In recent months, a major European chemical company has modernised and optimised several existing GEA steam jet vacuum pumps used to extract aggressive gases and vapors. In the process, the porcelain jet pumps were replaced by jet pumps made of DIABON graphite without having to modify the complete vacuum units. Within a few days, the units were ready for operation again.
In this project, the focus was on energy savings and operational reliability. GEA was able to determine the exact equipment design for the vacuum systems through simulation models and tests on its own test bench. The retrofit optimised the performance of the vacuum systems for the process and reduced the energy consumption of the pumps by more than 30%.
For the retrofit of complete vacuum systems without on-site modifications, GEA offers a complete service package: from the inspection of the vacuum unit, support to determine the performance data, engineering and execution to commissioning. During the retrofit, as many components as possible are reused, and connection joints and installation dimensions remain unchanged. Capacity is optimised according to customer requirements and changeover times are kept as short as possible.
The steam jet vacuum pump made of DIABON graphite, which GEA developed in cooperation with SGL Carbon, complies with the current regulations of the chemical industry (AD-2000/EN, ATEX, PED) and meets the high safety requirements. The individual components of the jet pump are matched to each other in such a way that a wide variety of suction parameters can be achieved by various combinations. Due to the precise manufacturing of the graphite jet pumps on state-of-the-art machines, customer-specific designs can be easily realised and energy savings of more than 30% compared to porcelain jet pumps of the same size are thus possible.
Existing vacuum units with porcelain jet pumps can thus be optimised in terms of energy consumption and performance by modernising them with GEA steam jet vacuum pumps made of DIABON-Graphite. Retrofitting is thus an economical alternative to other vacuum pumps for highly corrosive applications.
