Chemical pumps come in handy when moving a corrosive or abrasive fluid. Sulphuric acids, acetic acid, and sodium hypochlorite are a few industrial fluids used with chemical pumps. These chemicals can quickly corrode and damage regular pumps; hence, they require specially designed pumps.
Chemical pumps outlast traditional pumps by a wide margin, allowing you to transfer chemicals in various ways. The type of pump you employ will depend on your particular application, but it typically comes in one of two types: centrifugal or positive displacement.
Common uses of a chemical pump
PumpBiz chemical pumps come in handy for various uses, especially in chemical manufacturing industries, including:
- Pumping Sludge in the Semiconductor Industry: The wet etching procedure for producing semiconductors produces harmful hydrofluoric acid sludge. Additionally, roughly 30% of the industrial waste from semiconductor factories contains fluorine. This waste may contain nanoparticles that are very corrosive to standard pumps in addition to being abrasive.
- Corrosive Sludge Sumps such as paint sumps: Large sumps at the base of the manufacturing plant are used to collect waste chemicals and sludge from the production of paint and industrial activities that use paint. Because of the natural viscosity of paints and the sludge material at the bottom of the sumps, cleaning out paint sumps can be difficult on pump systems. Since these sumps are loaded with sludge, cleaning them out regularly is necessary to avoid an excessive buildup that can impair productivity.
- Cement factories: Pumps are necessary to transfer abrasive slurries of broken limestone, clay, and other materials through pipelines for mixing in the wet process of making cement.
- Production of Paper and Pulp: Heavy slurries of wood pulp, bleach, and other caustic chemicals must continually be pumped from one area to another in the paper production sector. Large solids that are abrasive and frequently present in this slurry make centrifugal pumps challenging to operate without clogging.
Chemical pumping challenges
Highly corrosive chemicals are frequently used in chemical processing to speed up the production process, however, this material rapidly degrades specific pump parts. As a result, pumps used in chemical applications must be able to handle highly corrosive, abrasive, and viscous materials.
Typically, the best chemical pumps are constructed of alloy metals like titanium, steel, or nickel. To avoid the potential spread of dangerous or caustic chemicals into the environment, chemical pumps frequently need to be leak-free. Chemical pumps are widely used in various industries, including oil and gas, paper and pulp production, semiconductors, and manufacturing.
When heavier materials, such as paint, sludge, or chemical slurries, are present, centrifugal pumps are most frequently employed for straight-liquid chemical applications.
The wrong metallurgy can accelerate pump wear in mechanical or chemical pump applications and inevitably result in catastrophic failures. The first stage for choosing the right chemical pump is having a thorough understanding of the chemical pump application and the material that has to be pumped.
THE FINAL WORD
Chemical pumps must be made of materials that can tolerate exposure to very viscous and abrasive substances like sulphuric acid and lye.