Optimisation of the process in the “Vparilnica” plant

The company in which im employed is a widley known manufacturer of specialised materials in the field of zeolites, special alumina, silicates and boehmites. It spans across 14 productions facilities, for my thesis i choose a problem in the Evaporator facility.

In the process we had to be careful since we were working with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as. Caustic soda. Sodium hydroxide is very basic and can cause very severe burns, that’s why we used the mandatory protective equipment which protected our health and body.

The protective equipment will be described later. In the facility it is important to warn of the obligations to wear safety equipment, workers have to ensure their own safety and and the safety of other employees, only after that they can start working, the duty of the employer is to provide the necessary safety equipment for the workers and to remind them to use is.

In the thesis there will be a list of different types of maintenance and we will find out what types of maintenance they do in the Silkem company. Because in the past the workers regulated the flow of water by opening and closing valves, they have now decided they will do an optimisation of the company so the work will be done by a pump.

That’s how they made the work of the Evaporator facilities crew easier since the work with valves took alot of time and they weren’t productive enough at their assigned tasks. The company decided to get a newer pump that has a frequency converter and flow meter.

The previous centrifugal pump didn’t have those which caused a bigger usage of electrical energy and because of that there was an impact on the monthly electricity expenses. In the following i will describe the problems we faced in this thesis, both pumps will be compared to see which is will be cheaper to maintain throughout the year.

I will include an equation that compares the usage of electricity between the new and the old pump. After that there will be a description of the company Silkem, which has been successfully running it’s business for years, we will learn what the company does, what is the main source of profit and how it was founded.

We will find out what are the benefits, drawbacks and the components of the centrifugal pump. At the end of the thesis we will focus on designing the main board for mounting and dismounting the centrifugal pump to the foundations in the

Evaporator facility, there will be a list of materials which are appropriate for this production i.e can withstand such corrosion, because every time we are choosing materials or work equipment we need to keep in mind that we are working in an environment that is susceptible to corrosion and it can happen that a material doesn’t withstand the corrosion in the Silkem facilities.

With that we prevent quicker part replacement of the machines, which can impact the financial losses of the company .