Sodium Sulfate is a salt of strong mineral acid
i.e. Sulfuric Acid & base such as Sodium Hydroxide
or Sodium Carbonate. Solubility of Sodium Sulfate
in water is 48.8 % at 40oC. Conventionally Sodium
Sulfate is separated from water by evaporation.
Since water has high heat capacity & latent
heat of vaporization, energy requirement for evaporation
is more. Thus water evaporation is very energy
intensive & ultimately costly affair.
Antisolvent is an entity, which
reduces solubility of the solute. Antisolvents
are generally organic substances, which reduces
solubility of solute by binding the water. Proper
application of Antisolvent can reduce the solubility
of the solute to such an extent that solute will
crystallize out from the solution. Antisolvent
technology can be applied for separation of Sodium
Sulfate from its aqueous solution. Preliminary
experiments have confirmed this. Thus energy intensive
evaporation technology can be replaced by Antisolvent
technology.
Viability of antisolvent technology
is dependent on the choice of the antisolvent.
The prime criterion for selection of antisolvent
is its effectiveness i.e. extent to which the
solubility of solute is affected because of presence
of antisolvent. Second most important criterion
is recovery of antisolvent from aqueous phase
after separation of solute. The organic substances,
which are partially miscible with water and solute
can be employed as antisolvent, because they can
be recovered by temperature induced liquid-liquid
separation.
Application:
Where evaporation is in practice for
removal of water from an aq. stream of sodium
sulfate.
Benefits:
- Pure saleable Product
- 50% reduction in capital and operating cost
- Energy saving
- Earning Carbon credits
- Payback < 12 months
Typical
Case Study
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