Samson PFEIFFER announces the success of its Type 14p PSA valve 2-year field test. The double-eccentric butterfly valve for high demanding applications in industrial gas separation processes was in service at a third-party pharmaceutical company in Switzerland over a two-year period. After the valve was removed, it was completely dismantled and inspected. Neither seat leakage nor fugitive emissions were found during the leak tests despite frequent switching cycles and fast opening and closing times.
According to the recommendations developed by PFEIFFER and the third-party company, predictive maintenance is not required until after five year’s operation or once the valve has performed 500,000 switching cycles.
The results are significant as this valve is used in pressure swing adsorption processes to recover hydrogen from gas mixtures containing hydrogen. It enables a high purity of the gas product to be achieved, for example 99.99 percent for hydrogen, more than 96 percent for biogas, and 94 percent for oxygen.
Such high degree of purity demands a lot from the control and shut-off butterfly valves: bidirectional tight shut-off functionality, short opening and closing times of less than one second, and a high level of operational reliability guaranteed for up to one million cycles.
The end result is a rugged high-performance valve for the high-tech sector which passed the test in a challenging industrial application.