Dynamic vertical solids separator

A dynamic vertical solids separator comprising:

• a housing chamber;
• a generally vertically oriented clarifying conduit disposed within the housing chamber and having a slurry sample inlet and a slurry sample outlet that discharges the slurry in a generally upward direction within a sample pool in the housing chamber;
• a return conduit formed external to the clarifying conduit for draining a sludge material from the sample pool;
• a sludge discharge port arranged to drain sludge from the housing chamber that passed through the return conduit, the discharge port being located below the slurry sample outlet;
• a supernate discharge port for draining supernate fluid from the housing chamber, the supernate discharge port being disposed above the clarifying conduit's slurry sample outlet;
• a skimming port positioned above the supernate discharge port for skimming materials having a low specific gravity from the supernate;
• a silt drain positioned below the slurry sample inlet for discharging especially heavy particles from the slurry sample, the silt drain being sized substantially smaller than the slurry sample outlet such that the vast majority of the slurry sample passes through the slurry sample outlet rather than the silt drain.
• a venturi arranged to create a low pressure region at the slurry sample outlet;
• a multiplicity of floc plates disposed within the clarifying conduit between the slurry sample inlet and the venturi, the floc plates operable for mixing the slurry sample to promote precipitation of finely divided particles suspended in the slurry sample;
• and
• whereby in use, when a slurry sample is input into the clarifying conduit, a sample pool is formed over the clarifying conduit's slurry sample outlet and the slurry sample is clarified at the sample pool into a supernate and a sludge with the supernate passing substantially through the supernate discharge port and the sludge passing substantially through the sludge discharge port.