The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

Choose suitable air agitation compressor

Quickstart:
     Plating tanks and other wet process tanks can benefit from air agitation (air pumped to the bottom of the tank, then allowed to bubble up), but shop air from an air compressor will be too high pressure and likely to contaminate the tank with oil. Low pressure blowers, most commonly inexpensive regenerative blowers, are a better answer.

Q. Hello, I'm a final year students of chemical engineering, I wanna ask how to choose a suitable agitation condenser for a rectangular shape tank of 2.43 m x 2.43 m dimension. the diameter of the hole/pipe through which the air is escape = 2 inch and the number of holes is four(4). can you please explain more in detail the calculation steps.thank you

Jane D.
student - Sabah, Malaysia
February 21, 2011

A. Step 1 is names- It is a compressor, not a condenser.
If you want to air agitate a chemical tank, do not use a compressor as you will end up with oil in the air.

What you want is a regenerative blower.

If you google that, you will find a number of companies that make them. They used to freely pass out brochures on their equipment, so I will guess that it is on line now.

Next, you failed to say what size the 4 holes were going to be. That is critical to sizing as is depth of solution and specific gravity.

Next I think that only 4 holes is a poor way to agitate a tank. Most people will use a series of small holes down the pipe.Typical would be in the 1 mm range.

Next, the pipe will want to float, so you need something or a weight to hold it down or the other end will bend up.

Then you need a tiny hole in the pipe at a high point such as where it comes over the top of the tank or it will siphon liquid back into the system. Most companies sell siphon breakers that go near the output of the blower, but I still like the tiny hole as cheap insurance, especially if the blower is lower than the top of the tank.

Come back with more questions after you have done your homework.

It is intelligent to use available resources. See if there isn't a sales facility for at least 1 brand of blower in your area. Be nice and they probably will offer lots of information/help.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

A. First point-use a blower, not a compressor.
Second point-figure on sufficient air to raise the solution level 2.5 cm

James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida