Progress in Filtration and Separation

1. Introduction

The suspensions containing fines (<10 μm) or gelatinous-like particles usually exhibit slow solid–liquid separation rate during a mechanical process such as centrifugation, filtration or sedimentation. The electrical assistance allows improving the separation. It is based on the mobility of ions, charged or neutral particles in an electric field. When an electric field is applied to a material (suspension or semi-solid material) placed between two electrodes, it induces electrokinetic phenomena: electrophoresis, electroosmosis, ion electromigration, and/or dielectrophoresis. To take advantage of these phenomena, several processes were designed such as the electroosmotic dewatering, the electrowashing, the dielectrophoretic separation ...