This work studies the mechanism and optimization methods of the filter press dehydration process to better improve the efficiency of the concentrate filter press dehydration operation. Machine learning (ML) models of radial basis function (RBF)–OLS, RBF-generalized regression neural network, and support vector regression (SVR) are constructed, and laboratory and industrial simulations are performed separately, finally, optimization methods for the filtration dewatering process are designed and applied. In laboratory, all the machine learning models have obvious mistakes, but it can be seen that SVR has the best simulation effect. In order to achieve the optimization of the entire filtration and dewatering process, we obtained enough data from the industrial filtration and dewatering system, and in the industrial simulation results all the machine learning models performed considerably, SVR achieves the best accuracy in industrial simulation, and the simulated mean relative error of moisture and processing capacity are 1.57% and 3.81%, the model was tested with newly collected industrial data to verify the credibility. The optimal simulation results are obtained by optimization method based on control variables. Results show that the ML method of SVR and optimization methods of control variables applied to the industry not only can save energy consumption and cost but also can improves the efficiency of filter press operation fundamentally, which will provide some options for intelligent dewatering process and other industrial production optimization.