Process Vacuum Applications

Wintek has been providing solutions to process applications operating at vacuum conditions since 1986, including the biodiesel, chemical, environmental, food, pharmaceutical, and plastics industries. Our focus is on process and equipment reliability for your application at a reasonable cost.

Biodiesel: Vacuum Flash Extraction Systems

Many applications require separation of two or more liquids from a common process stream. One example is in Biodiesel production which requires extraction and methanol recovery from the Biodiesel (methyl ester) and glycerin streams. Another example is dehydration of Biodiesel after a water wash, or pre-drying feed oil. These extractions can be accomplished by either distillation or flash evaporation. Wintek offers complete skid mounted systems for these applications.

Molecular Sieve Dehydration Systems

Other applications require more difficult separations, such as dehydration of alcohols (removal of water from methanol, ethanol, IPA, etc).  Distillation is the most common method with these separations, however if the water content is less than 20%, Molecular Sieve Dehydration (MSDU) can provide considerable energy savings (up to 50%). Wintek provides these as packaged, skid-mounted systems, pre-piped and wired which significantly minimizes installation cost and time.

Click here to view our article on methanol recovery for Biofuels International May 2010 edition.

Many applications require vacuum pumps and/or vapor recovery (water or solvents), which we can incorporate into our vacuum system design.  Because vacuum pumps draw gases and vapors into the pump, proper selection of vacuum pumps in process applications requires more than just knowing the cfm of the gases. Wintek reviews your process operation and considers the vapors and gases which may reach the vacuum pump, including process upsets, when designing a vacuum system to provide mechanical and process reliability. 

Our expertise includes Liquid Ring, Rotary Vane, Once-Thru-Oil Rotary Vane, and Dry Vacuum Pumps. Or we may recommend multi-stage hybrid designs with 1st stage lobe blowers (boosted) or steam jets. 

We review your application and requirements, and explain the advantages and/or disadvantages of each type of vacuum pump so that you can understand our recommendation. Our focus is on vacuum pump reliability in your application at a reasonable cost. 

Wintek's 25 years of vacuum experience starts with Paul Winter,P.E., President. Mr. Winter worked for Nash Engineering for 7 years designing liquid ring vacuum pump systems for chemical applications, and 2 years with Kinney getting experience with rotary piston vacuum pumps and booster systems before starting Wintek in 1986. Since that time, Wintek has supplied hundreds of vacuum systems using vacuum pumps from Busch, Dekker Vacuum (DVT), Kinney, Intervac, Nash, Rietschle, Siemens and Stokes, including liquid ring vacuum pumps, rotary vane vacuum pumps, once-thru-oil rotary vane vacuum pumps, dry screw vacuum pumps, and booster (rotary lobe blower) vacuum systems using all these vacuum pump types. Expanding on this process vacuum background, Wintek pushed into customer’s needs for vapor recovery and separations. 

For additional information, Call: (973) 252-8200, Fax: (973) 252-8233, or Email Sales at Wintek-Corp.com