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Dust and droplet filtration is an essential process step in many industries. Although many studies have
been dedicated to the mechanisms of dust filtration, little is known about the behaviour of an air filter when
challenged with solid and liquid particles at the same time. This research article answers questions about
the pressure drop during the filtration of a solid/liquid particle mixture, as well as on the influence of the
respective solid and liquid particle concentrations.

Filtration of solid and liquid aerosol

mixtures: pressure drop evolution
and influence of solid/liquid ratio
T Frising1, 2, V Gujisaite 1, D Thomas1*, S Callé1, D Bémer2, P Contal1 & D Leclerc1
Laboratoire de Filtration des Aérosols
1 Laboratoire des Sciences du Génie Chimique, 1 rue Grandville, BP 451, F-54001 Nancy Cédex, France.
2 Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité, av. de Bourgogne, BP 27, F-54501,

Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cédex, France.

*Corresponding author: dthomas@ensic.inpl-nancy.fr

G
as filtration is a necessary and compulsory operation for
many industries in order to satisfy environmental, hygiene
or simply purity standards. In certain industries, aerosols
are composed of a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets.
Examples include the mechanical industry, with mists of metal
working fluid mixed together with solid particles (soot, metals)
and agriculture, with its liquid pesticides and very diverse mineral
solid particles.
Although a large number of studies have been dedicated to the
mechanisms of solid particle filtration [1-3], some to liquid
aerosols [4, 5], virtually no literature sources are available
concerning the filtration of solid and liquid particles
simultaneously [6, 7].
Only two partial studies have been published. Sun and Chen
[6] studied the first stages of the filtration of different oleic acid /
NaCl mixtures, while Rosati et al [7] conducted an industrial
study in different plants in the mechanical industry.
It seems only reasonable to think that the interaction between
solid particles and liquid droplets bears a considerable influence
on a filter’s pressure drop and efficiency, and therefore its lifetime.
Thus the authors thought it important to investigate the
behaviour of a filter when challenged with solid and liquid
particle mixtures.
A series of experiments were conducted to determine the
pressure drop of a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter
during simultaneous filtration of solid and liquid particles.
Different mass percentages of solid aerosols were tested in order
to investigate the influence of the respective solid and liquid
concentrations on the pressure drop.
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP & PROCEDURE
The experimental setup (Figure 1) is composed of an air
compressor, an air-dryer, a PLG 2000-HC liquid aerosol generator
(Palas®, Karlsruhe, Germany), an RBG 1000 rotary brush solid
aerosol generator (Palas, Karlsruhe, Germany), a 110 mm

HEPA safety filter

Mass flowmeter

FRC
Test Safety Pi Pi
Regulation filter filter
valve

Solid aerosol
generator
Mass flowmeters P P
Air dryer

Liquid aerosol Sampling lines

generator

Figure 1: Schematic depicting the experimental setup.

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150
pressure drop (mbar)
5
4 Pressure drop evolution
100
3 first task was to establish the pressure drop behaviour
2 of the filter during the filtration of a mixture of solid
50
1 different from those encountered in solid or liquid
0 aerosol filtration. Five different stages can clearly be
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
filtration time (s)
Figure 2: Pressure drop evolution of a D309 HEPA filter,
filtering a mixture of 13.5 mass % of solid and 86.5 mass %
of liquid particles.
diameter test filter holder, three mass flowmeters and two
sampling lines upstream and downstream of the test filter
respectively. The ambient temperature and experimental pressure
are monitored continuously throughout the experiments. The
flow rate is maintained constant during the experiment by a flow
regulation control system. The pressure drop of the test safety
filters are continuously recorded using differential pressure
transducers.
The filter used in these experiments is a HEPA filter with an
average fibre diameter of 1.21 µm (geometric standard deviation
= 1.2), with a thickness of 409 µm and a packing density of
0.078. The liquid aerosol used is di(2-ethyl hexyl) sebacate
(DEHS) with an average particle diameter of 0.33 µm
(standard deviation = 0.23) at a concentration downstream of
the generator of approximately 3.1 g/m3. The solid aerosol is an
alumina powder with an average number diameter of 3.6 µm
(standard deviation = 1.31). These liquid (organic oil) and
solid (mineral) aerosols were chosen in order to present the least
possible interaction between them. It can be assumed that
compounds that interact will exhibit a very different
behaviour.
Experimental procedure
For each experiment, two air flows are mixed:
• The first one of 30 Nl/min containing approximately
3.1 g/m3 of liquid droplets
• The second of 50 Nl/min containing a previously
determined concentration of solid particles in order to
obtain the desired mass percentage (0%, 13.5%, 25%,
50%, 75% and 100%) of solid particles in the mixture.
This concentration is regulated by the speed of the
upward motion of the piston containing the solid
particles in the rotary brush generator.
Once mixed together, the flow is partly by-passed in order
to obtain a filtration flow of 30 Nl/min, which equals a
filtration velocity of approximately 5.8 cm/s on the test rig.
38 March 2004
The pressure drop is recorded throughout the
experiment.
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
As data are virtually absent from the literature, the
and liquid aerosols. These results are shown in
Figure 2.
The pressure drop evolution is considerably
identified on the plot in Figure 2.
1. During the first stage the pressure drop
increases slowly. This is characteristic of depth
filtration of either solid or liquid aerosols. The solid
and liquid particles are captured by the fibres situated
throughout the filter media (Figure 3a). Particles seem
to deposit preferentially on others already present on
the fibres to form aggregates. These aggregates are moreover
covered in liquid.
2. The pressure drop rises sharply during the second stage as is
normally the case in liquid aerosol filtration. During this
stage liquid bridges and films are developing at fibre
intersections thus hindering the gas throughput. No particle
deposit on the filter surface could be detected during these
first two stages.
3. The third stage is characterised by the formation of a filter
cake on the filtre surface. The pressure drop increases only
slowly during this stage due to the accumulation of particle
aggregates on the surface. This slow pressure drop increase
can probably be attributed to an internal redistribution of
the liquid captured in the filter as would be the case for a
liquid aerosol filtration.
4. A second sharp pressure drop increase is observed during this
stage, albeit much shorter than the first one. It has been
suggested this increase is due to the higher energy needed for
the liquid to percolate through the cake and the filter in order
to reach the far end of the filter where it drains off. Another
possible explanation for this second sharp pressure drop
increase could be the closing of the preferential passageways
during the third stage along with the filter cake formation
until the pressure drop gets too high for the situation to go
on. That is when the fourth stage takes place. New
(a) (b)
Figure 3: (a) SEM photograph of stage 1 (x1000)
& (b) SEM photograph of stage 5 (x1500).
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preferential passageways are (re)created. The sharp 200
pressure drop increase is an indicator for the
supplementary energy that is needed for this to
happen.
5. The fifth and last stage is the drainage stage. The 150

