Clarifiers
Essential for high-clarity liquid separation across mining, water, and industrial treatment processes.
Under construction
Overview
Clarifiers are sedimentation-based separation devices engineered to remove suspended solids from liquids, producing a clear overflow stream rather than a concentrated slurry. Unlike thickeners—which focus on solids densification—clarifiers prioritize liquid purity, typically achieving downstream suspended solids levels below 100 ppm.
This makes them indispensable in sectors like potable water, wastewater, mining, agriculture, and chemical processing. Designed to integrate early in treatment chains, clarifiers support downstream filters, flotation units, and membrane systems.
Technical Highlights
- Ideal overflow rates: 5–12 m³/m²/h (conventional) or up to 25 m³/m²/h for lamella units
- Typical detention times: 60–120 min for gravity units; shorter cycles with plate settlers
- Sludge underflow solids: dependent on feed solids concentration and coagulation dosing regime
- Lamella plate spacing: 50–80 mm; plate pitch: ~50–70° for self-cleaning effectiveness.
How Clarifiers Work
Feedwater enters via a designed inlet that evenly distributes flow and controls velocity to avoid turbulence. Suspended particles settle by gravity in the quiescent zone, aided by scrapers or rake arms that collect sludge at the tank bottom. Floating scum is removed from the surface via skimmers. The clarified effluent overflows uniformly via perimeter weirs.
Optional lamella (inclined plate) designs enhance sedimentation by increasing effective settling area, enabling compact footprints and improved performance in fine particle removal (< 90–99% turbidity reduction) under controlled loading rates of around 5–12 m/h .
Key Benefits
- High Clarity Effluent: Efficient removal of settleable solids and floating contaminants, yielding a clean overflow and sludge-free downstream operations.
- Low Mechanical Complexity: Mechanical rake or scraper systems with minimal moving parts reduce maintenance needs and enhance safety.
- Optimized Footprint: Lamella designs offer up to 65–80 % reduced footprint versus conventional clarifiers with comparable performance.
- Pretreatment-Ready: Compatible with coagulation and flocculation dosing upfront to improve settling kinetics and reduce detention time and chemical usage.
Internal Pretreatment Recommendation
Adding coagulants (e.g. ferric sulfate) and flocculants (e.g. polyacrylamide) ahead of the clarifier helps aggregate very fine particles (<0.1 µm) into settleable flocs, enhancing both clarity and sludge yield—and reducing downstream filtration or flotation costs.
Industries Where Clarifiers Are Used
Clarifiers are widely employed in:
- Potable water treatment as a post-flocculation sedimentation step before filtration or RO
- Municipal wastewater both primary and secondary clarifiers in activated sludge systems for solids separation
- Mining & chemical processing to treat tailings and process water containing fine mineral particulates
- Agriculture & pulp & paper to clarify wash water, process discharges, or recycled streams ahead of further separation units
Customization & Integration
Cube Consolidating clarifiers include options for:
- Circular, rectangular, or lamella configurations depending on flow rate, solids load, and available footprint
- Engineered inlet velocity control, optimized rake/tank geometry, and uniform weir distribution
- Detailed 3D design schematics compatible with client infrastructure
- Modular features such as integrated flocculation zones, sludge discharge rails, and optional chemical dosing points
- Compliance with international standards and customizable materials for corrosive or high wear environments
