I need to run some numbers on decanter centrifuge throughput and solvent/solids ratio.
Solvent will be ethanol. What is a average number for biomass density and recommended solids/solvent ratio for one of these machines.
The best number I can get so far is 0.189 Kg/L, seems like it should be more dense than that?
anyone DM you about this? I’d be interested in knowing as well
No one measures density since its a variable. Solvent to biomass ratio and residual solvent content will determine your thruput. That balance can be determined thru testing and adjustment to meet your desired parameters. 2lbs/gallon seems to be about right but bio quality can make that ratio variable.
Requires a slurry. As long as you can pump it you can use a decanter centrifuge. The machine only cares about you feeding it through a feed pipe that runs down the center. You could technically blow dry sand into the feed pipe and it would handle it.
These decanters are used to handle mud routinely in other industries so if you can pump it I wouldn’t think it is too dense. I haven’t used one for hemp yet so don’t have experimental data.
We have some data with in-house and customer site trials with a decanter centrifuge in the hemp-biomass / ethanol separation phase. You can visit our Hemp-Centrifuge page below for some information we have shared there. We have more test-data and experience we can share without identifying the customer.
There are some adjustments on the decanter which the customer can use to get clear centrate and/or adjust the dryness of separated biomass. We recently posted another post with some actual trial data on a medium capacity (40 GPM) Alfa Laval Decanter applied to hemp/biomass separation.
Our company (based in Detroit) has been engineering centrifuge based solutions by re-purposing or modifying disc-stack and decanter centrifuge for over 35 years. We do have a bit of experience.
Here are a couple of animated gif showing the operation of decanter and disc-stack centrifuges.
Hope this helps.