In solid–liquid separation, the centrifugal drainage operation is an efficient and economic process for particulate
suspensions. It is often used before a thermal drying, and its interest relies on the elimination of
most of the liquid at low energetic cost. It is sometimes used to dehydrate products that are not in the
form of suspensions such as textile spools. Microwave drying appears to be the most adapted technology
to dry thick cakes in a centrifuge as basket rotation allows homogenizing electromagnetic fields leading
to homogeneous heating.
The objective of this study is the optimization of coupling processes between drainage and thermal
drying. To reach this objective, the development of a model with complete description of cake desaturation
during centrifuge cycles is necessary, to implement thermal energy in order to assist the mechanical
operation. To demonstrate the interest of the coupling process and the validity of the model, an instrumented
pilot was developed and experiments were performed with model suspensions and industrial
products.