Energy & Power Applications

Distillation

Distillation is the thermal process of separating different solvents varying in temperature, pressure, and composition from a liquid mixture by selective boiling and condensation in order to increase the condensation of those selected components. In order to separate the solvents from each other, vapor has to be removed from a boiling liquid mixture and recondensed after evaporation. Vacuum pumps are ideal for the removal of non-condensable water and light solvents by providing pressure variation to allow for further separation.

 

Vapor Recovery

Vapor recovery units are often incorporated into pipeline systems in order to remove harmful contaminants from crude oil products, improving purity levels and preventing the release of toxic pollutants into the environment. Local environmental protection authorities have established guidelines for the process and storage of gas and chemical products, placing heightened response on industries to create sustainable ways to lessen vapor pressure in tanks and prevent emission release. A blower is often used in vapor recovery to boost pressure in a pipeline and push the gas into another process where it can be reused, or sent to a natural gas compressor.

Landfill Gas

M-D Pneumatics blowers are becoming more commonly used in landfill gas applications. The cost of energy continues to rise and the means by which to produce it are becoming more expensive and coming under increased scrutiny for various reasons including the amount of pollution released in the process. At the same time, municipal landfills are exceeding capacity and uses are being made for the decomposing organic waste. One of those uses is converting landfill gas to energy. As the waste in a landfill decomposes, a form of natural gas is created, commonly referred to as Landfill Gas, (LFG). LFG is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide along with some other non-organic compounds. The gas is gathered for various reasons, primarily for odor control and to prevent it from going into the atmosphere. During this process, blowers are used to help collect and move the gas. Generally the gas is gathered under a slight vacuum and discharged at around 5 psig into a header that feeds the landfill gas as a fuel to a special natural gas engine that drives the generators which actually convert it to electricity where the gas is used to power the landfill operations, sold to a local utility provider or even used to power certain types of vehicles.

 

Solar Power

 

1ST GENERATION CELL (CRYSTALLINE SILICON)

Producing Poly silicon Solar grade silicon is produced in the reactors using metallurgical grade silicon by means of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The process introduces silane gas with high temperature polysilicon rods inside a cooled bell jar. The silicon contained in the gas will deposit on the heated rods, which gradually grow until the desired diameter has been reached. The usage of a vacuum system is to evacuate the reactors prior to a chemical reaction taking place. Vacuum operating level for this application is anywhere from 0.5 to 1 Torr. Kinney® can supply either booster/piston systems, booster/vane systems or booster/dry pumping systems.

 

2ND GENERATION CELL (THIN FILM)

Many thin-film devices are based on amorphous silicon alloys. Other thin-film devices are usually poly-crystalline materials. The fabrication of a thin-film solar cell involves depositing a layer of semiconductor material (such as amorphous silicon, copper indium gallium diselenide, or cadmium telluride) on a low-cost substrate, such as glass, metal, or plastic. Current deposition techniques can be broadly classified into physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) or some combination of them. Vacuum pumps will see toxic, corrosive, explosive, pyrophoric and light gases such as hydrogen, Silane, helium, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), phosphine, Germane, Boron Trifluoride and many more depending on process and technology. In addition, vacuum pumping speeds and rapid chamber cycling are essential. Our two stage vacuum systems meet the above requirement. Our systems equipped with NEMA control panel to operate on/off the system as well as safety interlocks for the system such as high oil temperature and high gas discharge temperature. Inert gas purge controls also provided to suit the application.