Chemical maker finds success from viscometer
A
Hydramotion product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 17, 2006
On-line intrinsically safe viscometer helps South African chemical manufacturer supply speciality polymers and chemical management systems to the water treatment, mining and pulp and paper industries.
An on-line intrinsically safe viscometer from Hydramotion has solved an important problem in process control for South African chemical manufacturer Zetachem.
Zetachem supplies speciality polymers and chemical management systems to companies in the water treatment, mining and pulp and paper industries, and claims to be the largest supplier of organic coagulants in the southern hemisphere.
At its Durban plant, Zetachem produces speciality polymers, including the polyamine flocculants used in water treatment plants to assist in liquid-solid separation processes.
Viscosity is a key control measure for determining the degree of polymerisation during polyamine production.
Previously, the company had to take individual samples of the reactor contents and determine viscosity manually in the lab.
Now, with a Hydramotion XL7 process viscometer on line in the reactor, production staff have immediate feedback on progress of the polymerisation stage.
"The vastly improved monitoring of this step allows us to control product consistency and throughput with a commensurate reduction in off-spec production", said Richard Winter, Production Manager at Zetachem.
Continuous viscosity monitoring has also led to a better understanding of the process and consequent improvements in operator training and productivity.
All this has led to savings for the company.
After reviewing various on-line viscometers, Zetachem chose Hydramotion in 1998.
"We considered Hydramotion to offer the best chance of providing an accurate and robust fit-and-forget bolt-onto-the-reactor method that would meet the requirements of our processes", Winter said.
"The instruments have performed flawlessly since 1998 and we have experienced no significant drift requiring recalibration in that time to date, even though the units have been in continuous use".
Zetachem has been equally impressed with Hydramotion's aftersales support.
"On the one occasion when a bracket detached itself from inside one of our reactors and damaged the viscometer probe", Winter said, "Hydramotion provided excellent, rapid and cost-effective service".
It is, said Winter, "a truly fit-and-forget instrument that enabled us to remove some of the art from polymerisation and replace it with science".
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