IMPROVEMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF AN EXISTING FATLIQUOR PILOT PLANT
IMPROVEMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF AN EXISTING FATLIQUOR PILOT PLANT
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Date
2000-08
Authors
UGWU, Johnson Obunwa
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Abstract
Experimental and theoretical investigations were conducted on an
existing sulphation pilot plant facility for production of leather lubricant,
sulphated oil popularly known as fatliquor. This was carefully and critically
done to evaluate the performance of the plant in respect of attaining the
required process conditions. These include maintaining the sulphation
reaction temperature of 25°C to reduce side reactions to enhance optimum
yield of the desired product. In addition, the study evaluated the possibility
of using the plant for as much smaller feed as possible, per batch of
production, to reduce cost of experimentation on the plant.
The test-runs revealed some design Lapses, such as the reaction
temperature rising up to 41"C in the three test runs that were done. This
may indict the cooling system that was earlier on, observed to have placed
serious restriction on wide variation of process input required of a research
project. A redesign of the cooling system was done as part of the
investigations to confirm the observed under-functioning. The redesign
Description
A THESIS
Presented to
The Postgraduate School
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Keywords
IMPROVEMENT, PERFORMANCE, EXISTING, FATLIQUOR, PILOT, PLANT