or membranes through which filtration occurs. Solid components are separated from the liquid using pressure filtration – the oil, with its suspended impurities, is injected into the press, filling the chambers which make up the oil press filter machine. To make sure that the maximum amount of visible impurities are removed, the crude oil is pumped into the oil press filter machine in such a way that the solids are evenly distributed. As the chambers fill, the pressure in the system rises, aiding the process. Pressuring air or water may also be used to strain the crude oil through the filters. The solids build up on the filter, forming a cake, while the clarified oil – the filtrate – is collected and either packaged or taken to the next step of the refining process.
Every oil mill with filter press technology has a different design, depending on the type and viscosity of oil being produced, and volume and type of slurry that needs to be filtered. Good oil mill machinery manufacturers take into account the features of your specific process and customize oil mill expeller machines and oil press filter machines for you to maximize throughput in your plant. For instance, an oil mill with filter press is central to shea butter processing – a boiler, mechanical press and filter press are the main equipment involved. In the coconut oil extraction and refining process, however, filtration happens not only right after extraction using a plate and frame filter press, but also after bleaching, when bleaching agents used to eliminate pigments need to be removed as well (more on this below).
Types of filter presses
Filter presses come in a variety of design configurations, each using a slightly different mechanism to produce the clear oil your customers want. Investing in an oil mill with filter press technology involves several conversations with your oil mill machinery manufacturers to assure you that you are getting the oil mill expeller and allied equipment best suited to your facility in terms of type and scale.
Ideally, in sanitary industries like food and beverage, high grade stainless steel material should be used to construct an oil mill with filter press. This will not just ensure compliance with market standards, but it will also help you rest assured that rust, corrosion, or any other material issue doesn’t affect the integrity of your process. Once these basics regarding material of construction are covered, there are different types of filter presses to choose from.
There are plate type filter presses, plate and frame type, membrane filter presses, pressure leaf filters, and centrifugal filter presses. They each come employ different mechanisms, have different cake holding capacity, filtering area, and pump motor power. For example, Kumar’s plate type oil press filter machines have cake holding capacities ranging from 0.4 cubit feet to 19 cubic feet, while the plate and frame type filter presses go all the way up to 37 cubic feet. Kumar’s different filter presses also have filtering areas starting from 5 square feet to 215 square feet, covering all of your oil filtration needs.
Applications of filter press technology in an oil mill
There are at least three steps in the oil processing journey that rely on filter presses.
- After expelling
For starters, when you mechanically extract oil using an oil mill expeller machine, some solids get left behind in the expelled oil because the oilseeds are disintegrated to small sizes to easily extract the oil. These suspended particles are usually filtered out using plate type filters which have a high rate of filtration and leak proof joints which can withstand the operating pressure of such a technique.
- After bleaching
Some edible oils need to be bleached during the refining process because the crude oil has colour pigments and traces of soap which can impact the safety of the product and the perception of its quality. Crude oil is bleached by adding bleaching earth and activated carbon under specific vacuum and temperature conditions. After the impurities are removed, the spent bleaching earth and carbon needs to be eliminated, for which a pressure leaf filter can be used. It is only after such filtration does the oil move on to the deodorization step.
- As part of the fractionation process
In some refined oils, triglycerides of high and low melting points need to be separated. The process of fractionation involves crystallising such oils at low temperatures, followed by filtration, to separate the solid and liquid fractions. Membrane filter presses are usually used in dry fractionation – a process common in the refining of tropical oils like palm oil and palm kernel oil.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Press filter paper supplier.