British Sugar

Date: January 2020
Acoustic Cleaner Model – 2 x PAS350

British Sugar use cyclones to remove dust and control particulate emissions from their animal feed dryers. At one factory, the cyclone classifier vanes were suffering from a regular deposit of very fine dust which built up over several weeks then started to fall off requiring the dryer to be taken off for cleaning to prevent environmental issues.

British Sugar investigated the issue but the root cause could not be firmly established. An investigation was then launched into online cleaning. Sonic Horns were chosen as an appropriate technology as they do not introduce steam into the system which needs to be dry. There was also believed to be a minimal risk of mechanical damage.

The horns use the existing site compressed air system so installation costs were reasonable. The Primasonics website and Youtube videos show the effectiveness of the system. Following a review of drawings and discussions between Primasonics and British Sugar, Primasonics  PAS350 systems were selected and have been installed on the cyclones.

Acoustic enclosures are fitted to the sonic horns to limit noise emissions as shown in the photograph above. The sonic horns have allowed the animal feed dryer to continue in operation with clean cyclones without having to come offline for cleaning.

The sonic horns sound every 5 minutes for just 10 seconds and this has effectively eliminated build up on the classifier vanes allowing continuous operation of the dryer.