This client is a leading API manufacturer in East China, with an annual production capacity exceeding 3,000 tons. Its main products include high-value-added APIs such as antibiotics and cardiovascular drugs. With increasingly stringent environmental regulations and increasing market demands for product purity, the client’s existing liquid ring vacuum system faced numerous challenges.

Main Issues Faced by the Customer:

• The liquid ring vacuum pump consumes over 500,000 tons of circulating water annually, resulting in high operating costs.
• The working fluid (water) comes into contact with solvent vapor, posing a risk of cross-contamination and impacting API purity.
• Frequent maintenance leads to extended production line downtime, impacting capacity utilization.
• Energy consumption reaches as high as 220kW, with electricity costs accounting for 18% of production costs.
• Wastewater treatment pressure is high, and environmental compliance costs are rising.

The customer sought a technology upgrade to achieve a zero-pollution, low-energy, and highly reliable solvent recovery system that would meet the stringent FDA and EU GMP certification requirements.

Based on the customer’s process flow and vacuum requirements, we recommended a dual-unit SDHV-200 dry screw vacuum pump solution. This solution offers the following key advantages:

System Configuration

• Main Pump Configuration: Two SDHV-200 dry screw vacuum pumps, one in active mode and one in standby mode, ensuring continuous production.
• Pre-condensation System: Three-stage condenser (+5°C / -10°C / -40°C), solvent recovery rate >98%
• Automatic Control System:PLC + touch screen, enabling unmanned automatic switching
• Safety Protection: Nitrogen protection, emergency pressure relief, and multiple temperature/pressure monitoring

Technical Innovations

Utilizing Shichang’s unique variable-pitch screw technology and intelligent temperature control system, the rotor temperature (80-150°C) can be automatically adjusted when processing high-boiling-point solvents, preventing corrosion and seizure caused by solvent condensation on the screw surface. The patented anti-corrosion-coated rotor is also suitable for use in strong acid and alkaline environments.

Implementation Period

The project took only 45 days from concept finalization to system commissioning, including the entire process of dismantling the old equipment, installing the new system, renovating the piping, integrating the DCS, and performing performance verification, minimizing disruption to production.