JULY , 2020 VOL.

17

DIFFUSE
Diva Envitec's Monthly Newsletter

Filtration starts with straining a cup of Tea for us

Creating a Culture
IN THIS ISSUE
of Innovation
By Lalit Vashista
CREATING A CULTURE OF
INNOVATION
Innovation is an on-going process and it is not only about new
product development or new process technology, but also the
involvement of all the stakeholders.
The chemical process engineering industry with its plant design
and energy efficient plant operations promises scale up in new
developments and commercial production.
MICRO-SPARGER IN
With the growth of the IT, IOT , AI in all fields, the innovation PROCESS INDUSTRY
in chemical industry goes un-noticed, but its technology is still
being used today to reduce costs , energy bills as well as improve
the environmental crisis.

Under the telecom industry , the quest for newer materials for
screens, bodies , advanced energy saving batteries and and semi-
conductor materials has used chemical engineering innovations
and the industry has saved millions because of its correct
utilisation .

In the news letter DIFFUSE, we will discuss

about Micro-Saprging and its benefits to the chemical
process industry.
MAY, 2020 VOL. 17

Process
Vacuum fused spargers create fine
bubbles and millions of tiny bubbles are
generated. The basic premise is that, if
we can increase the surface area in a
two phase reaction between a gases and
liquid we would have very fast, efficient
mass transfer. The drilled tubes, which
are used in the present reactors generate
bubbles of sizes ranging from 10-20 mm.
These bubbles move upwards very fast
and effective mixing and reaction

PHOTO BY MARTIN R. SMITH cannot take place.

MICRO-SPARGERS

Green Engineering applied to Gas-Liquid inter-phase reactions

in Chemical industry can hep reduce chemical consumption,
gas consumption and reduce pollution and increase process
efficiencies.
Reactions ike Hydrogenation, Oxidation, Carbonation,
Chlorination or gas displacement require gases to be mixed
thoroughly in a two phase reaction. Typically this is done
making dip pipes with holes called diffusers. While these
diffusers have served their purpose well, there is always
scope to improve the efficiencies. Green Engineering methods
to reduce gas consumption made us do extensive research on
bubble generation, size, etc. to optimize these reactions.

CASE STUDY
Problem: Solution
A chemical manufacturing Fine chemicals does chlorination. The gas flow was claculated and micro-sparging system made of
They used PTFE drilled pipes with 2 mm holes to do PVDF with 20 Micron bubble generation was installed.
chlorination. The reaction time was 36 hours and 5 times the Reaction time reduced to - less 8 Hours
volume of Chlorine was required , which led to high raw Chlorine consumption came close to 1.1 times the theoretical
material costs and also environmental issue of scrubbing of value. Customer was able to increase production by 3 times
Chlorine, another cost to company. capacity with the same infrastructure and saved huge amount on
new investment .
MAY, 2020 VOL. 17

The mode of using these spargers can be

both static and dynamic.
Vacuum fused Porous Spargers far
exceed the performance of drilled pipe
and other type of diffusers. These have
millions of pores over the surface.
Defined morphology specific to the
manufacturing process allows large
volumes of gas be passed creating very
high specific area at the interface.

PHOTO BY MARTIN R. SMITH

This leads to high consumption gases, usually 4-5- times

more than that required by stoichiometric calculation. The
sparging times are also high blocking the reactor space and
reducing productivity. The result is loss of gases, loss of
power and in case it’s a toxic or hazardous gas, the difficult
task of managing it after venting by using scrubbers and
other pollution control devices. So a poor sparging ends up in
hidden costs in terms of gas losses and high energy loss in a
chemical processing plant. Effectively if a fine bubble is
propagated which in turn can create a very high “mass
transfer” surface area its an ideal situation.
Porous sparger creates fine bubbles using the vacuum fused
technology and these have been tested in a broad range of
applications.

CASE STUDY
Problem:
Antibiotic manufacturing facility had dip pipes in their 20 KL
fermenters, The effective aeration was a challenge. They tried
some diffusers but not very satisfactory results were noticed.
Solution
Company approached us and we designed tubular sintered Steam
sterilisable micro-sparger which improved the fermenter
efficiency and they got higher cell culture yields.
MAY, 2020 VOL. 17

FIG. 2

With equal volume of gas, 1 mm bubbles would have 600 times

more gas-liquid contact surface area than 6 mm bubbles, and
the magnitude is much higher with micro-bubbles. The
magnitude
P H O T O B difference
Y M A R T I N Ris. Smuch
M I T H higher as the drilled hole size

in the diffuser is sometimes much bigger than 6 mm. So

Values to be determined are gas flow
depending on the fluid types and process requirement bubble
required, pressure drop permissible,
sizes from sub-micron upto 1 micron can be generated. liquid pressure at the sparger face,
gas exit velocities which will vary on
Design the type of agitator and RPM. The
base arrangement for fixing has to be
The critical part of the design is achieving the right pore
fixed or else it brings about an erratic
structure, porosity and pore alignment to get the right flow flow of gas. CFD can be run for
pattern inside the reactor. complicated internal designs for
effective sparring and mixing.

