Acid Distillation & Fractionation Systems

 

Acid Distillation & Fractionation Systems (Download)

Acid evaporation and distillation systems can provide several different functions such as acid separation, concentration and purification. The evaporation and fractionation of mixed acid solutions include the following applications:

• Water removal for acid concentration
• Fractional distillation of mixed acid solutions
• Acid purification for removal of dissolved materials
• Production of high purity electronic grade acids  High purity acid production (electronic) 

​Benefits of Acid Recovery

Of the many options to recover waste or spent acids from manufacturing and metal extraction operations, acid distillation is unique as it can recover and purify the acid while minimizing waste. Acid recovery using distillation can provide a “green technology” with an acceptable Return On Investment. Acid recovery provides the following benefits:

• Good Return On Investment (ROI)
• Reduced Raw Material Costs
• Reduced Waste Disposal Costs
• Reduced Shipping Costs
• Reduced Liability for Transport
• Reduced Storage Requirements
• Up to 95% Waste Reduction

​Mech-Chem engineers and designs the complete system including integration between the acid recovery equipment and the production operations. The materials of construction for the heat exchangers include graphite, Hastelloy & tantalum. The separators, piping and valves are fabricated using stainless steel, inconel, glass & PTFE lined steel equipment and components. 

​Aircraft Component Manufacturing

Aerospace manufacturers strip the imperfectly-coated and refurbished aircraft components using hydrochloric (HCL) acid so a new metallic coating can be applied. The stripping process produces a contaminated acid solution that requires frequent changing and disposal resulting in higher costs for system shutdown, off-site disposal and new HCL acid purchases. Mech-Chem’s acid recovery systems utilize a distillation column that recovers the spent hydrochloric acid and returns it as a clean distilled acid to the strip line. The system is designed to operate continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week producing a 16% to 20% high purity distilled HCl acid. Continuous operation of the system is achievable using advanced instrumentation and automation technology that is integrated into a PLC with PC interface.  

​Thermal Circulating Systems

​Mech-Chem designs, fabricates, and installs a variety of acid distillation and fractionation systems for waste acid recovery and chemical processing applications. The distillation system pictured on the left features a thermal circulating evaporator with a fractionation column that contains a Teflon packing. The materials of construction varies depending on the specific acid evaporation and distillation application. Materials of construction for the distillation units include stainless steel, inconel, Hastelloy, PTFE lined steel, and glass lined steel. The materials of construction for the heat exchangers include stainless steel, inconel, Hastelloy, tantalum, ceramic and carbon graphite. The evaporation and distillation systems are fully instrumented for automated control using a PLC with PC interface.