World Scale Agitators - Beyond Existing Dimensions

Over the recent decade world scale plants made a significant jump in capacity. Reactor capacities increased their size by incredible 900%!

We present you the three most exciting examples to give you a better understanding about the biggest demanding agitators the world has ever seen.

1. Paraxylene (PX) Crystallizers

PX is the precursor of PTA (purified terephthalic acid) and is crystallized in very tall, yet small diameter vessels at very low temperatures.

The crystals that form at the vessel wall must be scraped off to ensure the heat transfer. Low temperatures and the size of equipment in combination with extremely tight tolerances are quite demanding when designing the agitators. Figure 1 below shows a PX impeller with a diameter of 3,6 m and a height of 22 m. The design of such an impeller is quite challenging considering mechanical and process requirements. Challenges are:

• The scrapers must be in contact with the wall in all places over the length of 22m
• The material of construction must be able to withstand temperatures of -101°C

To deal with these challenges, a lot of know-how, experience and the necessary engineering capacities are required.

2. Purified terephthalic acid (PTA)

PTA is an intermediate of PET, which is mainly used in plastic packaging, bottles, and clothes.

While PX crystallizing takes place at low temperatures, the oxidation of PTA takes place in an extremely corrosive environment at almost 200°C.

EKATO and Koch Technology Solutions (KTS) have scaled up their latest process technology to even higher capacities in a mutual effort. The actual reactor size is 1850 m3 with a yearly reactor performance of 1,625 mio. tons. Figure 2 gives an impression about the dimensions in comparison to the height of human beings (right lower corner). Almost one year of testing and validation of the results lead to an upgraded and cost optimized design.

3. Polypropylene (PP) reactors

PP is the second most used commodity plastic and used in a wide range of applications.

It is predominately reacted in a gas-solid fluidized bed reactor. We share our experience in a dedicated process where a helical ribbon impeller is used to keep the PP powder in motion. Very close gaps and the size of the latest scale bring their challenges mechanically but also in manufacturing. The last decades allowed us to scale-up the reactor size by incredible 900%.

EKATO has successfully performed design, scale-up and manufacturing for above mentioned applications, the agitators are in operation to the expectations of our clients.

We take care of that topic in our webinar series. The next planned webinar is on July 20, 2023.

Register now to join this webinar:

If you missed that date, do not hesitate for contacting us to get access to the record.

See you soon for other interesting topics regarding mixing technology!