Pilot-scale Separations

Tubular bowl Batch or semicontinuous 20,000 0.1-100 0.01-5 1. High centrifugal force 2. Good dewatering 3. Easy cleaning 4. Simple operation 1. Limited solid capacity 2. Foaming 3. Solid recovery is cumbersome Pilot-scale separation of animal, plant, and microbial cells... 

This brief overview describes some experiences using tangential-flow and dead-end ultrafiltration techniques for concentration of eukaryotic cells, proteins and virus. The data and conclusions presented here have been drawn from process development work employing available apparatus and should be considered preliminary, rather than definitive or exhaustive. Previous ultrafiltration systems have been described (1-14) for both bench and pilot scale separations of proteins and virus. This paper primarily summarizes work on cartridge and sheet filter systems and their application to processes requiring sterilizable and contained systems. 

Purification or refining of rare earths. The separation of rare earths from thorium can be performed in different ways depending on the production scale. Small laboratory-scale methods used first the fractional crystalhzation of nitrates, followed by the fractional thermal decomposition of nitrates. Pilot-scale separation can be achieved by ion exchange. Large commercial-scale separation is based only on the solvent-extraction process of an aqueous nitrate solution with n-tributyl phosphate (TBP) dissolved in kerosene. 

Dry dense medium (pneumatic fluidized-bed) separation has been used, but has not received wide attention by the industry. An area of promise for future development is the use of magnetically stabilized dense medium beds by using ferro or magnetic fluids (2,10). Laboratory and pilot-scale units such as Magstream are available. In this unit, material is fed into a rotating column of water-based magnetic fluid. Particles experience centtifugal forces and... 

Biological conversion to protein Protein, alcohol Shredding, air separation Technology on pilot scale only... 

The input of the process is a separately collected PVC fraction. The quality has to be about similar as for PVC bound for mechanical recycling. The pilot scale tests... 

Project Report (2008) Model design and deploy at pilot scale of the separation, collection and treatment of municipal solid waste for new urban zone. Vietnam Environmental Protection Agency (VEPA), Vietnam... 

A continuous cross-flow filtration process has been utilized to investigate the effectiveness in the separation of nano sized (3-5 nm) iron-based catalyst particles from simulated Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalyst/wax slurry in a pilot-scale slurry bubble column reactor (SBCR). A prototype stainless steel cross-flow filtration module (nominal pore opening of 0.1 pm) was used. A series of cross-flow filtration experiments were initiated to study the effect of mono-olefins and aliphatic alcohol on the filtration flux and membrane performance. 1-hexadecene and 1-dodecanol were doped into activated iron catalyst slurry (with Polywax 500 and 655 as simulated FT wax) to evaluate the effect of their presence on filtration performance. The 1-hexadecene concentrations were varied from 5 to 25 wt% and 1-dodecanol concentrations were varied from 6 to 17 wt% to simulate a range of FT reactor slurries reported in literature. The addition of 1-dodecanol was found to decrease the permeation rate, while the addition of 1-hexadecene was found to have an insignificant or no effect on the permeation rate. 

The pilot-scale SBCR unit with cross-flow filtration module is schematically represented in Figure 15.5. The SBCR has a 5.08 cm diameter and 2 m height with an effective reactor volume of 3.7 L. The synthesis gas passes continuously through the reactor and is distributed by a sparger near the bottom of the reactor vessel. The product gas and slurry exit at the top of the reactor and pass through an overhead gas/liquid separator, where the slurry is disengaged from the gas phase. Vapor products and unreacted syngas exit the gas/liquid separator and enter a warm trap (373 K) followed by a cold trap (273 K). A dry flow meter downstream of the cold trap measures the exit gas flow rate. 

SHINGARI, M. K., Conder, J. R. and Fruitwala, N. A. J. Chromatog. 285 (1984) 409. Construction and operation of a pilot scale production gas chromatograph for separating heat-sensitive materials. 

The acoustic barrier particulate separator has been tested at the pilot-scale level. Pilot-scale tests were impaired because of a design problem in the acoustic separator. Funding cnts have prevented constmction and testing of a corrected design. This technology is not cnrrently commercially available. 

The Met-Tech separation process is a liquid ion exchange process for the ex situ recovery, separation, and concentration of a wide range of heavy metals. The technology is commercially available and, according to the vendor, has been tested at the pilot scale. According to the vendor, future applications will be in soil remediation, acid mine drainage, and the recycling of spent nuclear waste. 

Based on bench- and pilot-scale studies, capital cost for a standard ACE separator with a nominal throughput of 190 liters/min (50 gpm) is estimated to 80,000, and for a 950 liter/min (250 gpm) unit, 300,000. The degree of automation, control systems, specialized materials, and the need for electrical transformation can effect the total capital cost (D121573, p. 788). 

Based on pilot-scale studies at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Superfund site near Denver, Colorado, the vendor calculated cost estimates for a full-scale B.E.S.T. unit using two separate treatment scenarios. Scenario 1 involved treating 2,840,000 yd of contaminated soil over 7 years, and scenario 2 involved treating 616,900 yd of contaminated soil over 2 years. The vendor estimated the cost of full-scale treatment would be 119 per ton for scenario 1 and 133 for scenario 2 (D15906S, p. 101). 

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