Using Equilibar Valves for Inline Conditioning

Carlyle Donevant, Design engineer at Equilibar, explains how an Equilibar FDO4 sanitary valve can be used to control flow in an inline blending application such as inline conditioning. Two identical FDO4 back pressure regulators are set up in a flow control loop, with one controlling water flowing at 10 milliliters per minute (ml/min) and the second controlling water flow at 1000 milliliters per minute (ml/min). A single Equilibar valve can achieve 100:1 flow turndown ratio. Information about how to set up a flow control loop is described in this video    • Flow Control using Equilibar Valves   .

The lab demonstration uses two independent water tanks pressurized to 1 bar, a typical pressure for buffer concentrate solution holding tanks. Each process line has its own control loop with representative high-accuracy flow transmitters signaling feedback to a PID controller. The PID output is signaling the electronic pilot controller of the Equilibar back pressure regulator to control the flow setpoint.

With a 100:1 flow turndown ratio, the Equilibar valve can be used to formulate a wide range of final buffer solutions for a chromatography process using a small number of concentrated buffer solutions. This will save on cost and footprint. Equilibar’s instantaneous response reaches the flow setpoint quickly, reducing waste compared with other delivery systems on the market. Similar control loops can be designed with feedback from pH, conductivity or temperature transducers as well.

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