If it’s possible without derailing the thread, I’d love to hear what made you go screw press instead of decanter at that scale.
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Mainly the heat…
I know someone who uses one to do like 4 or 500 pounds an hour seperation of ethanol from biomass and he has a hard time keeping the thing cool
Screw presses don’t create as much heat IMO
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It only ran ethanol for months and never got higher than 25lph. I set it in ethanol, and used it exclusively with ethanol, until later.
Obviously when I switched solvents it got slower (which they never once warned me could be an issue).
But even with a single solvent system I never got more than 25lph.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re their first customer ever 
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The problem is some membranes like the evonik don’t work in different solvents
Evonik has a special silicone coating on the membrane that interacts with the solvent (the solvent changes the structure of the silicone upon contact), whatever solvent you set in is the solvent you have to use
If you had set it in ethanol you wouldn’t have had that problem
My membranes don’t have this problem from my testing, the hydro carbon membranes can be set in heptane and you’ll get the same Flux with ethanol that you would if you’d only ran ethanol through them
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Their skid was shit and cross flow rates are less than 1/4 of what everyone else recommends now.
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You weren’t using the evonik @Lincoln20XX purchased?
I know that membrane wasn’t set in ethanol
I was supposed to be there with you guys when Dr Kumar came idk if you remember
If you’re talking about a different evonik then dam that sucks
It was set in ethanol though… I make ethanol. We only switched solvents after over a month of use.
Dr. Kumar arrived to watch after nearly a month of daily use. Our flow rate was 25lph and stayed at 25lph until I switched solvents. And then (it obviously) started to slow significantly. But it was never solvent swapped for over a month of continuous use.
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I swear we set that one in methanol because we had a bunch on hand, and no one told us it was going to be an issue. At least, that’s what my brain tells me.
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Bro zev told me he did this with the methanol, I could find the messages I bet
This was the biggest problem with that piece of garbage skid. Fuck Sterlitech.
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What was the flow rate on that 2540 skid?
Were maxing our 2540s out at 10 gpm
Yeah, we did stay single solvent, whatever it was. And then tried switching and then saw obvious issues.
But at no point did we exceed 25lph permeate. And Dr. Kumar said our flow was normal.
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It was set in ethanol originally. It not working with methanol is a separate issue.
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Weren’t the trials you did with Kumar in methanol though?
Could have sworn that dewaxing sample pic in the little vials you guys did was done in methanol or something
I mean. Regardless. We didn’t just throw both solvents on it off the bat.
It never went higher, but in think it was a skid issue not a solvent issue.
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Do you know the gpm flow on that skid?
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And also, the 25 lph is in line with other trials i did in ethanol with same membrane in a different location… It’s just slow (albeit the crossflow was also insufficient)
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Not criticizing their membranes. Moreso sterlitech.
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It ran 8 gpm on a 4040… Not sufficient
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Wow…
That’s crazy low
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