Vacuum Booster Pumps: Cost Effective and Power Efficient

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• The vacuum booster is a dry pump. It does not use any pumping fluid. Hence, it pumps vapours or gases with equal ease. Small amounts of condensed fluid can also be pumped through it.

• It has a very low pump friction losses, hence requires relatively low power for high volumetric speeds. Typically, their speeds, at low pressure are 20-30 times higher than corresponding vane pumps or ring pumps of equivalent rating.

• A vacuum booster can be used to generate vacuum in range of 0.001 torr, and maintain high volumetric speeds at such low pressure. At this pressure, the rotary oil and water ring pumps are not effective, as their pumping speed falls drastically when approaching the ultimate levels.

• A vacuum booster can be used over a wide pressure range, from atmospheric pressure down to 0.001 torr (mm of mercury), with suitable arrangement of backup pumps.

• Use of electronic control devices, such as Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), allows to modify the vacuum booster's operating characteristics to conform with the operational requirements of the prime vacuum pumps. Hence, they can be easily integrated to all existing pumping setups to boost their performance.

• Vacuum boosters are power efficient. Very often the combination of vacuum booster and primary pump result in reduced power consumption per unit of pumping speed. They provide high pumping speeds at low pressures (ref. Fig. 1).

• A vacuum booster has long M.T.B.F. (Mean Time Between Failures) and the normal service life is in excess of 7 to 10 years. Vacuum boosters donft have any valves, rings, stuffing boxes etc., also they do not demand regular maintenance arising due to constant wear and tear.

• Due to vapour compression action by the booster, the pressure at the discharge of booster (or inlet of prime pump) is maintained high, resulting in low back streaming of prime pump fluid. A suitable secondary condenser installed between the booster outlet and prime pump inlet would trap all the escaped vapours, thus keeping the prime pump free of any vapour load, thereby increasing its life, efficiency and minimising frequent oil change.

More on Vaccum Technology: Compressed Air/Vacuum Technology — Requirements Dictate System Design

Benefits of Using Vacuum Boosters for Distillation

Case study: Vacuum boosters used in menthol distillation An existing menthol distillation unit used 2 x 10 HP reciprocating piston vacuum pumps and was having problem in achieving and maintaining adequate vacuum. This resulted in poor quality product and low production rates. The distillation column had imported packing material, yet the desired final product quality and production rates could not be achieved, because of inadequate vacuum levels (ref. Fig. 2).

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