Contents of this
chapter:
·
SUITED FOR
MULTI-PRODUCT AND MULTI-PROCESS OPERATIONS / APPLICATION AREAS
·
EXAMPLE FROM
THE PRACTICE
·
LARGE SIZE
ROBOTIC SYSTEM
Suited for multi-product and
multi-process operations.
This innovative robotic system opens up new opportunities for the
production of a large number of entirely disparate products with a single plant
especially suited for supplying clusters of small communities with the whole
gamut of their special local liquid processing requirements.
A multiplicity of
products are produced on an ever increasing scale in todays liquid processing, industries. However these production facilities are beset by a large number of varying types of manually
operated filtration, purification and ancillary equipment that are a main cause of
the present serious pollution of the global fresh water resources.
The robotic system depicted
below eliminates manual intervention in the production process as well as
solving the problem of contaminated effluent of both
liquid and gaseous origin.
For smaller throughputs the ROBOT itself handles the supplementary
requirements for effluent and gas recycling.
For medium size capacities separate EFFLUENT
and GAS RECYCLING facilities are
recommended.
The above depicted liquid processing plant illustrates the essential features
of a plant capable of functioning in a ROBOTIC
manner:
1.
Monoplanar contacting Filter Chamber
2.
Movable extended surface filter
element(s)
3.
Movable packed bed element(s)
4.
Movable monofilament and membranous sheets
5.
Regenerative deep
bed media facility
6.
Single disposable sheet feeding facility
7.
Media regeneration facilities
..
Application areas of a liquid
purification robot:
·
WATER
·
BEVERAGES
·
PHARMACEUTICALS
·
CHEMICALS
·
FOODS
·
EFFLUENT
·
METAL WORKING
·
METALLURGY
EXAMPLE FROM THE PRACTICE
Below is the schema of a typical multi-product
chemical plant. Based on the raw
materials phenol and chlorine a group of chlorinated organic herbicides are
produced in manual operation.
All the various derivatives
are highly toxic to humans. The operators in the internal environment of
the plant who empty, clean and renew the media of the various filters
inevitably come into both external and internal physical contact with the
toxins. Added to this the external environment is subjected to serious
pollution from the untreated liquid effluents and solids disposal.
It is imperative that technology is devised to
1.
completely
seal this type of equipment both from the INTERNAL and EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
and
2.
fully
automate the functioning of the entire plant.
Improved apparatus and systems must be devised to
comply with more stringent environmental regulations if global fresh water
resources are to be saved.
Below the schema of an
envisaged innovative chemical process illustrating how this can be achieved:
The above schema illustrates
how a single sealed MILLER ROBOT-LIKE FILTER carries out ALL the solids
recovery and liquid purification operations. All effluent is purified and
recycled.
In operation all apparatus
are sealed and can only be opened after all necessary precautions are taken to
protect the operating staff and the environment.
LARGE SIZE ROBOTIC SYSTEM
In the above depicted small scale robot-like MILLER
PLANT the functioning of the EFFLUENT RECYCLING SYSTEMS are not included. In
small-scale operations the process filter itself cleans and recycles the
effluent produced.
Below is the schema of a ROBOT-like operating plant
suitable for larger size capacities provided with extra facilities for
1.
TREATING
AND CLARIFICATION OF LIQUID EFFLUENT (CLARIFICATION)
2.
FILTRATION
OF RESIDUE SOLIDS and
PURIFICATION AND RECYCLING OF SUPERNATANT LIQUIDS (LIQUID RECYCLING)
3.
GAS PURIFICATION AND RECYCLING (GAS
RECYCLING).
In
state-of-the-art liquid processing plants little if any provision is made for
protection of the internal and external environment concerning the escape of
vapours, odours, volatiles, etc. from the processing equipment. In fact, it is
well known that many such escapes occur under the cover of darkness or the
plants are located on or near the sea with the prevailing wind heading out to
sea.
In addition to
the goal of total recycling of liquid effluent, gaseous effluents should be
treated in the same way. Shuttle filters (D), depicted above, fitted with
multi-layered adsorbent beds containing, for example, granular activated
carbon, Bentonite, molecular sieves, silica gel remove the unwanted components
of the gaseous phase of the process after which the beds are regenerated by
various means including heat
input indicated above. The output from the
regeneration is condensed or incinerated to either recover or destroy the
removed substances. The cleaned gases
are compressed and recycled to the process.
p.a.miller2@btopenworld.com
…