Case Study – Bleaching Earth
Overview
Bleaching earth is one of the most important components for Oil industry as it plays vital role in bleaching, refining, & decolorizing edible oil, vegetable oil, & even animal fat. Bleaching earths are generally composed of up to three types of clay minerals: bentonite, attapulgite and sepiolite. It has a great absorbent capacity which absorbs & removes impurities & unwanted particles from oil & fats. It removes impurities like gums, iron, pigments, oxidative products & more.
Asia’s leading Bleaching Earth manufacturer & exporter of Activated Bleaching Earth to colossal Oil companies across the globe were seeking for filtration of bleaching earth during it’s manufacturing process.
Screening & filtration is part of manufacturing process of Bleaching Earth & is required at various stages during the process.
The manufacturing process starts with cleaning of raw clay.
After cleaning of raw clay, pre-treatment process starts where chemicals are added to enhance it’s absorbing capacity.
After pre-treatment, activation takes place & after activation washing is done.
Washing is done to remove chemicals & during washing the liquid & slurry are formed.
After washing, drying process takes place. During drying process moisture is being removed to convert bleaching earth into powder form. The drying process is carried through spray drying method.
But before Spray drying the filtration of slurry form of bleaching earth is mandatory as if any agglomerate remains, it can block the nozzles and hinder the whole process thereafter.
Filtration is done to make sure there isn’t any small particle like sand particle, lumps, etc. in the slurry that can block nozzles of spray dryers.
So, between washing & spray drying proper filtration is required. Once drying is done, it is classified & send for final safety/check screening before it is sent to silo.
Solution
The company recently had faced a big production loss due to blockage of Spray dryers’ nozzles. During the conversation with plant manager quoted – “Recently we had a huge production loss & one of our production plant was under maintenance for a day due to small negligence in manufacturing process”.
The company had faced process failure due to sand particles that had blocked nozzles of spray dryers. So, ultimately due to ignorance of filtration between washing & drying process they had to face production loss.
Results
The plant manager decided to contact Galaxy Sivtek for filtration of Slurry bleaching earth before sending it for spray drying as they were already using Galaxy made Linea Sivtek® for cleaning/sieving of raw clay.
Product expert from Galaxy Sivtek after understanding their need for filtration proposed to install Super Sivtek® with fine mesh so that smallest of particles can be separated from slurry bleaching earth before it goes for spray drying.
Plant manager agreed to proposed solution & 3 nos. of Super Sivtek® were installed.
