Toll Processing Plant

• MINIMIZE PROCESS OPTIMIZATION COSTS
• MAXIMIZE SPEED TO MARKET OR TEST MARKET
• ELIMINATE EARLY STAGE HIGH RISK CAPITAL INVESTMENT

Versatile Plant For Toll Processing

Initially installed to serve as a process optimization pilot plant, the tolling plant (Plant A) came to its current capability by a series of vessel, separator, and recycle compressor retrofits.  The plant's current processing capabilities are 100,000 kgs/yr, and it has been designed for maximum flexibility and efficiency.  And while it is still available as a pilot plant for collecting scale-up and long term processing operating data and for establishing integrated extraction/separation gas recycle parameters, its primary function is as a materials processing facility for the medical polymers and nutraceuticals markets.  

   The plant can also process liquid feedstocks at large volume, in a 4in diameter, 17ft counter-current column.  A 2in diameter, 12ft high column serves as a process optimization unit or it can process small (< 50 kg/day) amounts of material.  Volatiles stripping, purification, and fractionation campaigns are processed at throughputs of 20 to 600 kg/day depending upon the specific selectivity and distribution coefficients (which are determined during feasibility and optimization testing).  Surface area enhancing internals result in contact efficiencies of 20 to 30 equilibrium stages in the columns, providing a high degree of purification and fractionation of lubricants, liquid polymers, and surfactants.  

Integrating its broad technical base with a facility designed for rapid scale up, process optimization, and large scale production, Phasex Corporation reduces time to market, minimizes development costs, and delivers superior quality products and processes.

Largest Specialty Materials Tolling Plant in the U.S.

Phasex is installing a larger toll processing facility (Plant B) with 2 x 320L vessels and a 800kg/hr gas recycle capacity.  The installation is literally in progress at the time of this posting, and we thought we'd carry you through a bit of the construction history. We've had some of our staff visit some of our suppliers (Vitco-Gray/ABB) to capture on camera the various steps of vessel manufacture, heat treating, forging, machining, etc., and these steps are depicted in the photographs below; they show, in sequence, a hot (1000º C) billet of stainless steel progressing to a completed vessel.

   The vessels were completed (welded & pressure tested) in early 2001, and they are now installed at Phasex.  The photographs below show the progression as the vessels are being installed on their platform.  Plant B will have processing capacity of 350,000 kg/yr of solid feedstocks and 300,000 kg/yr of liquid feedstocks.  Both plants have been provided with dedicated power, heating, and refrigeration so that both can operate simultaneously, and the combined capacity of Plants A and B are in excess of 500,000 kg/yr.

New Vessel Installation in Plant B

   We work closely with our customers, both in the early research phase and during long term production, and we work just as closely with our vendors and suppliers during equipment design and manufacturing stages.  We obtained our vessels from Grayloc Products (Division of ABB Vetco Gray, Inc.), and we thought we'd give them a plug:  The photo below shows their name on the shipping crate protecting the Grayloc closure on the vessel just as it was taken off the freight elevator.  Our rigger and equipment installer, Toupin Brothers of Dracut, MA, has been doing this for us since 1989 when they installed our first vessel to expand the pilot plant; one of their trucks is shown in the photo below.

    Consider the production capabilities that we have now and that we are installing when you evaluate your current product extraction/concentration requirements or your planned new product development.

Additional Plant Data

   Both recycle compressors are constructed with triple diaphragms, designed expressly to eliminate lubricants contamination in the recycle stream (and as long as we're passing out kudos, our compressors are manufactured by Pressure Products Industries, a supplier of "Rolls Royce" diaphragm compressors); we have four of them.  Plant A, initially a small process optimization plant, was retrofitted with a 300 kg/hr unit and it adheres to Class 1, Division 2 electrical code so that we can process with the light hydrocarbons propane and butane, incidentally GRAS solvents. Plant B is designed from conception for Class 1, Division 2.

    Although Supercritical CO₂ is quite versatile in its extraction capabilities, it is not universal in its dissolving characteristics.  Cosolvents, such as anhydrous ethanol, are occasionally employed for extracting some of the more polar compounds; and the light hydrocarbons, as previously noted, are effective for extraction of reaction byproducts from medical polymers, and are safely employed because of adherence to the Class 1, Division 2 electrical code.

        Ask us about our No Cost Test on YOUR product today!

Copyright 2002 Phasex Corporation

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