Mixing in tanks
Mixing in tanks
(OP)
Hi,
I'm wondering what options there are when improving the mixing of liquids in a tank.
The situation is that we have a couple of tanks, in which we mix several different liquids.
The current design is that we have a pump around with the circulation enters the tank at the top.
Question I have is what other options are available to improve this process?
Greetings
Ben
I'm wondering what options there are when improving the mixing of liquids in a tank.
The situation is that we have a couple of tanks, in which we mix several different liquids.
The current design is that we have a pump around with the circulation enters the tank at the top.
Question I have is what other options are available to improve this process?
Greetings
Ben





RE: Mixing in tanks
Perhaps just an increase in recirculation rate? Improved baffling and entry direction of the recirculation nozzle?
RE: Mixing in tanks
http://www.s-k.com/pages/pro_01_04.html
http:/
RE: Mixing in tanks
Good reference texts for this sort of thing are "Mixing in the Process Industries" by Harnby, Edwards and Nienow, or "Handbook of Industrial Mixing" by Paul, Atiemo-Obeng and Kresta.
RE: Mixing in tanks
The links helped me in the right direction.
Zerosum:
Adding agitators was the first idea, but the installation was seen as a big problem (cost vs budget), knowing the current design of the tanks. Basically the tanks were not designed for any addition of agitators etc. So the construction would give a relatively high cost.
JonHall:
The fluids are miscible, although highly viscous. Thanks for the reference texts
Grtz
Ben
RE: Mixing in tanks
RE: Mixing in tanks
RE: Mixing in tanks
Can you use an inline mixer to blend the fluids before they enter the tank?
Can you use a side entry mixer mounted on a man door?
RE: Mixing in tanks
If this is a viscous fluid then that air may be difficult to get rid of.
Fuel oils are often blended by what is called "barge mixing" but is in reality batch mixing where residual fuel and then distillate fuel are batched into a tank and then mixed by re-circulating the fuel. How god the mixing is depends on the equipment and the available time.
Some such operations simply rely on the circulation and in one case it was revealed that the return was so close to the pump suction that virtually no mixing took place. Returns are always to a low level to avoid aerating the fuel (though unscrupulous operators can get huge volumes of air into the fuel by other means).
One operator has the return pipe horizontal across the bottom of the tank with a number o holes in the pipe along its length (they claimed this was not just effective but also silent having borrowed the design from submarines for some reason).
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Mixing in tanks
In heavy oil tanks we typically use mixers that bolt up to a ground-level tank manway.
h
We have occassionally used a jet mixer that uses a pump around entering below the liquid level.
RE: Mixing in tanks
RE: Mixing in tanks
First I'd recommend you make this a new post since you are dealing with a separate issue.
My first question would be is what is the tank made of?