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Non-freezing liquid production: a business plan for success

Articles

While selecting an area for starting a business, the best choice is a product with high demand. The options are plentiful. This article, however, deals with the production of non-freezing liquid. The calculation is simple: the amount of automobiles grows every year, and none can be used in cold season without the product.

This liquid consists of water and various organic substances (glycol, alcohol, glycerin, perfume component). It can be used as antifreeze or as windscreen wash.

Although antifreeze is mostly used in winter, it is easy to readjust the production line for a different, but similar product. For instance, for windscreen or headlight washer, which is also required in summer.

Before setting out to develop a business plan, consider the following: ingredients of the product, material purchases, process technology, equipment and, of course the expected return on investment.

Product ingredients and material purchases

Both antifreeze and windscreen wash are made from practically the same materials. The only difference is the actual contents of ingredients.

To start making windscreen wash, the following materials must be purchased:

  • fragrance;
  • surfactant;
  • alcohol;
  • dyes;
  • water;
  • ethylene glycol.

It should be noted that in theory, the product may be made using other, less expensive components. Savings can be achieved by selecting a less expensive alcohol. It should be remembered that human health is more important than material cost. For instance, methyl alcohol is very toxic; vapors of methyl alcohol can cause severe poisoning if inhaled.

Besides, bottles and labels must be purchased in advance.

Process technology

The process of non-freezing liquid production is comparatively simple, making it lucrative for businesses. In general case, the process can be divided into the following sequence of stages:

  1. water purification;
  2. component mixing;
  3. heating;
  4. bottling;
  5. labeling;
  6. storage.

The technology is not at all influenced by the quantity of the product made. The same process with minor adjustment can be used for production of other fluids used by motorists in their vehicles.

Equipment selection

Every technology requires certain equipment for implementation. The non-freezing fluid is made by:

  • component blending system;
  • bottling machine;
  • labeling machine;
  • buffer tanks.

This is true of the production uses purified water. If tap water is used, a special purification system is required.

GlobeCore’s USB type blending unit works well for component mixing. Regular mixing methods may not offer the required product stability. The liquids in the product may separate. The USB unit is different from its counterparts, since the injection method and the hydrodynamic shock ensure stability of the fluid for long periods of time.

Modern hydrodynamic (stream) blenders proved to be economic, precise and reliable units to make high quality non-freezing fluids at optimal cost.

A blending process, which allows to supply all components simultaneously according to the formulation into a mixing collector, from where the product is sent to storage, is used in this blending system. The advantages of this technology is the pricese control of component supply ratio, a significant reduction of blending time and no need to used mixing tanks for homogenization of the product. The supply rate of each components is adjusted in constantly to ensure consistent product quality at the outlet.

Return on investment

Expert assessment shows that non-freezing liquid production reaches the breakeven point very rapidly. Due to USB blending system, money is saved and the profit margin is higher than that in traditional mixing processes, accelerating ROI by 60% annually and making the project pay for itself in one year or less.

It is difficult to specify the exact profit. It depends on production volumes, sales and distribution and pricing in your area.

Fuel saving additives: advantages and methods of mixing

Additive blending

When buying a vehicle, not all people consider fuel economy their first priority. The choice is often based on entirely different things: appearance, size, color, brand etc. Fuel economy could be insignificant if the fuel were cheap. However, the reality today is different. Petroleum products are high enough, and every motorists ponders fuel economy sooner or later. This is especially visible in the first few years, when the vehicle does not yet need repairs and spare parts, and the budget is spent on fuel most of the time.

What are additives?

An additive is a substance added to gasoline to improve it. There are many additives in the market now. Among them are:

  • anti-friction;
  • cleaning;
  • restoring;
  • dehydrating;
  • preserving.

The main idea of using additive is improvement of vehicle operation as well as saving on servicing and repairs.

Fuel economy additives

Fuel economy additives are produced in the form of pills or liquids. If the fuel is low octane and you enjoy speed, straining your engine, there is a risk of detonation combustion, causing engine wear.

The problem is solved quite simply: an octane number raising additive is mixed with the gasoline. This parameter is mostly influenced by the content of paraffin and aromatic hydrocarbons. The reasonable question is why not stock up on high octane fuel to protect oneself from possible price changes. Thing is, the high octane gasoline is more volatile than low octane. It must be fresh. A more reasonable way is to purchase and store low octane fuel and mix it with additives later.

How additives are mixed with fuel?

To mix additives with fuel in bulk volume, special equipment is required. The USB type units are made by GlobeCore for mixing of two to five different fluids, such as low octane gasoline with additives etc, production of composite motor fuels, including vegetable components, bioethanol, and for blending biodiesel with diesel. These systems are designed for oil refining industry and petrol retailers.

