Chemical Engineering June 2010 - 42

Centrifuge & Drying
Technologies
Inverting Filter Centrifuge
Feature Report
Cutting edge centrifuge technology for
fi ltration, washing and drying of solid/liquid
suspensions
 Widest range of applications - hardest to
easiest fi ltering products can be handled
 No residual heel for exact repeatable
batches and no loss of product
 Full containment eliminates operator
exposure
 Effective automated CIP
Kilo-Lab Conical
Vacuum Dryer-Mixer
Advanced technology
for real Kilo size
drying research
and development
 Utilizes interchangeable agitator systems
either orbiting arm screw or central shaft
 Flexible small scale volume of 150ml to
1500ml
 Plastic view through vessel available
 Designed for real laboratory requirements
of size, with full instrument & data
recording
 Direct scale up to production or pilot size
units
Horizontal & Vertical
Centrifuges
 PAC® technology allows drying of the
product inside of the centrifuge
 Thin cake fi ltration operation allows for
improved quality and production rates
pipeline that do not contain a relief
device from being blocked and isolated
during a fire. If the piping system for
flammable fluid service is designed
properly, the contents will be able to
drain or expand into a vessel where
over-pressurization can be relieved
and safely vented.
Point 7. It will be necessary to evacuate
as much of the hazardous fluid as
possible from tanks and vessels in the
fire area to a safe location. The pumpout
should continue until there is inadequate
pump suction head, or until
the fusible link on XV-2 is activated.
At that time the pump interlocks
would shut down the pump.
With regard to tank farms, the following
is a suggested minimum consideration
for a safe design: Drain
valves should be of a fire-rated type.
Tank outlet valves should be of a firesafe
type with a fusible link. Tank
nozzles used for gages or instrument
connections should have, at a minimum,
valves containing stem packing
and seal gasket material specified
as an acceptable form of graphite, as
mentioned above, or some other firesafe
material. Gaskets used at nozzle
flange joints should be a fire-safe gasket
similar to the spiral wound gaskets
mentioned earlier or the gasket
shown in Figure 3.
Inline valves in piping downstream
of the tank outlet valve, such as pump
transfer lines and recirculation lines,
do not necessarily need to be firerated,
but should have stem packing
and seal gasket material that is firesafe
as mentioned earlier.
 Size ranges from 200mm to 1800mm
 Wide range of standard & custom designs
 Laboratory size equipment
Lab Testing Available
Rental & Lease Machines Available
www.heinkelusa.com
Tel: 856-467-3399
Circle 11 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.che.com/29251-11
42 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com June 2010
Situations will arise that do not fall
neatly into what has been described
above. If there is any doubt with regard
to valving then default to a fire-rated
valve. Each piping system identified
as needing to be fire-safe should be
designated as such. Where individual
fire-safe valves are to be strategically
located in a system, they should be
designated on their respective P&IDs
either by notation or through the assigned
pipe material specification.
The pipe-material specification should
be indicated on each pipeline of the
P&ID. The specification itself should
therefore be descriptive enough for
the designer to know which valve to
apply at each location.
Lessons learned from incidents
While this particular discussion is specific
to piping leaks and joint integrity
it bares touching on a few subjects that
are integrally associated with piping
safety: pipe rack protection, protecting
piping from vehicle traffic, and designing
for disaster (HAZOP).
In Incident Number 1 (box, p. 37),
the onset of a fire that might otherwise
have been quickly controlled becomes
a catastrophic event because piping
mounted on the unprotected structural
steel of a pipe rack, outside the extent
of the initial occurrence, becomes collateral
damage adding more fuel to the
fire causing it to sustain itself, increase
in intensity and continue to spread.
In Incident Number 2 (box, p. 39), an
unprotected and protruding pipeline
component (Y-strainer) is damaged,
causing a major leak that operating
personnel were unable to stop. The ensuing
fire lasted for five days.
In Incident Number 3 (box, p. 41),
two dimensionally identical spool
pieces were designed for a system in
which the two were fabricated from
different materials because their service
conditions were very different. It
can only be assumed that this was an
erroneous attempt at trying to achieve
duplication of pipe spools in an effort
to assist the fabricator in their productivity
of pipe fabrication. Instead it
ultimately caused injury to one person
and cost the plant owner $30MM. ■
Edited by Gerald Ondrey
Author
W. M. (Bill) Huitt has been
involved in industrial piping
design, engineering and
construction since 1965.
Positions have included design
engineer, piping design
instructor, project engineer,
project supervisor,
piping
department supervisor,
engineering manager and
president of W. M. Huitt Co.
(P.O. Box 31154, St. Louis,
MO 63131-0154; Phone: 314-966-8919; Email:
wmhuitt@aol.com; URL: www.wmhuitt.com),
a piping consulting firm founded in 1987. His
experience covers both the engineering and
construction fields and crosses industrial lines
to include petroleum refining, chemical, petrochemical,
pharmaceutical, pulp and paper,
nuclear power, biofuel, and coal gasification.
He has written numerous specifications, guidelines,
papers, and magazine articles on the
topic of pipe design and engineering. Huitt is
a member of ISPE (International Society of
Pharmaceutical Engineers), CSI (Construction
Specifications Institute) and ASME (American
Society of Mechanical Engineers). He is a member
of three ASME-BPE subcommittees, several
task groups, an API task group, and sits on two
corporate specification review boards.
http://www.wmhuitt.com http://www.heinkelusa.com http://adlinks.che.com/29251-11 http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering June 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2010
