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Delhi-based Everest Transmission claims to have
successfully developed Mechanical Vacuum Booster
to replace steam ejector. Steam ejectors are used
in Vacuum pumping applications such as in vapour
extraction, chemical processing, evaporative cooling,
Vacuum distillation, vegetable oil deodorization,
Vacuum refrigeration, drying, etc. In spite of
fact that steam ejectors have relatively high
energy consumption and poor overall efficiency,
they are popular in Vacuum applications because
of their simple operational procedures. Considering
their disadvantages, Mechanical Vacuum Booster
comes as an efficient alternative. The major advantages
of Mechanical Boosters are:
i. Mechanical Vacuum Boosters are
more energy efficient.
ii. They require minimum auxiliary equipment.
On the contrary, steam ejectors need large condensers,
cooling towers, re-circulation pumps, etc.
iii. Mechanical Vacuum Boosters
are dry pumping system. Therefore do not pollute
water and atmosphere.
iv. Startup time for them is very
low, which is ideal for batch process operation
where immediate startup and shut down are essential
for energy conservation.
Being dry pump, Mechanical Vacuum
Boosters meet many of the ideal pump requirements.
Firstly, it does not use any pumping fluid. Hence,
it pumps vapour or gases with equal ease. Small
amounts of condensed fluid can also be pumped.
Secondly, it has very low pump friction losses.
Therefore, it needs relatively low power for high
volumetric speeds.
The Vacuum booster can be used to
generate Vacuum upto the range of 10 Torr and
still maintain high volumetric speed at such low
pressure.
Use of electronic control devices
such has variable frequency drive (VFD) allows
modifying Vacuum boosters operating characteristics
to conform to the operational requirements of
the backing pumps. Hence, they can be easily integrated
into all existing pumping setups to boost their
performance.
The operating costs for mechanical
Vacuum systems are low. Hence, it has very short
pay back period. For example, when operating in
the range of 5-10 Torr, the operating cost of
mechanical pumping system would be about one tenth
of the equivalent steam ejector system.
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