Moving Under the Vapor Pressure Limitations of a Liquid Ring Part 1

A liquid ring vacuum pump should be strongly considered when the gas load is wet, its internal construction allows the pumping of saturated loads without concern of damage to the pump. In fact, a net pumping increase can be realized from the standard pumping curve as the warm process vapors condense inside the cooler liquid ring. This is not the case when oil sealed or dry vacuum pumps are employed when pumping wet gases and should rarely be considered for this type of service. However, the liquid ring vacuum pump relies on the physical properties of the sealant to determine its maximum vacuum level and is usually limited to around 25mmHg.

When deeper vacuum levels are required an extra pumping stage can be employed such as the atmospheric air ejector. The atmospheric air ejector is installed at the pump suction and can enhance the operating pressure down to 5-10mm. In process vacuum applications the air ejector will receive its motive gas from the 2-phase discharge separator of the liquid ring to prevent cross contamination of gases when potential reactive gases are present. Atmospheric air ejectors work by using the pump suction to draw atmospheric air through the ejector's super-acoustic nozzle. Gas expansion entrains the suction gases entering from the system and then compresses both gas and air during the passage through the diffuser tube. The liquid ring vacuum pump takes this suction and carries it through the evacuation process. The common method of operation is to start the pump first allowing the pump to pull down to the optimum compression ratio. When this point of operation is reached the bypass valve can be closed to allow flow through the air ejector, discharging into the inlet of the liquid ring.

Normal compression ratios across the ejector are less than 8 times. For example if the process requires 6mm at the ejector suction then the liquid ring pump must be able to produce a minimum of 48mm Example: A liquid ring vacuum pump will produce 215acfm of air at 50mm suction pressure. Application requires the increase of operating range to 10mm suction pressure. Since the ejector is a mass flow device we must convert the liquid ring volumetric flow to a mass flow rate using PV=nRt or 64lbs/hr of air multiplied by the solution of the compression ratio .14 = 9lbs/hr air. Convert back to a volumetric flow rate will then yield 151.85acfm @ 10mm which represents the new system flow rate with the air ejector coupled to the liquid ring vacuum pump. Ejectors can be added to reduce the operating pressure even further, for example two ejectors discharging into a liquid ring pump will produce pressures under 1mm. Ejectors are very reliable, simple in design, operation and maintenance. They are available in a wide range of materials including cast iron, stainless steel, and high alloy steels. Learn more about moving under the vapor pressure limitations of a liquid ring part 2 You can contact me at scot@scotdesiderio.com