Process Technology - Research

Rotational Phase Separation

The basic idea behind the Rotational Phase Separator, RPS (invented in 1987) is a rotating cylinder consisting of a multitude of axially oriënted channels. The channels are only a couple of millimeters in height so that particles as small as one micrometer can be effectively centrifugated to the walls. At equal external dimensions and energy consumption (either electrical or due to pressure drop), the particles collected are typically ten times smaller than those separated in a corresponding cyclone. The RPS is being brought to practical applications by leading companies in the US, The Netherlands and China. Fields of application are air filtration for health care, water purification in utilities, (hot) flue gas filtering, drying of (natural) gas and sanitary particle recovery in pharmacy and food. The RPS is a new type of multi-phase rotating flow machine. The development of the various designs is supported by in-house scientific analysis.

Key Publications

R.J.E. van Wissen, J.J.H. Brouwers, M. Golombok, In-line centrifugal separation of dispersed phases, AIChE Journal, 53(2), 374-380, (2007)

H.P. van Kemenade, E. Mondt, A.J.A.M. Hendriks, P.H.J. Verbeek, Liquid-Phase Separation with the Rotational Particle Separator, Chem. Eng. Techn., 26(11), 1176-1183, (2003)

J.J.H. Brouwers, Phase Separation in Centrifugal Fields with Emphasis on the Rotational Separator (Based on key-note lecture at 5th world conference on experimental heat transfer, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, Thessaloniki, 2001), Exp.Thermal and Fluid Science, 26, 325-334, (2002)

J.J.H. Brouwers, Rotational Particle Separator: A New Method for Separating Fine Particles and Mists from Gases, Chem. Eng. Techn., 19, 1-10, (1996)

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