Centrifuge Operation

What you will learn

10 modules. Examples come from the White River Resource Recovery Facility (WRRRF), a fictional training plant.

1. The machine: parts and designs (30 min)The parts of a decanter centrifuge and what each does, and counter-current compared with co-current designs.
2. G-force and differential speed (15 min)The essentials of G-force and differential speed, with a check of a rated machine.
3. Normal operation: pre-start and startup (25 min)The pre-start checklist, the startup order (lube oil, main drive, backdrive, flush, polymer, feed ramp), and polymer system startup and set-point math.
4. Stable operation, rounds and shutdown (20 min)Loading and run time, daily rounds and the hourly log sheet, shutdown and flush, and the emergency shutdown order.
5. Reading the machine (20 min)What each indicator tells you: torque, differential, bowl speed, vibration, feed, polymer, centrate and cake.
6. What happens when you change one thing (20 min)Pond depth, bowl speed, differential speed and torque control, feed rate and polymer dose, and how dose drifts when feed density changes.
7. Polymer essentials and dose math (25 min)What polymer does, verifying dose from meters, and jar testing after a feed change.
8. Mass balance math (25 min)The dewatering mass balance, capture on a normal day and on an upset day, dry solids throughput, cake production and hauling, and centrate return loads.
9. Centrifuge math workshop (20 min)Worked examples with your own numbers: solids capture, cake solids and cake tons, polymer dose in pounds per dry ton, and dry solids throughput, checked against a quiz of practice problems.
10. Adjustment playbook, troubleshooting and alarms (25 min)The adjustment playbook, guides for wet cake and dirty centrate and for high torque, vibration and polymer problems, alarm response, a hydraulic overload check, and whether more polymer is worth the cost.

See how it works