Flushing, pressurisation and stripping
Flushing is the operation of using a transport fluid to remove various kinds of substances or contaminants from piping, apparatus or plant sections. SOL offers as fluid the main technical inert gases, for example nitrogen, argon and in some cases carbon dioxide: the application of the flushing technology and in particular the type of gas, the pressure and operational flows and the way the flushing gas is distributed in the plant are suggested for the specific needs of each customer on the basis of the know-how and experience SOL has built up over the years.
Pressurisation is a technique applied to guarantee that the pressure inside and apparatus is greater than that of the surrounding environment so as to ensure that no fluids (for example air) from the environment can enter or to make it possible to move the substances present simply by using pressure. Nitrogen, argon and in some cases carbon dioxide are used for this technology to guarantee safety of operation and the absence of atmospheric oxygen that could lead to degradation by oxidation of several characteristic products of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Stripping or degassing is used to transfer more volatile or less soluble components from a liquid phase to a gaseous phase to remove undesired components from certain products, possibly also to reuse the liquid: for example oxygen can be removed from a liquid by bubbling an inert gas such as nitrogen or argon with SOL technology and apparatus so as to avoid any oxidation.