Early Warning on Mass Imbalance and Clean-in-Place Strategy for Rotor of Rotating Packed Bed

Abstract

Rotating packed bed is a new high-gravity gas-liquid mass-transfer equipment. The gas-liquid phase chemically reacts to the wire mesh packing of the rotor, and solid products easily adhere to the wire mesh packing, resulting in rotor vibration caused by rotor mass imbalance, thereby causing damage to bearings and seals. Such a fact hinders the long-cycle operation and large-scale process of the rotating packed bed. Research institutions and scholars all around the world have done a lot of work on mechanical balance. But the current mechanical balance is only temporary balance, and it does not fundamentally solve the problem of vibration and mass transfer efficiency degradation caused by the mass imbalance of the reaction product adhering to the rotating packed bed rotor. According to this situation, the strategy of early warning on mass imbalance and clean-in-place for rotating packed bed rotor is proposed. Firstly, the relationship of pressure, flow rate, and the void ratio of packing is established by numerical simulation. And the change of the rotor void ratio in the rotating packed bed can be calculated from the flow velocity or pressure change. Secondly, a dual-electromagnetic rotating packing bed based on ultrasonic cleaning is designed. Once the adhesion exceeds the threshold of early warning, the electromagnetic clutch controls the current rotating packed bed to stop working and the spare rotating packed bed to start to work. Two rotating packed bed structures complement each other to reduce the rate of the shutdown and avoid damage to bearings and seals.