POWDER DRYING SYSTEM WITH IMPROVED INLET ARRANGEMENT TO THE FILTER UNIT AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE FILTER UNIT OF SUCH A SYSTEM

Abstract

The powder drying system comprises a powder processing unit (1), and a filter unit (400) defining a central vertical axis (405) and including a filtering chamber (401) accommodating a plurality of bag filters (407), each having a bag filter wall and a top opening, a top portion (402), and an exhaust chamber (403) at or near the top portion (402). The filtering chamber (401) is provided with an inlet (410) configured to allow entry of powder carrying gas to be filtered, and the exhaust chamber (403) has an outlet (420) configured to allow exhaust of filtered gas. In the filtering chamber (401), gas flows through the wall of the bag filters (407), upwards and out through the top opening of the bag filters (407), into the exhaust chamber (403) and further to the outlet (420). the inlet (410) of the filtering chamber (401) is positioned at the top portion (402) of the filter unit (400), and that said inlet (410) includes at least one inlet duct section (415) adjacent the filtering chamber (401) and arranged substantially centrally in the top portion (402) of the filter unit (400).

Claims

1. A powder drying system comprising at least one powder processing unit (1), and at least one filter unit (400) defining a central vertical axis (405) and including a filtering chamber (401) accommodating a plurality of bag filters (407), each having a bag filter wall and a top opening, a top portion (402), and an exhaust chamber (403) at or near the top portion (402), in which the filtering chamber (401) is provided with an inlet (410) configured to allow entry of powder carrying gas to be filtered by passing through the bag filter wall of the bag filters (407), and the exhaust chamber (403) has an outlet (420) configured to allow exhaust of filtered gas flowing upwards from the bag filters through the top opening thereof, characterized in that the inlet (410) of the filtering chamber (401) is positioned at the top portion (402) of the filter unit (400), and that said inlet (410) includes at least one inlet duct section (415) adjacent the filtering chamber (401) and arranged substantially centrally in the top portion (402) of the filter unit (400).

2. A powder drying system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one inlet duct section (415) is arranged substantially in parallel with the central vertical axis (405) such that the gas entering the filter unit (400) is allowed to flow substantially downwards.

3. A powder drying system according to claim 2, wherein said at least one inlet duct section (415) is substantially coaxial with the central vertical axis (405) such that the gas is allowed to enter the filtering chamber (401) substantially along the central vertical axis (405).

4. A powder drying system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein said at least one inlet duct section comprises an internal duct (415) adjacent the filtering chamber (401) and extending substantially in parallel with the central vertical axis (405), a transitional duct (413) and an angled duct (411) extending at substantially right angles to the internal duct (415).

5. A powder drying system according to claim 4, wherein the distance between the angled duct (411) and the end of the internal duct (415) adjacent the filtering chamber (415) exceeds the length of a bag filter (407).

6. A powder drying system according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the internal duct (415) at the end adjacent the filtering chamber (401) has a hexagonal shape.

7. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the outlet (420) is connected horizontally to the exhaust chamber (403) at the top portion (402) of the filter unit (400).

8. A powder drying system according to claim 7, wherein the outlet (420) comprises a transitional duct (421) and a straight duct (423),

9. A powder drying system according to claim 8, wherein the edges (421a) between the transitional duct (421) and the exhaust chamber (403) and/or the edges (421b) between the transitional duct (421) and the straight duct (423) are rounded.

10. A powder drying system according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the cross-section of the straight duct (423) is substantially circular and the cross-section of the transitional duct (421) is variable from a substantially rectangular cross-section at the connection to the exhaust chamber (403) and substantially circular at the end adjacent the straight duct (423).

11. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said plurality of bag filters (407) comprises at least 50 bag filters (407), preferably at least 100 bag filters (407), and more preferably at least 200 bag filters (407), and even more preferably at least 400 bag filters (407).

12. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a number of bag filter segments (409), wherein each includes a plurality of bag filters (407).

13. A powder drying system according to claims 6 and 12, wherein the number of bag filter segments (409) is six, corresponding to a respective side of the hexagonal end of the internal duct (415).

14. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the bag filters are no longer than 6 m, preferably no longer than 5 m.

15. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the bag filters have a diameter (D) in the range of 10 to 25 cm, preferably in the range 15 to 20 cm, and even more preferably in the range 17 to 19 cm.

16. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the distance (S) between bag filters is no more than 5 cm, preferably no more than 4.5 cm.

17. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the powder processing unit of the powder drying system (1) comprises a spray dryer with a drying chamber (2).

18. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the filter unit (400) further comprises a cleaning arrangement (430) including at least one nozzle (431) associated to a respective bag filter (407) for cleaning thereof

19. A powder drying system according to claim 18, wherein further comprising a cleaning arrangement having a plurality of nozzles (431), wherein the nozzles have nozzle inlet diameter (i), a nozzle throat diameter (t), a nozzle exit diameter (e), and a length (L), and wherein the ratio between the nozzle throat diameter (t) and the length (L) lies in the range 0.02 to 0.2, preferably 0.05 to 0.15, and even more preferably 0.07 to 0.13.

20. A powder drying system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said plurality of bag filters (407) is located in the space between the periphery of the filter unit (400) defined by a central portion (406) of the filter unit (400) and the periphery of the extension of inlet duct section (415) adjacent the filtering chamber (401).

21. A method of operating a filter unit (400) of a powder drying system, said filter unit (400) defining a central vertical axis (405) and including a filtering chamber (401) accommodating a plurality of bag filters (407), each having a bag filter wall and a top opening, a top portion (402), and an exhaust chamber (403) with an outlet (420) at or near the top portion (402), comprising the steps of: providing the filter unit (400) with an inlet (410) at the top portion (402) of the filter unit (400), supplying gas to be filtered to the filtering chamber (401) via the inlet (410), allowing the gas to pass through the bag filter wall and upwards in the plurality of bag filters (407) and into the exhaust chamber (403) via the top opening of the respective bag filters of said plurality of bag filters (407), and discharging the filtered gas through the outlet (420).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The invention will be described in more detail below by means of non-limiting examples of presently preferred embodiments and with reference to the schematic drawings, in which:

[0017] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of the main components of a powder drying system in an embodiment of the invention;

[0018] FIG. 2 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a filter unit in an embodiment of the invention;

[0019] FIG. 3 shows a schematic cross-sectional top view of a filter unit in an embodiment of the invention;

[0020] FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of an outlet in an embodiment of the invention;

[0021] FIG. 5 shows a top view of a filter unit in an embodiment of the invention;

[0022] FIG. 6 shows a schematic top view of a bag filter arrangement.

[0023] FIG. 7 shows a cleaning arrangement of a prior art powder drying system;

[0024] FIGS. 8a and 8b show a membrane valve of a cleaning arrangement of a prior art powder drying system; and

[0025] FIGS. 8c and 8d are views of a nozzle forming part of a cleaning arrangement of the inventive powder drying system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of the main components of a powder drying system comprising a powder processing unit which in the embodiment shown is in the form of a spray drying system 1. In a manner known per se, the spray drying system 1 comprises a spray dryer with a drying chamber 2 and a process air/gas supply device 3, typically including an air/gas disperser. It is noted that the term “gas” will be used alongside with the term “air” as “air/gas” and is to be interpreted as encompassing any gas that is suitable as process gas in such a spray drying system. The drying chamber 2 also incorporates atomizing means, such as nozzles and/or an atomizer wheel. The term “powder drying system” is intended to encompass such systems in which a powdery or particulate material is formed and/or processed. The material may either be provided as a feed of powdery or particulate material, or as a liquid feed to be dried. The powder drying system is also intended to cover cooling of the particulate material. In addition, or alternatively, to the spray dryer described, such a system could include one or more fluid beds, pneumatic dryers etc. The powder drying system thus incorporates a unit for forming powder in any suitable manner. Here, the powder forming unit is a powder processing unit in the form of a spray dryer with a drying chamber.

[0027] At the lower end of the drying chamber 2, an outlet 5 for dried material is provided. In the shown spray drying system 1, an after-treatment unit in the form of vibrating or static fluid bed 6 is provided. At one end, the vibrating or static fluid bed 6 receives dried material from the outlet 5 of the drying chamber 2 for further treatment of the material, which is then to be collected at an outlet at the other end of the vibrating or static fluid bed. Further upstream or downstream equipment may be present as well, but is not relevant to the present invention.

