Our flexible team built a bespoke condenser to tight schedules for Worn Again Technologies
“Worn Again Technologies required a greater level of flexibility to allow the management of change as they are developing their process technology. Sterling Thermal Technology allowed the flexibility to design the equipment based on limited data and Good Engineering Practice to meet the design specifications.”
Dr. Michael Wise, Chemical Process Engineer, Worn Again Technologies
About Worn Again Technologies
Worn Again Technologies’ vision is to enable the ‘circularity of raw materials’ for clothing and textiles, accelerating us towards a waste-free world.
Its pioneering process can separate, decontaminate and extract raw materials from end-of-use polyester and cotton textiles, and PET bottles producing virgin equivalent inputs for new textiles.
Worn Again Technologies’ challenge
Worn Again Technologies required a company to build a compact vacuum condenser process unit in a limited timeline based on the company’s proprietary data. This entailed operational condition challenges restricting the material options due to the nature of the solvents as well as DSEAR/ATEX.
Sterling Thermal Technology’s solution
Our flexible Sterling Thermal Technology team has designed and built to tight schedules, a high-temperature solvent condenser with interconnecting piping and a separation vessel.
The interconne
cting piping is between the condenser, tanks B01, B02, B03 and the vacuum pump. The separation vessel is placed between the vacuum pump and the condenser. Sterling Thermal Technology has also designed and manufactured the supporting structure, which will be added to the existing supporting structure.
After the solvent vapours leave either the B01 or the B02 (it works on a batch basis), they enter into the condenser at relatively high temperature. To eliminate potential thermal stresses, which would require a design with expansion bellows, we adopted a TEMA U tubes solution and a removable bundle. This design is the best health & safety wise, and to potentially perform mechanical cleanings of the tube bundle.
As a small quantity of non-condensable gases may be present after the solvent has been condensed, the vapour outlet is connected to a separation vessel and a vacuum pump. In the separation vessel, non-condensable gases are separated from remaining solvent condensate. The design and orientation of the inlet and outlet distributors will limit the solvent condensate to move further in the system.
Benefits of our bespoke condenser
- Compact design with effective baffle orientation and baffle cut, which will enable smooth operations during the process testing.
- The material of construction is corrosion resistant to protect the heat exchanger from chemically aggressive fluids.
- Helpful engineering team – Sterling Thermal Technology closely worked with the Worn Again Tech