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Soapy Detergent Production- Soap Drying
by
up coach
Soap drying is the last stage in the manufacture of soapy detergent before it is converted to tablets (in the case of toilet soap) for packaging. Soap is a detergent and it is a soapy detergent because its active ingredient (soap base) is manufactured with a component raw material, fat or oil, that is of biological origin. Non-Soapy Detergent like Omo, Ariel, Persil, Surf etc contains active ingredient manufactured with raw materials that are not of biological origin. The account of soap drying given in this article is based on the production technology, processes and conditions of one of the plants where I got some of my production experience.
The Neat soap obtained at the end of fitting stage is stored in tanks equipped with water jacket maintained at 90 degrees centigrade to keep the soap in liquid form. It is also mixed to prevent variability in the soap feed to the dryer by ensuring that the soap remains homogeneous and at steady temperature. The Total Fatty Matter (TFM) of neat soap after fitting is 63% but the TFM of packed toilet soap is 79%. TFM is a measure of the cleansing and lathering power of soap and by extension soap quality. The higher it is the higher the quality of soap. To raise the TFM from 63% to 79%, the moisture of the wet neat soap has to be removed considerably. This is the essence of drying. This is achieved by raising the temperature of neat soap from 90 degrees centigrade to 140 degrees centigrade. Vacuum drying technique in which the hot molten soap leaving heat exchanger is passed into a vacuum chamber for flash drying and cooling is used. The dryer has the following components-
1. Basket filters.
2. A soap feed tank.
3. Three heat exchangers.
4. Vacuum drying chamber.
5. Plodder system consisting of the preliminary and final plodders.
6. Noodle conveying system made up of an air compressor unit, a rotary valve, a noodle knife, and a pneumatic conveyor blower.
7. Five cyclones (fines separator) connected to the drying chamber and the vacuum system consisting of 2 barometric condensers, booster, steam ejector, and a vacuum pump.
Drying chamber- From the neat soap tank some soap is pumped to the feed tank via basket filter and from the feed tank, the soap is passed through the heat exchangers where it is heated from 90 to 140 degrees centigrade. The soap flows into a vacuum chamber from the heat exchanger where further moisture is flashed off. The higher the vacuum the greater is the evaporation and the better the cooling. The vacuum chamber contains a central rotating vertical shaft on which is mounted both the soap spray and a vertical scraper arm. As the spray directs the superheated soap stream towards the chamber walls, evaporative cooling occurs and dried soap is continuously deposited on the wall as the spray rotates. The spring loaded scraper blade is located in a fixed position relative to the spray nozzle and continuously scrapes the cooled dried soap off the wall. The soap drops to the base of the chamber where it is extruded by worm conveyor through a pressure plate to form continuous noodles of soap which are cut at the plate by rotating knives. The noodler also acts as a seal for vacuum system.
Cyclone- Soap dust or powder or fines carry-over from the vacuum chamber can be as much as 1.5% of the throughput. This dust is collected in high efficiency cyclones and extruded by worm conveyors at the base of each cyclone. However, if it is continuously returned directly to the vacuum chamber, it will have no effect on the product quality and removes problems of dust and waste. Soap powder entrained in water vapour enters the cyclone separators where both are separated from one another. The vapour is withdrawn by vacuum and the powder settles at the bottom of the separator. Thereafter, it is recycled. Settling occurs under centrifugal forces rather than gravitational forces. Vapour is introduced tangentially into a cylindrical vessel at 100ft/sec and clean gas produced is taken off through a central outlet of the cyclone. The solids are thrown outward against the vessel and then move away from the gas inlet and are collected at the conical base of the plant. Vapour moves spirally downwards, gradually approaching central portion of separator and then rises to leave through central outlet.
The separators are connected in series and by the time the vapour reaches the last one, all the entrained powder would have been removed. The last cyclone is the largest and it is linked to the vacuum system.
Plodder- The dry soap powder is discharged into the plodder consisting of the preliminary and final plodders. Here, the particles are moulded and in the process heat is generated. As a result of this, chilled water is opened to them to lower the temperature. The preliminary plodder receives soap particles from the dryer where first stage moulding takes place and the content is passed to the final plodder equipped with a screw extruder (worm) conveying soap through a nozzle plate fitted with a rotating knife that cuts the moulds into noodles. These drop into a rotary valve and with the aid of compressed air from the pneumatic conveyor blower, they are transferred to the silos.
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Olumide Bola holds a bachelors degree in Chemistry of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and he has worked in the production plant of some chemical industries in Nigeria. He is pursuing chartered membership of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) and he is a member of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS). He is currently a Software Developer and the Managing Director/CEO of Victolay Technologies Limited. Official web site: http://www.victolaytechnologies.com
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