Airlift Transfers
If compare pumps and airlift, airlift is soft and gentle. It causes less carbon attritions and less carbon losses during carbon transfers. From another perspective, it reduces mechanical maintenance times and costs. Airlift’s depend on some criteria height, air feed and pipe dimension.
(HDPE pipes, total pipe length app 20 meters, 5 elbows?)
The basic criterion is that when air is supplied, air bubbles cause a decrease in density in the pipe. Transfer process is carried out according to this density differences.
?The following simple equation can be used for basic calculations. In order to be able to transfer with air, the value to be obtained in the first part of the equation must be greater than the other.
?h1 x d1 = h2 x d2
?h1: height inside the tank
d1: liquid density in the tank
h2: maximum transfer height
d2: liquid density in the airlift pipe
2. Pipe Dimention
As mentioned in the above equation, the density difference is significant. In different tests made with different pipe diameters, it was seen that the diameter in the first part where the air is supplied is smaller than the outlet diameter, which provides an advantage.
3. Air Feed Rate
Air supplies at different rates affect the transfer time. A difference of 12.5% was calculated as the time difference between the air supply being half open and fully open for a line with a 4 inch inlet part and a 6 inch output part.
Things to pay attention:
?Excessive air supply causes the carbon to come out with pressure from the carbon outlet line. Therefore, it may cause injury.
?Pipe turns in the outlet line should be as curved as possible.
?Height is the main problem and limits the head.