Composite fuel mixed using regular methods tends to separate with time. The USB blending system employs injection and hydrodynamic shock to increase the octane number of gasoline and keep the product stable for at least 180 days.

Modern hydrodynamic (stream) units have proven themselves as economic, precise and stable means of production of high quality motor fuels with optimal economic performance. The economy compared to regular mixing in tanks accelerates return on investment up to 60% and allows the project to pay for itself in one year or even less.

Windshield wash: ingredients define properties

Uncategorized

Windshield wash is always in demand, since no vehicle can do without it. Obviously, the better the sales, the more profit for the manufacture. Demand leads to increased prices. The higher the price, the more lucrative the production. Production, however, requires knowledge of the composition.

This information is not secret. Manufacturer are legally required to indicate the composition of their product on the label.

The base component of the windshield washer is alcohol. It assures stability to cold temperature. Most often, washer liquids are based on ethyl, isopropyl or methyl alcohol. The selection is limited by law and the influence of the alhocol on the human body (some substances may be banned for use).

Water is another component. Since the finished product must not contain contaminants or sediment, water should be sufficiently clean. Besides, if the water contains a lot of iron and mineral salts, the performance of the washing fluid suffers. Cloudy solution and sediment are harmful to the spraying nozzles.

Surfactants remove dirt from the glass surface, including wax, soot, dirt and exhaust sediment.

Ethylene glycol is required to keep the liquid flowing, actually preventing freezing of the washing liquid.

For color, dyes are mixed into the liquid. If the color is too dark, it might be because the liquid is low quality and the producer wants to hide cloudiness or sediment.

Odorants are used two attenuate the alcohol odor. Those are non-allergenic and safe. Most drivers and passengers prefer flower and herbal scents.

The magic cetane number

Diesel blending

Cetane number is one of the main parameters of diesel fuel, which indicates its combustibility. In the physical system, this number indicates the time it takes from the moment of injection into a cylinder to the beginning of fuel ignition. The higher the cetane number, the less the delay of mixture ignition. The scale of this parameter is 0 to 100. According to European standards, 51 is the minimum for diesel fuel.

If the cetane number is less than 40, such fuel is ruinous to the engine. Ignition delay increases sharply, pressure in the combustion chamber rises, piston assembly wear accelerates. At the same time, if the cetane number is too high, problems also arise, such as incomplete combustion, formation of soot, increased fuel consumption and smoke in the exhaust.

Determining diesel fuel cetane number

The most reliable method of cetane number measurement is by using a special calibrate engine. The results are used to calibrate other cetane number measurement devices, such as infrared spectrometers.

Since 2009 the engine method has been modified, based on ignition delay. The new process shows good convergence, repeatability and takes less time (measurement time reduced by 20 minutes).

Cetane number can also be measure by non-engine related methods. However, in this case the result is heavily influenced by the composition of the diesel fuel. In this respect the engine method is better: it allows to correctly measure the cetane number of any fuel.

Liquid oxygen production

Articles

Liquid oxygen is a light-blue fluid with strong paramagnetic qualities. This substance is one of the four states of aggregation of oxygen, and is used in aerospace and chemical industry, as well as in submarines.

The first notable gas liquefaction success belongs to Michael Faraday, in 1845. At that time there remained six gases which could not be liquefied, oxygen one of them. In 1877 in France and Switzerland two scientists, Louis Paul Cailletet and Raoul-Pierre Pictet obtained several drops of liquid oxygen, using different methods, however. For the first time, a measurable amount of liquid oxygen was produced in Poland by professors Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski and Karol Stanislaw Olszewski in 1883.

Special systems produce liquid oxygen. The substance is not heated to the ambient temperature, but is output in liquid state. Cold is used to liquefy oxygen, cover the loss of cold to the environment and the approach.

Large gaseous oxygen production units use most energy to separate the air, only 10-15% of the energy is used for cooling. Liquid oxygen production systems are different in that most energy (up to 65%) is used for cooling, and the rest is used for separation of air. This is why such systems are only as efficient as their refrigeration cycle.

The equipment for liquid oxygen production is usually designed for one or two pressure process. In the former case, one stream of air is supplied to separation section from the compressor to facilitate separation of air and refrigeration. In a two pressure system part of the air is compressed to 0.6 MN/m2, while the other part is compressed to an even higher pressure.

Flexible Tanks for Storage and Transportation of Oil-Products

Fuel blending

Flexible (elastic) tanks have been especially developed for transportation of petroleum products by sea and for their storage under water.  Such storage reservoirs are primarily made of materials with synthetic fibers, rubbers and plastics.  Preference is often given to rubber materials obtained by vulcanization of rubber mixtures.

