Trade articles in the media

BHS-Sonthofen has delivered to the U.S. a system comprising two indexing belt filters for use in the manufacture of intermediates for a particularly tear-resistant plastic. To meet the high-quality requirements for the industry, the company designed a cascade reflux wash for treating the filter cake, which ensures reduced water consumption for the necessary retention time, states the company. Before delivery, extensive lab and pilot testing was conducted in BHS’s American test center.

Instant products provide consumers with natural flavors in a concentrated, long-lasting format. The final granulate is the result of a multi-stage procedure that starts with an extraction. Hot water or steam is used to leach aromas from a solid. Traditionally, this process step involves the use of extraction columns. BHS has optimized extraction processes at various customers by introducing rotary pressure filters. This increases the yield and improves the taste of the final product. Owing to these properties, producers and end consumers both benefit from the alternative process.

A new method allows the use of up to 100% alternative fuels (AFs) for clinker manufacturing and the recovery of the resulting bypass dust as a recyclable material. Indexing belt filters from BHS-Sonthofen enables the bypass dust accruing during clinker manufacturing to be completely reincorporated into the process by using up to 100% of more cost-effective AFs in cement kilns.

New process for the efficient reclamation of glycol from natural gas | The recycling of glycol, which is added to natural gas for transport, is playing an ever-increasing role in the efficient and environmentally friendly operation of gas pipelines. BHS-Sonthofen has developed a new process that recovers significantly more glycol than conventional processes – and at a lower cost. It also features low maintenance requirements and works fully automatically. This makes the process particularly suitable for offshore operation.

This paper discusses the selection of the filtration process systems: continuous pressure and/ vacuum filtration through a process of laboratory and pilot testing. These tests enable problem analysis, technology selection and scale up which help in optimum filter selection.

In many chemical and pharmaceutical processes, solid-liquid separation, cake washing and drying steps directly impact the effectiveness of the production operation. Further complicating these operations is the nature of the process and especially if the process is air-sensitive or toxic. This article discusses the choice of thin-cake (2-25 mm) pressure separation technology for full containment, no residual heel and their benefits to optimizing the effectiveness of the production process. For full containment, the paper then continues with a discussion of clean-in-place operations to meet current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) guidelines including riboflavin test, validations and ANSI/ISA S88 and IEC 61512-1 batch process control systems.