Case Study : Nano-Mag Carbon & Catalyst Filter System

Background:

Most of the Pharmaceutical & Chemical industries use Activated Carbon, Hi-Flo Filter Aid and Solid Noble Metal Catalysts for various Chemical Reactions. The primary purpose of using Activated Carbon is Color Removal, Hi-Flo Filter Aid as a precoat layer and Catalysts like Pd/C, Pt/C, Raney Nickel, Rh/C, Ru/C etc. is to initiate the reactions.

After Reactions, Separation of these solids from product is very important and hence the filters play a very vital role in this process. In Indian Industries, it is very common to use a conventional Cloth Type Filters for separation of these solids like Leaf Filter, Sparkler Filter, Pressure Nutsche Filter, Dome Filter etc.

Operational Issues of Various Conventional Filters:

• Manual Operation after every batch filtration
• Re-Circulation Required to achieve Clear Filtrate
• Hi-Flo Precoating required in some cases
• Feed Pump is required to transfer the reaction mass and Recirculation
• Polishing Filter is also required
• Hold Up / Dead Volume remains inside the housing after filtration
• Carbon / Hi-Flo / Catalyst Cake needs to be removed manually
• Spillage all around plant due to manual handling of the Carbon Cake
• Manual handling of Catalyst Cake leading to Catalyst Loss and Safety Hazard
• Filter Cloth replacement is frequently required

Nano-Mag Absolute Membrane Coated Sintered Filter System:

Nano-Mag is an Authorized Channel Partner of M/s GKN Sinter Metals Filters GmbH, Germany for supplying various Sintered Membrane Coated Filters for Solid-Liquid Separation Applications. Nano-Mag Carbon & Catalyst Filers are specialized and proven for the applications like Activated Carbon & Noble Metal Catalyst Filtration. We offer Absolute Membrane Coated Metallic Sintered Candles with Asymmetric Membrane on the outer layer of the Sintered Candles which helps in achieving Single Pass Filtrate Quality, Hold Up Removal & Discharge in complete closed loop operations. Following are few comparative Advantages of our Absolute Membrane Coated Sintered Filter System Over the Conventional Cloth Type Filters:

• No Manual Operation after every batch filtration
• Re-Circulation is not Required to achieve Clear Filtrate. Single Pass Filtration.
• Hi-Flo Precoating not required due to the Asymmetric Membrane on the Sintered Candle.
• Feed Pump is not required. The Reaction Mass can be transferred under N2 Pressure as there is no Re-Circulation.
• Polishing Filter is also not required. Single Stage Filter.
• Complete Zero Hold Up Volume Filtration with a specialized design to remove the hold up from filter housing.
• Carbon / Hi-Flo / Catalyst Cake discharged completely by backwashing with N2 / Water / Solvent.
• No Spillages due to complete Automatic & Closed Loop Operation
• 100% Recovery of Catalyst by Backwashing
• Completely Re-usable candles by Backwashing & various cleaning method. Average Life of Candle is 3-5 Years.
• No Consumable Required

Few Filter Installation Pictures of Nano-Mag Carbon & Catalyst Filters:

Installations through Validations by Nano-Mag:

• Nano-Mag offers Lab & Pilot Filtration Trials to validate and effectively scale up the process by conducting actual tests on site
• For Smaller Volumes up to 5 Liters, Small Lab Disc Filers are good one to test the Single Pass Filtrate Quality, Cake Thickness v/s flow rate data, Throughput and regenerated flux rates.
• For Pilot Plant Volumes up to 50-100 Liters, Smaller Single Candle Pilot Filters are good one to test the Single Pass Filtrate Quality, Flow Rate, Flux Rate, Cake Discharge By Backwashing and Regenerated Flux Rates by multiple cycles.
• For Plant Scale Volumes from 100-500 Liters, Longer Single Candle Pilot Filters are good one to test the Single Pass Filtrate Quality, Flow Rate, Flux Rate, Cake Discharge By Backwashing and Regenerated Flux Rates by multiple cycles.
• Based on the actual test results and considering the Plant Scale Batch Size and Carbon / Catalyst Quantities, We select the suitable Porosity of the Absolute Membrane Coated Filter Elements, Required Filtration Area, Required Number Of Candles to complete the filtration within 1 Hr time and provision for Zero Hold Up Volume Filtration and Complete Recovery / Discharge of Carbon / Catalyst Cake by Closed Loop Backwashing.

On Site Support by Nano-Mag for Filter Feasibility Tests:

• Link to View Demonstration of Nano-Mag Automated Carbon / Catalyst Filter in Working Condition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBKc-_tcZs