[0028] Furthermore, the powder drying system comprises in addition to the spray drying system 1 a filter unit 400, to which spent process air/gas with particles entrained in the process air/gas is conducted. The filter unit 400 has a configuration which will be described in further detail below. In FIG. 1 is shown an inlet 410 for spent process air/gas from one or more of the upstream operational units, a plurality of bag filters 407 and a clean air outlet 420. The filter unit 400 may form part of a series of powder recovery units including further filter units and cyclones or bag filters, or any combination thereof. Furthermore, a cleaning arrangement 430 is shown in FIG. 1.

[0029] A number of conveying lines connect the operational units with each other in a manner known per se and will not be described in detail.

[0030] The general configuration of the filter unit 400 will now be described in more detail with particular reference to FIG. 2.

[0031] The filter unit 400 defines a central vertical axis 405 and includes a filtering chamber 401, a top portion 402 and an exhaust chamber 403. The top portion 402 here has the form of a cylinder with closed top surface. The top portion may also have other geometrical shapes, such as square, rectangular, hexagonal or other polygonal shape. Additionally, the filter unit 400 has a bottom portion 404, which is here substantially frusto-conical, but which may in principle have any suitable configuration. The bottom portion 404 delimits the lower section of the filtering chamber 401. A central portion 406 is provided between the top portion 402 and the bottom portion 404 of the filter unit. The plurality of bag filters 407 is in the embodiment shown located in the central portion 406, which is here provided as a substantially cylindrical portion of the filter unit 400 adjacent the top portion 402, i.e. in the upper section of the filtering chamber 401.

[0032] The filter unit 400 is arranged such that the gas entering from the inlet 410 flows into the filtering chamber 401, through the bag filters 407, out through the top opening of the bag filters 407 and into the exhaust chamber 403. As is apparent, the inlet 410 and the outlet 420 are connected to the top portion 402 of the filter unit 400 and arranged such that the gas enters the filter unit 400 along the central vertical axis 405 in the specific embodiment shown. The powder may be collected at the bottom portion 404 of the filter unit 400.

[0033] It is important that the inlet is arranged such that the gas flow, when it enters the filter unit, has as few flow instabilities as possible. Flow instabilities can be defined as the gas flow having a transient character as opposed to a steady state flow. According to the invention said inlet 410 and outlet 420 are connected to the top portion of the filter unit 400 and arranged such that the gas enters the filter unit 400 along a central vertical axis. This has the advantage of reducing the susceptibility of bag filters to flow instabilities by having a gas flow in parallel with the length axis of the bag filters 407 thus reducing the transient perpendicular force on the bag filters 407.

[0034] The top portion 402 of the filter unit 400 is located at the uppermost part of filter unit 400, for example as a substantially cylindrical portion with a closed top, along the central vertical axis 405.

[0035] In the embodiment shown, the at least one inlet duct section of the inlet 410, adjacent the filtering chamber 401 comprises an angled duct 411, a transitional duct 413, and an internal duct 415. The angled duct 411 connects the duct having gas carrying dust from the previous component of the spray drying system with the transitional duct 413, in this particular embodiment the angled duct 411 has the form of pipe segments forming substantially a 90-degree bend, and the transitional duct 413 may have a shape changing from hexagonal to circular. The shape of the internal duct is chosen to improve the explosion pressure resistance of the top portion 402. The transitional duct 413 is attached to the top portion 402 of the filter unit 400 and the internal duct 415. The internal duct 415 connects the transitional duct 413 with the filtering chamber 401 of the filter unit 400. Thus, the inlet 410 allows gas from the previous or upstream component of the spray drying system to enter the filtering chamber 401 of the filter unit 400.

[0036] In the embodiment shown, the plurality of bag filters 407 is located in the space between the periphery of the filter unit 400 defined by the central portion 406 and the periphery of the extension of the internal duct 415 which here forms the inlet duct section adjacent the filtering chamber 401. This has the advantage that the stream of gas to be filtered flows into the filtering chamber 401 at a location where no bag filters 407 are present. This is particularly clear from FIGS. 2 and 3.

