The Application of Electrical Resistance Tomography to a Large Volume Production Pressure Filter

B.D.Grieve1, Q.Smit2, R.Mann3, T.A.York2

1 Syngenta Ltd?, Technology & Projects Department, PO Box A38, Huddersfield, HD2 1FF, UK bruce.grieve@syngenta.com

2 UMIST, Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK t.a.york@umist.ac.uk, q.smit@umist.ac.uk

3 UMIST, Department of Chemical Engineering, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK r.mann@umist.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

The application of electrical resistance tomography to pressure filtration has previously been reported at the semi-tech scale. This paper expands on the earlier investigation to cover recent developments in translating the technology to an existing bulk volume agrochemical plant. The investigation addresses the practical aspects of installing electrical tomography within a 36m3 production pressure filter located within a flammable atmosphere and handling chemically aggressive media. As an introduction, a review of the economic and environmental drivers behind exploiting tomographic technology on pressure separation processes is given. The specific challenges associated with retrofitting the technology to the subject filter are presented and reviewed with respect to the more general aspects of implementing electrical tomography on industrial process vessels. Due to restricted access in the filter and also the wide aspect ratio of the isolated solid, the traditional radial arrangement of electrodes has been replaced in favour of a planar array. The benefits of this approach are given and the implications for the installation elsewhere are outlined. The paper concludes with a review of the learning gained from this first large tonnage exemplification of electrical tomography on a batch manufacturing unit and an overview of the future research and development issues that need to be addressed prior to wide- scale commercial deployment in this field.

Keywords Process Tomography, Pressure Filtration, Electrical Resistance