Chemical Engineering April 2020 - 21

Readco
FIGURE 5. Readco's Continuous Processor focuses continuous mixing on a small amount of material over
a short period of time, allowing processing of the same amount of material in a similar timeframe as a
comparable batch mixer
tency and product quality, " he says.
" While the mixing elements themselves
haven't changed much, the
abilities of the control systems have
improved and now include more features
and more connectivity at lower
costs, allowing operators to have a
finger on the pulse of whatever is
going on inside that mixer " (Figure 4).
Today's technologies, says Langhorn,
allow processors to run mixers
from a smart phone or PC using
Wi-Fi. " With these capabilities, it ensures
that the equipment is mixing
for the same amount of time, under
the same conditions and can prompt
operators to add a certain quantity of
materials at a certain time to create
better consistency, batch to batch. "
Digitalization, adds NOV's Walsh,
is the next step on the road to mixing
operation optimization. " Processors
are using digitalization to improve the
uptime of their mixers, as well. This
includes using vibration and temperature
sensors, speed detectors and
liquid-level indicators on vessels to
monitor the health of the equipment.
This digital monitoring allows users
to get more insight into the health of
the mixer and ties back into energy
efficiency, also.
" If they know the process requirements
aren't as rigorous, digitalization
allows them to identify how much
to reduce the speed and when to do
so, optimizing the process, while
reducing energy use, " he explains.
NOV offers GoConnect, which encompasses
hardware, monitoring,
alarming, data analysis and the ability
to make reports.
Moving to continuous mixing
While continuous mixing is not suitable
for chemical processors who
use a wide variety of recipes, some
processors are moving from batch
to continuous mixing because it can,
in the right situations, provide a significant
process improvement, says
Rene Medina, managing director
with Gericke USA, Inc. (Somerset,
N.J.; www.gerickegroup.com).
David Sieglitz, president of Readco
Kurimoto LLC (York,
Pa.; www.
readco.com), agrees: " Many times
the upstream and downstream processes
are continuous with a batch
mixer in the middle of the process
line. In this scenario, the batch mixer
becomes the bottleneck of the process;
however, using continuous
mixing ensures a truly automated
process line without interruption or
downtime. " This is because continuous
mixing trades time for mixing
intensity, " he says. " What may take
hours to complete in a batch process
can often be accomplished in
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Chemical Engineering April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2020