Cleaner Salt Brine Manufacturing

Gary David Browning
Operations Administrator, CPM
City of Dublin, Ohio

Please visit our website for more information on this topic.

With winter season looming all transportation authorities responsible for snow and ice response are beginning to ready their winter fleets as well as resources. Each year provides its new challenges in light of making adjustments to the lessons that were learned in previous years. I would like to share a lesson that we learned and a tool that has saved our salt brine manufacturing and application systems!

Have you ever experienced purchasing less than superior salt for your salt barns? Salt containing debris, contaminates or other trace aggregates that can damage equipment? If you have, you are aware of the damage this can cause to your manufacturing and application systems. This debris cycles through the brine pumps, deposits into the storage tanks and then pumped into the trucks, leaving the wetting system clogged and inoperable. This causes increased downtime and limited ability for salt to perform effectively in decreasing temperatures. Our community experienced this problem firsthand and we were frustrated. After much fleet turmoil and personal research no one seemed to have a definite answer! Previous ideas from vendors included more frequent cleaning of manufacturing equipment, more selective observations of salt added to the brine maker, and emptying the storage tanks to vacuum out debris. These ideas were plausible; however, none would prevent the issue from continuing.

I continued my research and began thinking of remedies outside of snow and ice application systems. I began looking at agricultural and industrial operations. My research lead me to learning about the &#;Hydrocyclone Separator.&#;

What is a Hydrocyclone Separator and how does it work?

Hydrocyclone Separators, known as sand separators or centrifugal filters, are mainly used for the removal of particles such as sand and other solids from the irrigation water. The Hydrocyclone Separators are mounted in a vertical position. The liquid enters through the side inlet and forced downward producing a centrifugal movement. This centrifugal action forces heavy particles downward in a spiral motion to a separation chamber. The particles collect in this separation chamber and are purged from the system. The filtered liquid is then drawn through the separator&#;s outlet to its intended use.

After discovering this tool, I wondered if it would benefit our existing salt brine manufacturing and application. I decided it was worth a try!

Our community purchased one 3&#; Hydrocyclone Separator. We chose to install our unit on the truck-fill side of our storage tanks. While this would not prevent new debris from entering the storage tanks it would prevent all debris from entering the onboard truck brine system. Our first year was a huge success! We experienced no pre-wetting system clogs due to debris or trapped aggregates as in years past. We are now entering our third year with the original Hydrocyclone Separator unit. We could not be more pleased with this discovery. I have included pictures of the unit as well as purged debris from the system.

I hope this information will assist your efforts to provide safe and superior services to your community. Please reach out to me at with any questions.

For more information, please visit HESPER.

Stay warm and have a safe winter!

Hydrocyclone is a kind of equipment for classification and separation by centrifugal force. Due to its advantages such as fine grading granularity, small occupation area and simple structure, it is often used in the mineral processing industry for classification of coarse and fine minerals, as well as dehydration and concentration of pulp.

However, in the use of hydrocyclone, the equipment is prone to wear problems. Among them, the sand sink and feed port wear more serious. Below, we will analyze the causes of wear in hydrocyclones and share some common solutions to wear problems.

1. The impact and frictional sliding of ore particles on the wall surface of hydrocyclone cause the wear of the wall surface

During the operation of the hydrocyclone, due to the size difference between the coarse particles and the fine ore particles in the slurry, the mineral particles enter the hydrocyclone shell through the feed pipe under the action of pressure. Under the action of centrifugal force, the coarse particles move downward with the slurry, and finally discharge from the settling mouth, while the fine particles flow upward with the slurry and discharge from the overflow pipe. In the process of operation, the mineral particles deviate from the flow direction of the flow field under the action of centrifugal force and make a strong rotational motion. Under the intense scour of treated pulp, the wall of the hydrocyclone is impacted and rubbed by mineral particles, which causes serious wear problems.

Solution: 

The wear and abrasion of hydrocyclones have been paid much attention. In order to solve the problem of serious wear of hydrocyclones, the use of wear-resistant materials is one of the main ways to solve the problem of wear of hydrocyclones. At present, commonly used wear-resistant materials are: rubber, alloy cast iron, cast stone and so on. In order to solve the problem of severe wear on the wall surface of hydrocyclone, the commonly used method is to lining the inside of hydrocyclone with rubber, cast iron or coated with abrasion-resistant material, or the whole hydrocyclone is made of wear-resistant rubber, so as to increase the wear-resistant property of hydrocyclone wall. When choosing and buying a hydrocyclone, it is necessary to pay attention to the wear resistance of the equipment. For example, xinhai mineral assembly can provide rubber liner and liner, its wear resistance is good, can greatly increase the wear resistance of hydraulic cyclone.

2. Wear near hydrocyclone inlet and nozzle

The structure of the hydrocyclone is relatively simple. It mainly consists of a conical shell, a cylindrical shell, a pipe inlet, a sand-settling outlet, an overflow pipe and an overflow outlet. The wear of hydrocyclones is most serious in the sand sinking and feeding orifice. The abrasion of the inlet increases the area of the discharge outlet, increases the output of the sediment, decreases the concentration, and seriously affects the separation efficiency of the hydrocyclone.

Solution: 

In order to solve the problem of wear of sand settling port and feeding port, the method of making the easy wear parts of sand settling port and feeding port into replaceable parts can be adopted. The wear-resistant protective layer can also be prepared on the inner wall of sand sinking mouth. In addition, the sand sink of the hydrocyclone can be made into a variable structure. The optimization of feeding mode of hydrocyclone is also beneficial to alleviate the wear problem of hydrocyclone. For example, the inlet of xinseawater force cyclone adopts involute direction to feed the material, which is beneficial to increase the centrifugal force of the material, which not only improves the grading effect of the hydrocyclone, but also greatly reduces the wear of the feed box.

3. The unreasonable structure of the hydrocyclone causes some local severe wear

Although the structure of the hydrocyclone is relatively simple and the installation operation is relatively easy, if the hydrocyclone is manufactured or installed with poor quality or the structure is not reasonable, some local severe wear will be easily caused.

Solution: 

The installation method of the cyclone is usually vertical, but it can also be horizontal, oblique or inverted. When choosing the installation method of the hydrocyclone, it shall be installed correctly according to the installation instructions of the purchased equipment and under the guidance of the concentrator manufacturer. In order to avoid serious wear and tear of hydrocyclone due to improper installation as far as possible, it is necessary to choose the processing equipment manufacturer with strong equipment manufacturing capacity, installation and service when choosing and buying hydrocyclone.

Above, listed three aspects about the hydraulic cyclone wear reasons and solutions. In view of the serious wear of hydrocyclone, the simplest and most effective way is to choose the type of hydrocyclone with good wear resistance when buying hydrocyclone.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit hydro cyclone separator.