How does purifier regeneration work?
8 questions and answers about purifier regeneration
1. How does purifier regeneration work?
In adsorber type purifiers, the moisture absorbed by the molecular sieve is removed by using a high temperature and purge gas.
Reactive catalyst type purifiers are regenerated by using hydrogen to reduce the copper oxide (or nickel oxide) to copper or nickel. The end result is a purifier in its original state.
All regeneration processes take place with the addition of more or less heat in order to precisely control the process sequence. The purge gas is usually a composition of different gases. A common purge gas is 3-7% hydrogen in nitrogen.
2. Can you measure if my purifier needs regeneration?
If your purifier is designed to also remove H2O, then we can measure how saturated the purifier is. However, in many cases it cannot be reliably said for all types of contaminants present in the purifier. We therefore recommend that purifiers are regenerated at the known dutycycle.
3. What is the quality of a regenerated purifier?
Our regeneration system has an H2O meter built into every output. This allows us to measure H2O at the start of regeneration and at the end of the proces. Determining how saturated the purifier was gives you an indication of the contamination introduced in your proces. This knowledge about your system can help controling your proces and in the dimensioning of new purifiers to be purchased.
For purifiers that do not remove H2O as an impurity we follow fixed regeneration procedures that are so oversized with respect to the amount of granulate that it far exceeds the maximum intake amount of the granulate. This is the same procedure that is followed before new purifiers are supplied. The purifier specification thus meets that of new purifiers.
4. Do you regenerate all brands of purifiers?
Yes, we regenerate purifiers of all brands, for example Entegris, or the former SAES. And also MOTT, NuPure, AES and ARM. It is important to know with which medium the purifier is filled. For Entegris purifiers we supply drop-in replacements, with the same specifications. This way the continuity of your process is guaranteed, because you only send us the old purifier when you have received the new one.
Photo: Destructive testing in the purifier laboratory of an Entegris purifier. The inlet filter is visible on the left.
5. Can my purifier type be regenerated?
It depends on the operating principle of the purifier. There are 4 different types of purifiers:
More information about the different types of purifiers:
Not sure what type of purifier you have? Please contact our sales engineers.
6. How long does regeneration take?
This strongly depends on the size of the purifier, but also on the process gas. A regeneration cycle can be successfully completed after 24 hours. But in other cases the process can take up to a week. Including quality control and logistic operations we use 2 weeks for standard regeneration commissions. We always include a planning in our offers.
7. When should my purifier be regenerated?
The duty cycle of a purifier depends on the flow, the operational time of the purifier and the amount of contamination in the supply. All these factors are taken into account when sizing the purifier. The size of the purifier vessel is tailored to the desired duty cycle of a purifier. Therefore we recommend that the purifier is regenerated as soon as its theoretical lifetime is reached and not to wait until performance degrades.
8. My gas quality is dropping faster than expected.
After commissioning a new system with purifier, the purifier will slowly lose its purification capacity. The configuration is based on the determining process parameters:
- Flow.
- Amount of contamination in the inlet.
- Desired purity at the outlet.
- Desired duty cycle.
If the quality of the purified gas deteriorates faster than expected, it is often one of the above parameters that deviates from the predetermined specifications. If this can be ruled out, then a leak in the supply system is a very likely cause that should be investigated.
Photo: A purifier regeneration skid.
Subcategories
Point-of-use gas purifiers
Are installed directly at the place of the consumer. Usually with a flow rate of 0.1-100 slpm.
More information
Micro-bulk gas purifiers
Also called Area purifiers. Are often used to feed a number of machines with ultra pure process gas. Nominal flows 100-1200 slpm.
More information
Bulk gas purifiers
Gas supply in semicon fabs, or at industrial gas suppliers. Flows of 60-20.000 nm3/h.
More information
Any Questions?
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