Combined fields dewatering of seaweed with a roller press
1995
Lightfoot, D. | Raghavan, G.S.V.
Kelp, or seaweed, is a vast unused resource with a great nutritional potential- This research article describes the design and performance of two prototype roller presses used for combined fields dewatering of kelp. First a small lab-scale press was built to determine the potential of making a continuous process out of combined fields dewatering with electro-osmosis and pressure. The conditional success of the first design lead to the manufacture of an improved and enlarged roller press. The lab-scale roller press removed 76% of the water and 60% of the ash from the kelp while retaining 56% of the total solids and 70% of the crude protein in the press cake. Reacting the ground kelp with calcium chloride and then draining was found to remove 55% of the water and 33% of the solids. Dewatering the drained kelp with the pilot-scale press was then found to remove 71% of the remaining water and 29% of the remaining solids. The technical feasibility of kelp dewatering followed by drying was successfully demonstrated with an energy saving of up to 66% when compared to kelp meal drying by conventional means alone.
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