Pressure drop (mbar)

liquid only
draining liquid that is running off the back of the 13.5% solids
filter is caught in the containers situated at the 25% solids
50% solids
bottom of the filter holder. This explains the 100 75% solids
constant character of the pressure drop. No solid solids only
particles could be identified in the draining liquid.
Preferential passageways could also be detected on
50
the fibre surface (Figure 3b).

Influence of solid particle %

Experiments with different mass percentages of
solid particles in the aerosol mixture (0%, 13.5%, 25%,
50%, 75% and 100%) have been carried out. The
results of those experiments are plotted in Figure 4. Figure 4: Pressure drop evolution of a D309 HEPA filter as a
Whatever the percentage of solids in the mixture
(13.5 to 75%), the pressure drop evolution is always the
same. Five stages can be identified for all concentrations. The
pressure drop is higher than for solid or liquid particles alone
under the same operating conditions. The pressure drop increases
as well with the percentage of solids in the mixture, which
corroborates the findings of Rosati et al. [7]. This may be due to a
thicker layer of filtration cake that accumulates on the filter over
time. Moreover the first sharp pressure drop increase takes place
earlier for a higher solid particle percentage. At the end of each
filtration, the pressure drop is nearly constant as is the case for
liquid aerosol filtration whereas for the solid particles the pressure
drop continues to increase.
CONCLUSIONS & PRESPECTIVES
The pressure drop behaviour of a HEPA filter when challenged
with mixtures of solid and liquid aerosol could be established in
the first part of this study. This has, to the authors’ knowledge,
never been done for a complete filtration experiment. This
behaviour is significantly different from those encountered in solid
and liquid aerosol filtration. Five different stages could be
identified for all solid / liquid particle ratios tested. The pressure
drop is increasing the higher the solid particle percentage in the
mixture.
However this study is only at its very beginning. Numerous
questions remain unanswered, such as the influence of the flow
rate, the filter (material and fibre diameter), the interaction
between the solid and liquid particles, the influence of the different
sizes of the solid and liquid particles with respect to the fibre
diameter. The efficiency evolution of the filter also demands
serious attention.
REFERENCES
1. Pénicot P. 1998. Etude de la performance de filtres à fibres lors
de la filtration d’aérosols liquides ou solides submicroniques,
PhD Thesis, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine,
Nancy, France.
2. Callé S. 2000, Etude des performances des media filtrants
utilisés en dépoussiérage industriel, PhD Thesis, Institut
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 1 104
filtration time (s)
function of solids content in the aerosol mixture.
National Polytechnique de Lorraine, Nancy, France.
3. Thomas D. 2001. Etude de la filtration des aérosols par des
filtres à fibres, Habilitation à diriger des recherches,
Université Henri Poincaré Nancy, France.
4. Payet S. 1992. Filtration stationnaire et dynamique des
aérosols liquides sub-microniques, PhD Thesis, University
Paris XII, Paris, France.
5. Contal P, Simao J, Thomas D, Frising T, Callé S,
Appert-Collin J.-C & Bémer D. 2004. Clogging of fibre filters
by submicron droplets. Phenomena and influence of operating
conditions, J. Aerosol Science, Vol. 35, p. 263-278.
6. SunW & Chen D-R. 2002. Filter loading characteristics of
liquid-coated particles, American Filtration and Separations
(AFS) Society, IAQ Filtration Conference, 14-16 November,
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
7. Rosati J, Leith D & Raynor P. 1999. Determinants of filter
lifetime, Filtration+Separation, December, p.30-32.
Research Article Submission
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Filtration+Separation March 2004 39