Method and apparatus for removing entrained matter from centrifugal filter media

Claim 1

In the method of removing suspended fine solid and liquid particulate materials from a gaseous stream comprising drawing the particulate containing gaseous stream through an axial inlet duct at one end of a stationary housing, and passing the gaseous stream through a supported cylindrical porous filter media from the interior to the exterior axially rotated within the housing whereby the particulate materials are entrained in the filter media, and discharging the filtered gaseous stream through an outlet in the housing, the improvement which comprises spraying the interior surface of the filter media with a solubilizing solution of water and a surfactant formulation comprised of from about 2 percent to about 10 percent of a complex phosphate, from about 5 percent to about 15 percent of an amine condensate of a refined fraction of coconut fatty acids having from twelve to eighteen carbon atoms with an alkanolamine and from about 2 percent to about 10 percent of a hydrotropic agent, where all percentages are by weight and the balance of the formulation is water, said solubilizing solution being sprayed from a position out of the flow of the incoming gaseous stream and in a quantity sufficient to dissolve and solubilize the entrained material which solution and dissolved material then passes through the filter media under the combined effects of the centrifugal acceleration forces and the pressure differential across the filter media.