Nylon, PVC, polyester, fluorine-containing fibers, polypropylene and copolymer are the most common synthetic fibers.  They have high strength and resistance to abrasion, influence of acids, oxidizing agents, light and atmosphere.

Synthetic rubber elastic tanks

Prior to manufacturing flexible storage reservoirs, both natural and synthetic rubber should be subjected to hot vulcanization that helps to receive durable material. Rubber mixture which is based on butadiene-acrylonitrile and polychloroprene caoutchouc has especially good features.

Plastic tanks

Plastic tanks for oil and oil-products are also widespread along with rubber storage reservoirs. Plastic coatings show good strength and resistance to the impact of most petroleum products and chemicals.

Elastic tanks are most commonly made in the form of a cylinder. Conical extensions are covered with special shells made of metal or fiberglass to strengthen them.

Ground tanks

Ground tanks have impermeable elastic covering. The holding capacity of such tanks depends on their cross-section shape and length. But there is a limitation: liquid surface area should not exceed 3000 m3. In practice, the holding capacity of ground tanks can vary from 1900 to 33000 gallons. Ground tanks require precast concrete constructions regardless of their capacity.

Preparation and homogenization of mixed fuels for storage in flexible tanks

For better storage in elastic tanks, fuel is prepared from relatively inexpensive primary components. The quality of the finished product (and so  fuel economy) depends on blending equipment.

Blending units have a special hydrodynamic blender. All the components are simultaneously supplied into a common reservoir. High quality commercial gasolines such as 92 RON, 92 RON EC, 95 RON, 95 RON EC, 98 RON and 98 RON EC are poured into a flexible tank for oil-products storage after blending.

The cost of mixed gasoline depends on the cost of starting components: alcohols, gaseous stable gasolines,  fuel economy, straight-run gasoline, lower octane gasolines and biological components of motor fuels as well as gasoline octane boosters.

The main advantages of GlobeCore blending technologies are a precise control of each component and reduced blending cycle. Mixed fuels that are prepared with the help of blending units, are characterized by high homogeneity, they do not settle or separate in long storage.

The soap income – treatment for the liquid soap production

Uncategorized

The recently popular liquid soap is in constant demand, with a large market for producers. Liquid soap has less drying effect on the skin, since it contains less alkali. Besides, it does not dry or turn into muck in the soap holder. Besides, the liquid soap is more healthy, not being touched by many people like solid soap is.

Liquid soap is produced by hydrolysis of fatty acid ester with alkali. This process is referred to as saponification. To prepare liquid soap, substitutes are used, such as colophony, tallow fat, fatty acids, nafta acids, or vegetable oil and animal fat.

The actual process used depends on the facility. The soap often contains softening, moisturizing or therapeutic components. Beside the obvious effects the above additives improve the liquid soap compared to regular alkaline soap.

Adding more ingredients into the soap, such as flavors, plant extracts, ester oils, of which many are natural components, increases the demand for the product. Saving on materials may increase the profit in the short run, but will not bring more sales ultimately.

There are several ways of producing liquid soap. Some of them are based in mixing of ingredients. However, there are such processes and melting and chipping, processing of solid soap into liquid using complicated machinery. Besides, solid soap has its own market and users.

The two other ways of making liquid soap – hot and cold – are considered more efficient.

The hot method, as is obvious from its name, involves heating of fats, saponification with alkali and cooling them, Dyes are rarely used with this process to increase product quality.

Making liquid soap using cold method is not only advantageous over teh hot process, but can be done using various blending equipment taken from other industries and improving liquid soap production.

Mixing of liquid soap allows to combine the process of adding dyes and flavors into a single operation.

At this time there is a variety of equipment to make liquid soap, mostly made in China. The process line includes a mixer, a mill, a forming machine, pressing machine, a refrigerator and a cutter, if solid soap is produced.

Therefore, using an all-in-one system for blending of liquid component is more efficient. Investments into new equipment return due to the high production capacity of the equipment, which accelerates production.

High quality product can only be made using good initial materials and efficient machinery. With universal blending systems and high quality ingredients, liquid soap production can be a winning strategy for good profit.

Single technological process of liquid detergents production, is it possible?

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Detergents can be solid, liquid, powder (granulated) and paste like. Although powders lead the sales, possessing the highest concentrations, the liquid detergents are also quite popular, not without the help of advertisement.

The production of liquid detergents involves preparation of complex multi-component mixes. These are based on synthetic detergents. They can increase foam and emulsification of the product and reduce water interfacial tension. Such component is usually a surfactant: anionic, amphoteric, cationic  and non-ionogenic.

The higher the detergent effect and surfactant biodegradability, the better and more efficient the detergent.