[0037] Referring now in particular also to FIG. 4, the outlet 420 comprises a transitional duct 421 and a straight portion 423 as shown in FIG. 3. In one embodiment of the invention the edges 421a between the exhaust chamber 403 and the transitional duct 421, and the edges 421b between the transitional duct 421 and the straight portion 421b are rounded. This has the advantage of allowing a shorter transitional duct 421 which reduces the plant footprint required by the filter unit 400. It also reduces the risk of remaining deposits and/or cleaning agent after cleaning-in-place.

[0038] In the filter unit 400, a number of elongated tubular filter elements or bag filters 407 are suspended substantially vertically in a support structure. The bag filters of the filter elements have a filter surface which at least includes the bag filter wall, which is typically cylindrical. The bag filter walls are typically made of filter wall material that can be a substantially soft material, such as a felt, a polymer mesh or weave, supported by a basket in the interior of the bag, or the filter wall material can be a self-supporting substantially rigid porous material, such as metal fibers or ceramic fibers. The bottom of each bag filter 407 may either be provided by the same filter material as the bag filter wall, or provided as a solid bottom, possibly also provided with draining means.

[0039] Turning now to FIG. 5, the configuration of the bag filters 407 into a plurality of bag filter segments is shown.

[0040] The bag filters 407 of the filter unit 400 can be arranged in bag filter segments 409, as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 5. According to the invention, the filter unit 400 can comprise a plurality of bag filter segments 409. In this embodiment the filter unit 400 comprises six bag filter segments 409 and the number of sides of the internal duct 415 correspond to the number of bag filter segments. The bag filter segments 409 allow increased stiffness of the supporting structure and also contribute to facilitating the handling of the components of the filter unit 400 during installation and maintenance, including release and removal of the individual filter bag segments 409. The number of bag filter segments may also be for instance two, three, four or any other suitable number. The distribution of bag filters in each segment may be equal or vary.

[0041] The dimensions and number of filter elements including bag filters 407 in the filter unit 400 depends on the desired filter capacity. The smallest filter has a single filter element. Plants for treating, handling or producing pharmaceuticals typically use smaller filter units having for instance from 2 to 25 filter elements, and plants for foodstuffs, dairies and chemicals typically use very large filter units with many hundreds of filter elements in a single filter unit. The bag filters can be arranged in a square grid as shown in FIG. 6, alternatively the bag filters could be arranged in triangular grid, a hexagonal grid, or any other type of polygonal grid. The diameter of each bag filter is shown as D and the distance between each bag filter is shown as S. As a general rule the capacity of the system increases with increasing filtering area. The filtering area being defined as the surface area of the bag filters. The individual filter element typically has a length in the range from 1 to 8 m, for instance the length is typically at least 3 meters long, but lengths over 5 meters long or even over 6 meters long are conceivable as well.

[0042] The diameter D of each bag filter is typically in the range of 10 to 25 cm, preferably in the range 15 to 20 cm, and even more preferably in the range 17 to 19 cm, in the embodiment shown about 18 cm.

[0043] The distance between neighboring bag filters, S, is typically no more than 5 cm, preferably no more than 4.5 cm and even more preferably no more than 4 cm.

[0044] The number of bag filters 407 may be at least 50 bag filters 407, preferably at least 100 bag filters 407, more preferably at least 200 bag filters, and more preferably at least 400 bag filters.

[0045] During operation of the filter unit 400 process gas carrying product enters the unit through inlet 410 and flows into the area around the filter elements in the form of individual bag filters 407. The gas continues through the bag filter walls of the filter elements 407 and flows up to an upper outlet side for clean filtered gas and eventually exits through the outlet 420. As the gas passes the filter walls product carried by the process gas is retained by the filter elements 407. The retained material is partially left on the filter elements and partially drops down and accumulates in the lower section of the filter unit 400. The accumulated product can then be extracted through an outlet port. The filter unit may be a separate external unit connected to a gas outlet for particle loaded processing gas in a plant, or be integrated into a processing unit producing the particle loaded gas, such as a spray drying apparatus or a fluid bed apparatus. As the filtration proceeds some of the filtered off particles or dust accumulate on the outside of the filter element 407, and has to be removed in order to avoid building up of dust cakes. Cleaning is effected during continuous operation of the filter unit by using high pressure reverse flow gas cleaning.

