Process flow design
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The company produces lubricants, and the production process involves intermittent operations. There are 5 reaction vessels with a capacity of 8 m³ each that need to be evacuated. I would like to know whether it is better to use one vacuum pump for evacuation, or whether using multiple vacuum pumps, one for each vessel, would be more cost-effective
Let’s do the math: with 5 reactors of 8,000 L each, how long does it take to evacuate one reactor? In the case of batch reactions, can the timing be staggered? Also, what capacity does your vacuum pump have? Will the pumping capacity be sufficient to meet the needs of two reactors operating simultaneously? For reactors of the same type, it is not recommended to use 5 pumps for separate pumping; if possible, the pumping should be staggered. It is better to use two pumps to operate two separate systems, with them connected in series to serve as backups for each other.
The size of the vacuum pump is currently under consideration; sometimes several reaction vessels need to be used for reactions simultaneously, while at other times it is estimated that only one or two reaction vessels will be in use at a time. If the production schedule is tight, it’s unavoidable, as it takes about 4 hours to evacuate the vacuum