Effect of Inlet Diameter on the Performance of a Filtering Hydrocyclone Separator

Structural Optimization of High-Pressure Polyethylene Cyclone Separator Based on Energy Efficiency Parameters

The high-pressure polyethylene process uses cyclone separators to separate ethylene gas, polyethylene, and its oligomers. The oligomers larger than 10 microns that cannot be separated must be filtered through a filter to prevent them from entering the compressor and affecting its normal operation. When the separation efficiency of the cyclone separator is low, the filter must be cleaned more frequently, which will reduce production efficiency. Research shows that improving the separation efficiency of the separator is beneficial for the separation of small-particle oligomers and reduces the frequency of filter cleaning. For this reason, Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations were performed for 27 sets of cyclone separators to determine the effects of eight structural factors (cylinder diameter, cylinder height, cone diameter, cone height, guide vane height, guide vane angle, exhaust pipe extension length, and umbrella structure height) on separation efficiency and pressure drop. The equations for separation efficiency and pressure drop using these eight factors and the equations based on energy-efficiency parameters were determined. The optimization analysis showed that separation efficiency can be improved by 98.7% under the premise that the pressure drop is only increased by 8.2%. By applying the improved structure to the high-pressure polyethylene process, separation efficiency is increased by 17.7%, which could effectively reduce the frequency of filter cleaning for this process, and thereby greatly improve production efficiency.

Separation Characteristics of an Axial Hydrocyclone Separator

An innovative axial hydrocyclone separator was designed in which a guide vane was installed to replace a conventional tangential inlet, potentially aggravating inlet turbulence. The characteristics of velocity distribution, concentration distribution, and pressure distribution inside the separator were obtained through the numerical simulation of the turbulent flow of oil and water. The results showed that the flow field presented good symmetry, which eliminated the eccentric turbulence phenomenon in the conventional hydrocyclone separators and was beneficial for the oil–water separation.

Analysis and Prediction of Influencing Parameters on the Coal Classification Performance of a Novel Three Products Hydrocyclone Screen (TPHS) Based on Grey System Theory

A novel hydrocyclone including a cylindrical screen embedded in a conventional hydrocyclone (CH), named three products hydrocyclone screen (TPHS), has been successfully designed. In TPHS, the combination of centrifugal classification and screening was employed to separate particles. In this paper, Grey theory, as an effective means to the laws of both complex and uncertainty system’s behavior with small samples, was used to investigate the operational (feed concentration and feed pressure) and structural (aperture size, spigot diameter, and vortex finder diameter) parameters on performance evaluation Hancock classification efficiency (HE), imperfection (I), and cut size (d50c). The experiments of coal sample (0–1 mm) show that TPHS with coarser particles in underflow exhibited the absent “fish-hook”. The closeness calculated using the Grey System algorithm indicates that the performance of TPHS was closely related to the operation and structure parameters. Further, the order of grey incidence degree between different parameters and HE (or I or d50c) is the spigot diameter and aperture size with the highest value, the feed pressure and vortex finder diameter with the middle value, and the feed concentration with the lowest value. The prediction using the GM(1, N) algorithm implies that the dynamic prediction model for the performance evaluation can be created depending on the operation, structure and previous performance value. The mean relative errors between the predicted and actual HE, I, and d50 were 2.84%, 5.83%, and 3.57%, respectively, which exhibit the accurate prediction.

Numerical Simulation of Flow Field Characteristics and Separation Performance Test of Multi-Product Hydrocyclone

A traditional hydrocyclone can only generate two products with different size fractions after one classification, which does not meet the fine classification requirements for narrow size fractions. In order to achieve the fine classification, a multi-product hydrocyclone with double-overflow-pipe structure was designed in this study. In this work, numerical simulation and experimental test methods were used to study the internal flow field characteristics and distribution characteristics of the product size fraction. The simulation results showed that in contrast with the traditional single overflow pipe, there were two turns in the internal axial velocity direction of the hydrocyclone with the double-overflow-pipe structure. Meanwhile, the influence rule of the diameter of the underflow outlet on the flow field characteristics was obtained through numerical simulation. From the test, five products with different size fractions were obtained after one classification and the influence rule of the diameter of the underflow outlet on the size fraction distribution of multi-products was also obtained. This work provides a feasible research idea for obtaining the fine classification of multiple products.

Three Output Membrane Hydrocyclone: Classification and Filtration

In this study, through simulation and experimental verification, we proposed a novel hydrocyclone in which a tubular ceramic membrane passed through the overflow outlet to the underflow outlet. The centers of overflow and underflow outlets were tubular membranes equipped with an exit of outside-in filtration, and the overflow the underflow outlets were shaped into annular (donut shape) exits. Thus, this novel hydrocyclone has three outlets, namely the overflow dilute liquid, the underflow concentrated liquid, and clear filtrate. This system enabled higher dilution of hydrocyclone overflow concentration than that in the traditional system. Furthermore, underflow was more concentrated, and we obtained a clear filtrate. Therefore, this device can simultaneously perform classification and filtration, which is valuable for special liquid recycling. For instance, in wafer cutting fluid recovery in solar energy processes, the fluid with more silicon can function as the overflow, the fluid with more silicon carbide can function as the underflow, and the polyethylene glycol (PEG) organic solvent can function as the clear filtrate.