Contactors bearings

Law, J.D., Wood, D.J., Herbst, R.S. 1997. Development and testing of SREX flowsheets for treatment of Idaho Chemical Processing Plant sodium-bearing waste using centrifugal contactors. Sep. Sci. Technol. 32 C1 —4) 223-240. 

While some CINC units have a bearing at the bottom of the rotor, it is now being eliminated whenever possible. The bottom bearing is very expensive, hard to replace, and, if the contactor runs dry, cannot be lubricated and will thus, fail. In a production contactor, the bearing noise should be monitored so that bearing problems can be identified and corrected before the bearing fails. 

As shown by Leonard (1988), purge air can be used to protect motor (or rotor) bearings from corrosive fumes in the contactor stage. This approach can work well as... 

Fig. 8. Inducing type of agitated contactor. I, vessel 2, hollow shaft 3, hollow impeller 4, baffles 5, gland and stuffing box 6, orifice on the impeller 7, gas inlet 8, bearing housing 9, pulley 10, liquid drain. (After Joshi et at., 1985.)...

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