With the nominal treatment capacity of 8.000 l of spent emulsion per hour SEPAR 5000 is probably the biggest ultrafiltration unit ever built in Europe for this kind of application.
SEPAR 5000 unit has been installed in Gazoldo degli Ippoliti Head Quarter of the Marcegaglia Industries replacing an old unit supplied by CONDOROIL in 1992. However the impressive dimension, as to say 300 membranes installed and 1.000 mc of recirculating emulsion per hour, is not the main characteristic of the unit. The most important feature is, in fact, the broad versatility of SEPAR 5000 considering its capability to treat:
-Mineral oil based emulsion (e.g. From rolling mill and tube profiling)
-Syntetic lubrocoolant (e.g. From tube profiling or from skinpass of coils)
-Solvent based lubrocoolant (e.g. From tube cleaning or from stainless steel skinpass)
-Spent alkaline degreasers
-Water and oil mix (coming from pit cleaning)
The broad versatility of the unit has been achieved mainly thanks to the following three engineering choices:
-Very effective pretreatment step consisting of:
-Sedimentation and deoiling system based on coalescence on lamellar pack
-Magnetic filtration
-Band filtration
-Very robust and versatile membranes with tubular geometry and ceramic material
-Very effective cleaning procedures consisting of
-Continuous mechanical cleaning
-Chemical cleaning
-Backpulse countercurrent cleaning