[0046] A cleaning arrangement, here generally designated 430 in FIG. 7, includes a filter cleaning nozzle 431 positioned at a distance A′ above the filter element 407. The nozzle 431 ejects a burst of cleaning gas down into the filter element 407 at intervals adapted to the current filtration process.

[0047] The jet-like burst of reverse flowing cleaning gas produces a very quick pressure increase inside the filter element so that the filter wall accelerates outwards. The pulse of cleaning gas has a very short duration, such as from 0.10 s to 0.50 s, typically about 0.2 s, and the filter wall is therefore immediately inflated to the maximum diameter by the gas pressure difference across the filter. Especially for non-rigid filter materials the result of the cleaning action is consequently of mainly mechanical nature, because the particles or dust on the filter element are shaken or kicked loose by the movement of the filter material.

[0048] A pressure vessel 432 contains pressurized primary cleaning gas. In this prior art cleaning arrangement, the cleaning gas is provided at a pressure in the range of 3 to 10 barg, typically from 4 to 6 barg. A gas supply device 433, such as a compressor, delivers compressed air or another gas at a set pressure. The nozzle 431 is positioned at the end of a nozzle lance 434 and a closure device 435 is positioned in connection with the pressure vessel 432. The setting of the pressure depends on the length of the filter element 407 and the size of the nozzle 431. One and the same nozzle size can be used for several different lengths of filter elements by suitably varying the setting of said pressure so that a higher pressure is used for longer elements and vice versa. This setting of the pressure can be done at the commissioning of the filter. The gas supply device can also be of a type allowing adjustment of the gas pressure during operation in order to accommodate for variations in the filtration conditions, possibly dynamically controlled by the pressure drop over the filter or by clogging of the filter.

[0049] The dimensions of the nozzle 431 include a predefined nozzle inlet diameter i, a nozzle throat diameter t, and a nozzle exit diameter e shown in FIG. 8c. A membrane valve 436′ is provided, including membrane valve slots 437′ and membrane valve openings 438′.

[0050] Further details regarding the nozzle 431 of the specific embodiment include that the nozzle has a continuous curve from the throat 431t to the exit 431e.

[0051] The nozzle 431 comprises a membrane valve 436, which has a valve opening 438 shown in FIG. 8a of at least 4 mm.

[0052] The nozzle 431 may have a nozzle exit diameter e of up to 20 mm, preferably up to 17 mm.

[0053] The nozzle 431 has a nozzle throat diameter t of up to 20 mm, preferably up to 14 mm.

[0054] The length of the nozzle 431 is shown in FIG. 8c as L. The ratio of the throat diameter 431t to the length of the nozzle 431 may be 0.02 to 0.2, preferably 0.05 to 0.15, and even more preferably 0.07 to 0.13.

[0055] Although not described in detail, the distance between the nozzle exit 431e and a top of said plurality of bag filters 407 may lie between −20 mm and +700 mm. The nozzle can be moved with a rotating and/or robotic nozzle system so that a nozzle can be used to pulse different bag filters.

[0056] The person skilled in the art realizes that the present invention by no means is limited to the preferred embodiments described above. On the contrary, many modifications and variations are possible within the scope of the appended claims. For example, the inlet can be of a different shape than hexagonal, for example round, oval, triangular, square, pentagonal, octagonal, or any other polygonal.

[0057] The invention offers several advantages over different prior art solutions. Due to allowing a larger part of the plant footprint to be allocated to bag filters and thus enabling a more compact system, the wear on the individual bag filters is reduced. The possibility to reduce the length of the bag filters while maintaining or even increasing the capacity entails that the weight of the bag filters is reduced, just as there is no need for a joint. The pressure drop is reduced, and the problems of vibrations also reduced.

[0058] It should be noted that the above description of preferred embodiments serves only as an example, and that a person skilled in the art will know that numerous variations are possible without deviating from the scope of the claims.