Problems with coagulators
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This post was last edited by Fengshan on 2015-12-14 at 15:46. Why hasn’t any water been discharged from the water coalescer in the reaction feed of our alkylation unit? What is the principle behind it? Is it an adsorbent, a catalyst, or filter media?
The principle of a coalescer is to combine small droplets into larger ones. There are bundles of stainless steel wires with dents on their surfaces, as well as those with fillers; they should not have any adsorption capability.
If it’s not a filter element, the performance may not be good; generally, filter elements are used in vertical configurations, and they can be either coalescing filter elements or separation filter elements. If there are filters in your device, then it’s necessary to check whether they are damaged. Generally, pressure gauges are installed at both the front and back, so you can check the pressure difference to make a judgment.
A coalescer is not a dehydrator; it merely combines small water droplets into larger ones. In other words, it gathers together the trace amounts of water in the material that cannot be condensed into liquid form, and then removes that water
The main reasons are as follows: 1. Whether glass fiber is being used; it’s best not to use it. 2. There seems to be a problem with the water level indicator in the raw material dehydrator. 3. The drainage valve of the raw material dehydrator is stuck. 4. It’s also necessary to determine what the operating temperature of the raw material dehydrator is – it should be around 11°C. The specific causes need to be analyzed in detail.
Reason: 1. No water is present in the feed, or its amount is extremely low； 2. The installation order of the filter elements in the coalescer is incorrect. The upper part is the gathering filter element, and the lower part is the separating filter element ； Ensure that the small droplets above aggregate into larger droplets, which then fall downward and are separated for removal.
Thank you all for your answers; I’ve learned a lot from them.
There are several reasons for the lack of water: 1. Check how much the density of the medium differs from that of water; if the difference isn’t significant, it’s possible that much of the condensed water gets carried away before it has a chance to settle. If that’s the case, the internal structure needs to be adjusted. 2. The coalescer only functions to coalesce and separate free water; it has no effect on dissolved water. So, let’s see how soluble the medium is. If there is a certain solubility in water, the filtration method needs to be changed. 3. It could be a problem with the quality of the filter elements, or an issue with the choice of those elements, as well as the way in which they are arranged. This option needs to be considered after ruling out the first two reasons. The above are my personal views; please feel free to discuss if there are any issues.
I’d like to ask why glass fiber should not be used?