Sedimentation links

Sedimentation is highly important for environmental engineers because the cost is very low to detain a fluid in a large basin while particles settle out. Performance is almost always poor, but at least there is less load of subsequent steps for biological waste treatment.

There are almost no examples of simple sedimentation in industrial biochemical engineering because size matters and because performance is so poor. Of course, using centrifuges to get large driving forces to get excellent collection efficiency is common for biochemical engineers. Accelerating large volumes of wastes in centrifuges makes no sense for environmental engineers because of high equipment costs and high energy costs, but they use centrifuges for some more concentrated process streams.

Students in our biochemical engineering course should examine just the following pages:

  • Sedimentation theory
  • A little more theory
  • Stokes

    Links to detailed treatment

  • Sedimentation and Flotation,
  • Inclined settling