CO2 pump malfunction

Hello everyone, I wanted to ask you about a problem that we recently had with the CO2 recovery pump of a supercritical CO2 extraction system.
The system is a 100 l equipment and the pump is used to recapture the co2 in the storage tank, when we need to release the pressure from the extraction tank initially due to pressure difference but it reaches a point that is necessary to start the pump to finish emptying the extraction cylinder (less than 4.5 MPa). when we change the valves and enter the recovery system, despite the fact that there is enough pressure, the pump starts but does not suck the CO2 from the cylinder.
We have checked the entire valve system for blockages or something similar but there are none. It was thought that it could be the seals but it is not the reason either.
Has anyone had a similar problem with this recovery pump? Any help would be great!

Can we get some more info? Make/model of the pump, and brand of unit you’re using would be especially helpful.

2 Likes

you’re gonna need to define “this” before anyone can offer much in the way of help.

Disconnecting the inlet, and trying to compress air, either into a CO2 cylinder, or another tank, would be the first thing I’d try.

If that doesn’t work, you should probably hit up the pump
OEM, because the pump needs something you can’t provide.

1 Like