Mixing in a tank using existing pumps

Hi Geoff,

Not sure about nozzle size calculations, but many years ago I was faced with a similar problem.

We had a tank of high viscosity inorganic liquid that had to be mixed with water to 'thin it down' for commercial reasons, there was no mixer in the tank.

We resolved the problem thus, extend the feed/recycle pipes from the pumps down into the tank and fit a radiused bend at the end(an elbow may create too large a pressure drop), point the outlet of the bend parallel to the side of the tank, the liquid flowing in will create a mixing effect, you may have to play with the size of the bend outlet to get enough velocity to create a vortex and achieve mixing, however, as you have an agitator available for part of the time the flow from the pump should keep it fairly uniform. Please ensure that the pumps do not run dry, fit a tempreture probe to the pump stator or fit a dry run protector in the control panel, pump spares are expensive but not as expensive as the downtime.

I do know of suppliers of spares and dry run protection systems please come back to me if I can help anymore.

Depending on where you are located, I can help you with supply for your spare

Stators, and a temperature sensor, and panel.

Instead of 'trying' with poor success (venturies work well for liquid-liquid) but simple jet mixing is very poor for slurries.

I suggest you contact PULSAIRE (ask for Dick Parks tell him I sent you) and do it right. Pulsaire uses a tiny bit of gas (air, nitrogen, or what have you) metered through an array of 'short mushrooms' on the bottom of the tank to make large bubbles. It seems so simple and yet works so fantastically--and VERY LOW energy cost. Get rid of the power hog mixer and get a well mixed slurry all the time every time.

Pulsaire's system successfully mixed a large tank of high radiation level toxic waste that was so crusted etc the sample container bounced on the crust. Instead of 5 years and literally $Billions with remotely operated excavators, Pulsaire equipment did the remixing in DAYS for peanuts.

It is simply amazing to watch the few large bubbles 'suck the crud' off the bottom and up into the liquid.

Thanks, Pulsair sounds interesting.