The production of detergents uses such materials as hydroxyolefinsulfonates, fatty acid ester sulfonates, oxyethylated fatty alcohol sulfates. Alkylsulfates is another popular additive due to good detergent action and high degradability.

Specific surfactants exist in the recipes of detergent production as anti-statics, corrosion inhibitors, water repellants, emulsifiers and disinfectants.

The process of liquid detergent production includes several stages, such as, preparation of the mix, drying and packaging. The first stage is the process of mixing surfactant with additives. The resulting solution is uneven and requires processing through a colloid mill.

To avoid breaking the technology process into too many stages and to accelerate the production process, as well as to homogenize the fininshed producti, a modern liquid blending system should be used. This allows to combine several stages of production into one, managed by computer-controlled formulation, precise dosage of the components, continuous mixing and fast production rate.

The obsolete methods of liquid detergent production have significant drawbacks, such as high energy costs, high consumption of materials, negative environmental effects and possible decomposition of sodium tripolyphosphate.

Some elements of the blending equipment: stainless steel mixing chamber, the pump, a separate intermediary vessel, fast replaceable filters and portioning devices are now all included in the new liquid blending unit. Coarse and fine filters, portioners, powerful pumps all increase the general production rate of the liquid detergent; the same equipment can be used for other applications.

The product range of synthetic detergent producer and the company’s ability to develop depend on many parameters. These include the cost of materials and power, changes of modern washing appliances, environmental standards, temperature and mineral content of water, application of the detergent and, of course, on the performance of equipment used to make the detergent.

Production of energy drinks: it is not about dangers, but about benefits

Articles

Energy drinks are made for people with active lifestyle. First drinks referred to as energy drinks were manufactured in the end of the 20th century. They are now available in any bar or club as a means to remove fatigue, or in gyms for some quick calories.

While harm or benefits of energy drinks are debated in the media, the actual production process is very similar to the production of any other drink and the only difference is in the composition.

This article deals with the production of energy drinks and their benefits to supplier companies. The debate about possible harm from this product is, surprisingly, just another type of advertisement.

Production of energy drinks involves mixing water with various components and additives, such as sugar, glucose, caffeine, theobromine, taurine,  glucuronolactone, L-carnitine, D-ribose, B vitamins, guarana and ginseng.

This product may be made using expensive special and separate pieces of equipment, or single universal mixing units which significantly simplify the production process.

Products blended using such equipment are not only clean and safe, but also based on a unique formulation developed using the blending system. The equipment is suitable for production of water, juice, cold tea, energy drinks etc.

The process of making energy drinks using blending systems involves adding special components to the main water stream, using portioning devices, according to the recipe.

Temperature, mixing rate, component consumption control and the high production rate make this equipment quite advantageous.

The company which starts up an energy production process, has a large choice of raw materials and equipment. According to research, the capacity of this equipment is several times that of the older, more cumbersome equipment for drink production. The control software meets the demands of the modern client. Companies can set up custom production process to substantiate future profits with technological investments.

Is production of liquid fertilizers the result of agricultural boom?

Articles

Liquid fertilizer came into wide production and use by the customers in the end of the 20th century. The process of application of such fertilizer can be fully automated, since spraying of the liquid or adding it during planting does not require operator interference. Among the advantages of liquid fertilizer compared to dry mixes is simple storage, transportation, safety and, most importantly, low cost of production. They are also independent from the weather and moisture.

Liquid fertilizer contain, beside nitrogen and phosphorus, ammonia, urea ammonium nitrate solutions, potassium chloride. Production of liquid fertilizers can be performed at cold or hot temperature.

Naturally, production of liquid fertilizers should be organized together with production of dry fertilizer at the same facility. Combining the two production processes in one location allows to reduce raw material losses by using the share of unprocessed phosphoric acid and ammonia left over from switching the facilities from one type of fertilizer to another. This increases production capabilities and efficiency.

The range of liquid fertilizer products must comply with the demands of the agriculture. The production must meet the demand and offer quality products. Companies must always increase the technological capacity.

There is no special equipment as such in the production liquid fertilizer. The equipment used is mostly various types (vacuum, mill, vane) of mixing equipment.

GlobeCore’s USB type units, which are becoming quite popular with the manufacturers worldwide, are more and more used in basic chemical processes, being formerly employed mostly in the fuel production industry.

The USB type unit makes the process of liquid  fertilizer production more efficient due to high rate of production and compensates the time required to purity the liquids from contaminants.

If the units are equipped with filters, they also reduce the amount of operations performed using other equipment.

Semi-automatic control facilitates easy process management, allowing the unit to be used without the operator according to the formulation, maintaining temperature and component portioning.