Treatment of Sodium-Methylat with Conti-TDS

Sodium-Methylat is a fine, white powder which flows very easily and is mainly used for the production of margarine or food oil for the saponification process.

The treatment of Sodium-Methylat and especially the open handling of the powder is very critical.
Sodium-Methylat pollutes the skin and the slimy coating of the throat. It is easy flammable and is considered as explosive - a fire on the basis of Sodium-Methylat is difficult to extinguish, water may not be used in this case.

The ystral Conti-TDS proved to be an optimal solution for all users who treat the powder with our machine. All users who tested the machine for some time immediately ordered it to avoid problems mentioned above and to improve processing time and reduce the quantity of powder needed in the process.

Use of the ystral Conti-TDS

The ystral Conti-TDS is attached to the vessel and circulates the liquid.
The flow of the liquid creates a vacuum that is used to induct the powder, wets and disperses it.
For Sodium-Methylat it is not important to have a fast induction but to find a dosing rate where the reaction starts with a minimum of powder.
The dosing is adjusted by a throttling pipe in the powder inlet.

• Powder induction is effected dust-free and in a closed system.
• The induction rate varies between 30 and 100 kg/h, faster induction rates are possible but
  do not have a reasonable application yet.
• Sodium-Methylat is extremely hygroscopic and may not be inducted under normal air.
• For this reason, the powder has always to be covered with a layer of dry air or Nitrogen.
• As the ystral Conti-TDS does not need any extra air to fluidise the powder, it is absolutely no problem to induct under a layer of dry air or Nitrogen.

For the handling of bags, ystral developed a special hopper which is equipped with a knife to cut the bags open. The bag is submersed into the vessel, cut open and emptied. The hopper is closed and flooded with dry air or Nitrogen.
Induction is carried out from the bottom of the hopper.

For 200 l barrels, ystral can offer different handling systems.
It may be handled with a manual system or a fully automatic system, including weighing of the amount of powder to be inducted.

Results

Main aspect is the dust-free handling and operation.
Because of a higher efficiency of the ystral Conti-TDS, it is possible to increase the speed of the reaction compared to the conventional handling.
In one case the processing time was reduced from 27 h to 5 h only, in another case from 8 h to 1.5 h.
In two cases the amount of powder needed to achieve the reaction was decreased by about 7%.
The unwanted gases created during the process were dramatically reduced because of having the advantage to work in a closed system where no gas can escape.
Extremely large vessel do not have to be opened, the risk of any problem is avoided.
Exact dosing is possible. Because of the external set-up of the system, it is easy to integrate it easily into existing plants.
For the handling of bags, ystral developed a special hopper which is equipped with a knife to cut the bags open.
The bag is submersed into the vessel, cut open and emptied.
The hopper is closed and flooded with dry air or Nitrogen.
Induction is carried out from the bottom of the hopper. For 200 l barrels, ystral can offer different handling systems.
It may be handled with a manual system or a fully automatic system, including weighing of the amount of powder to be inducted.

Remarks about the description of the powder

Sodium-Methylat is also known as Sodium-Methalonat or Sodium-Methoxid.
A similar product is Sodium-Ethylat, with similar behavior and may be treated in the same way as Sodium-Methylate