Thickener Vane Feedwell™

Feedwells have a significant influence on thickener performance. Our unique Vane Feedwell design demonstrates high performance for the thickening and clarifying industry.

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Upgrades that improve performance to help you reach your sustainability targets

Reduced water and flocculant consumption

Flocculant sparger promotes efficient flocculant distribution & aggregate growth in the lower zone

Increased uptime

Designed to perform with many years of internal research, rigorous site test work and analysis

Maximized recovery

Enhanced mixing and energy dissipation remain efficient at lower than design feed rates

Unique design with 7 global patents

Various design options to accurately produce the best option for your application according to CFD analysis

Benefits

Reduced plant operating costs
Reduced flocculant consumption
Increased underflow density
Higher solids throughput
Improved water recovery and clarity
Increased reagent/mineral recovery
Stable operation, less downtime

The Vane Feedwell is the result of many years of internal research and rigorous site test work, followed by CSIRO CFD analysis. It is a cutting-edge design and the first major innovation in the thickening industry since self-diluting systems such as Metso’s AutodilTM were introduced.

Applications

The Vane Feedwell is a high-performance feedwell for the thickening and clarifying industry. The Vane Feedwell has also been successfully retrofitted, quickly showing significant benefits in thickener performance. It is now the global standard for all Metso thickeners.

How does the Vane Feedwell work?

Metso’s thickener Vane Feedwell incorporates a total of seven global patents into its unique design. One of the main design features is the interconnected upper and lower zones.

The upper zone, into which feed, dilution water, and flocculant are added, provides enhanced mixing and energy dissipation. This maximizes flocculant adsorption, eliminates the possibility of coarse/fines segregation and ensures all particles are aggregated together by the flocculant. Efficient operation is maintained in this upper zone over varying feed rates.

The lower zone promotes gentle mixing for continued aggregate growth, with the option for secondary flocculant dosing. This zone also enables aggregates to uniformly discharge under low shear conditions.

The cutting-edge in-house CFD modeling

The previously rudimentary understanding of feedwell and thickener flow patterns is taken to the next level with advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The Vane FeedwellTM and today’s thickener designs can truly be optimized for individual duties, resulting in enhanced overall performance.

Metso’s highly experienced CFD team can quickly, accurately and cost-effectively produce various design options, with reassurance for full-scale replication. This unique combination of CFD capability, backed by decades of real-life experience, generates cutting-edge customized designs.

A profit maximizer

The Vane FeedwellTM design ensures a highly efficient thickener operation. As a result, cost savings can be significant.

Unique features

Unique benefits
Vanes
Creates upper and lower zones
Two global patents
Mixes and de-aerates incoming slurry
Dissipates energy prevents short-circuiting
Maximizes flocculant adsorption
Promotes full 360-degree distribution of feed solids

Radially sloped shelf
Creates upper and lower zones
Global patent
Increases solids residence time
Minimizes coarse/fines segregation
Dissipates energy
Facilitates uniform solids distribution
Prevents short-circuiting
Eliminates the possibility of solids build-up due to radial slope

Upper and lower zones
Ensures feedwell performs
distinct functions effectively
Enhances mixing, energy dissipation, and aggregate growth
Uniform discharge under low shear conditions
Remains efficient at lower than design feed rates

Directional Autodil™ ports
Introduces dilution water in
complementary direction to
feed flow
Global patent
Promotes feed/dilution liquor mixing
Achieves slurry density for optimal flocculation
Reduces short-circuiting

Tangential feed & transition box
Elevates feed entry into
upper zone
Global patent
Optimizes feedwell design geometry
Ensures all feed dilution occurs in the upper zone
Focuses feed entry momentum into the upper zone

Constant feed velocity system
Maintains design feed entry
velocity
Global patent
Preserves optimal feedwell performance for given feed flow conditions
Reduces short-circuiting by maintaining design feed flow velocity

Flocculant spargers
Enables dual-zone flocculant
addition
Promotes efficient flocculant distribution
Encourages continued aggregate growth in the lower zone
Reduces flocculant consumption

Double deflector cone
Creates second exit annulus
Global patent
Optimizes feedwell design geometry
Distributes flocculated solids evenly on exit
Reduces short-circuiting
Eliminates upflow dilution

TurbodilTM
Forced dilution system, upstream of feedwell
Global patent
If required, enables very low feed densities for optimal flocculation
Variable dilution to suit process conditions