Aerogel production plant was supplied to Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) in Jan 2016. The process consists of extraction of liquids from the hydro-/organo gels above the critical conditions of temperature & pressure of pore liquid (acetone, CO2 and/or other solvents, such as ethanol, 2-propanol, etc.). Therefore, the intended Aerogel Production Plant essentially have full features and facilities for drying of wet/organo-gels at desirable conditions of temperature and pressure. There are 4 extraction columns. 3 columns are dedicated for low temperature super-critical drying. Maximum Operating pressure for low temperature column 200 bar and maximum operating temperature is 100 Deg C. One column is dedicated for high temperature super critical drying. The plant has utilities like instrument air compressor, cooling tower, chiller and hot water units. A recycle gas loop with compressor is in line to recover, condense and reuse CO2. High pressure CO2 dosing pumps are used.
No. of Extraction Column : 4, Total Size of Reactors : 15 Liters, Column max operating pressure : 275 barg, Column max operating temperature : 350 Deg C
Pressure balance and control, compressor startup, operation and shutdown control, temperature control, utility monitoring system and flow control using pump speed variation. The plant is equipped with MCC and Siemens PC-PLC based control and monitoring system.
