ACHEMA at large

By general agreement, the triennial Achema meeting and exhibition is the world's largest event for chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology.

With exhibits spread over ten halls, many of which are multi-storeyed, Achema is daunting for the visitor. But conveniently, the halls and exhibits are categorised along recognisable unit operations lines. You will pick up on the details when you get there, but for our brief snapshot here and on the following pages, we have followed roughly the same groupings.

Starting with filtration and separation, making its debut in Frankfurt is a new wedge-wire hygienic stainless steel filter from PCI-MEMTECH (enter 280 on enquiry card). Aimed at the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries, the 6in diameter filter can take out particles down to 50micron from process feeds at flow rates of up to 40m3/h. This can be seen in Hall 4.2, while downstairs in 4.1 WEHRLE ENVIRONMENTAL (281) from the UK joins its German parent to demonstrate their recent successes in the field of biological treatment combined with membrane filtration. The latest development here is the Bio-Loop, a membrane bioreactor system with tubular membranes.

Other filter manufacturers can be found in Hall 10 where Parker Filtration (282), for instance, is showing off its new cartridge systems. These include the Slurry-Mate for the semicon industry and the PFG cartridges aimed at chemical, petrochemical and industrial water applications. The latter pleated microfibreglass cartridges are available in 2, 5, 10, 25 and 50micron absolute-rated pore sizes.

Moving back into Hall 4.1, you can find answers to your mist elimination and liquid separation problems on the KnitMesh (283) stand. Showing for the first time are vane pack demisters. Their parallel, chevron construction relies on the principles of droplet inertia, centrifugal force, impingement and gravity to handle high volume gas flow with reduced fouling. KnitMesh also has an innovative plate separator designed for the separation of primary immiscible liquid dispersions.

Hall 5 is the home for other centrifugal separation equipment such as Alfa Laval's new range of decanter centrifuges (284). Aimed at the chemical, pharmaceutical and general process industries, the CHNX centrifuges replace the previous NX and P ranges and are suitable for dewatering, clarification, classification and concentration duties. Typical capacity is 3 tonnes/h of dry solid.

A centrifuge destined more for the fine chemical and pharmaceuticals industry is over in Hall 10, where Thomas Broadbent (285) has its BroadbentRina GMP peeler machines. These feature fully-opening casings, to give 100 per cent basket inspection, and automated validated clean-in-place systems. A horizontal `through the wall' design separates the services and clean discharge side.

Other UK companies also in Hall 10 are Russell Finex (286), showing its award-winning range of Eco self-cleaning filters, and solids handling specialist Matcon (287) with its wide range of IBC filling and discharge stations. Back in Hall 5 Malvern Instruments (288) has its new Ultrasizer SV size analyser.

Although Achema obviously draws the majority of its exhibitors from the domestic German market, there is a truly international flavour to the whole event. Consider, for example, the presence in Hall 5 of the Hosokawa Micron Group (289) - primarily Japanese owned, but showing powder processing equipment from its UK companies, such as the pharmaceutical design ACM 5 air classifier mill, or the Hosokawa Stott packing head for dust-free transfer of powders.

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