The design of a sparger takes into consideration various The Gas characteristics also vary with
factors and an effective Specific Permeability elevated temperatures, and the design
coefficients values of the media noted according to DIN ISO can go off many magnitudes of
difference, if these considerations are
4022.
not well thought of at the design
table.

Lower exit velocities will produce

smaller bubbles. Exit velocities may be
less than the design values given. In
some instances, actual application
must be tested/proven.

CASE STUDY
Problem
The bubble generation in the Froth flotation cell in
an ore benficiation plant was not able to do the
control separation of fines in the froth - the
bubbles were too large
Solution
Pilot studies were conducted and then based on the
data suitable area micro-sparger web was laid at the
bottom of the flotation cell. There was an additional
recovery of 3.5% ore and purity also improved, the
system paid back in 2 Months
 MAY, 2020 VOL. 17

Focus in Green engineering is on

reducing chemical consumption,
reducing energy, reducing pollution.
Good spargers do all of this and more
and find applications in reaction
engineering and apart from this other
areas where ever gas liquid mixtures
are there like:
Aeration to reduce BOD
Air injection for mixing liquids in a
vessel,
Carbonation – CO2 sparging for
carbonated liquids beverages and
beer,
Chlorine bleaching – Chlorine
The spargers are designed based on application for sparging for bleaching pulp and
PHOTO BY MARTIN R. SMITH washing with carbonated water in
manufacture of paper,
Pore sizes of 0.5 – 200 μm available Column flotation – Air sparging for
Customized flow rates and design coal flotation, and other
separations of solids,
Life cycle
Dewatering – Nitrogen sparging to
High flow rates remove entrained water from motor
Ring sparger for uniform up flow (min dia. 200mm up to oil
any size) Fermentation – Oxygen or air
sparging to enhance cell growth in
Broad range of alloys based on corrosion compatibility
fermentation reactions,
Customized fittings to suit the reactor internals Gas/liquid reactions – Sparging air,
oxygen, or other gases into reactors
for improved performance,
Materials of Construction
Hydrogenation – Hydrogen sparging
Standard porous media for spargers is 316L stainless steel, for a broad spectrum of chemical
which provides good corrosion resistance and high hydrogenation reactions,
Oxygen stripping – Nitrogen
temperature capability, up to 400°C. Standard sparger are
sparging to remove oxygen from
made in 316 stainless steel. Other materials are 304L SS, 347 edible oils, wine, and juices,
SS, 430 SS, Inconel® 600, Monel® 400, Nickel 200; Hastelloy® Nitrogen Blanketing in Storage
C276, C22 and X; and Alloy 20. tanks.
Volatiles stripping – air sparging
for removal of VOC (Volatile
Organic Compounds) from waste
streams.

CASE STUDY
Problem Solution
In an API facility manufacturing Oncology drugs, Our vacuum enabled micro-sparging system was
the dissolved Oxygen was creating contamination used with SS 316L vacuum fused porous tubes. The
in the process. The desired Oxygen required was in client was able to achieve the desired Dissolved O2
the 2-5 ppm range, and they could not use in 15 minutes of operation.
scavengers
MAY, 2020 VOL. 17

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Mr. Lalit Vashista is a Chemical Engineer having over 35 years

of experience in the filtration and separation technologies. He has
worked with many multi-national filtration technology companies.
Reputed for his innovative approach, he has developed many new
applications in the area of liquid-liquid separation, Gas - liquid
and liquid-solid separation and mixing.

He is the Director at Diva Envitec Pvt. Ltd.,& Flowsep

Technologies LLC - NJ, USA leading global filtration and
separation companies. The companies offers a wide range of
filtration and separation systems, products and services in market
sectors including pharmaceutical, API, Biotech, F&B, Brewery,
PHOTO BY MARTIN R. SMITH
Winery, Distillery, Chemical, Fine Chemical, Sugar, Cement, Iron
and Steel.

Contact lalit@aboutfilter.com or on Mobile +91 98333 93837

http://www.divaenvitec.com

ENGINEERING TODAY FOR A GREENER TOMORROW

DIVA ENVITEC PVT LTD

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