SUGAR PROCESSING RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC. (SPRI)
2006 CONFERENCE ON SUGAR PROCESSING RESEARCH
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD WINNER
MICHAEL
AMALGAMATED RESEARCH INC.
The 2006 SPRI Science and Technology Award Winner, Michael Kearney, with
Amalgamated Research Inc, Twin Falls, Idaho, USA, will be presented his award
at the 2006 SPRI Conference in Brazil, at the Grande Hotel São Pedro, Águas de São Pedro, on September 19, 2006. The award
presentation posted below will be the keynote oral presentation at the
conference in the Award Session on Monday, September 18, 2006, at the Grande
Hotel São Pedro -
MIKE
Mike
Kearney, Director of New Technology at Amalgamated Research Inc., was born in
His work has included contributions to the development of the first simulated moving bed molasses separator used in the beet industry. Extending this technology, he and his colleagues developed the raw juice chromatography process as an alternative to conventional beet and cane processing.
Personally interesting projects have included design of neural networks for agricultural forecasts and the use of evolutionary computation to evolve solutions to difficult chromatography problems.
Mike originated the general concepts for using fractal based technology as an alternative to fluid turbulence and for the efficient control of fluid processes. Processes or phenomena which demonstrate poorly controlled or turbulent fluid characteristics generally benefit from this technology. Presently fractal technology is being used in the sugar industry for improving chromatography and ion exchange and for controlling sugar silo air flow. Apart from sugar processing, the technology is being evaluated and applied in the petroleum, mining, biomass and water treatment industries.
Mike is presently interested in the effects of process symmetries on energy use. He is a member of the ACS and the AIChE.
SPRI
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD PRESENTATION
Engineered Equipment Symmetries Force
Process Efficiencies, Mike Kearney, Amalgamated Research Inc.,
Processing equipment designed using principles of symmetry can have significant effects upon system size, energy use and efficiency. While symmetric structures, such as fractals, can lead to operational efficiencies when used as a retro-fit to existing equipment, more dramatic benefits can be obtained by specifically designing process equipment around these and other symmetric structures.
Many processes operate in an inhomogeneous manner. This means there is a wide spread in the distribution of a process characteristic such as pressure, temperature, concentration, eddy size, bubble size, etc. Subsequently, there exists a requirement for large equipment, excessive energy to run the process and the presence of general inefficiencies. For example, clarifiers can exhibit asymmetry due to large entering flows and subsequent formation of a variety of eddy sizes; ion exchange and chromatography can exhibit asymmetry due to poor distribution and collection; mixed reaction tanks exhibit asymmetry with conditions dependent upon the location of fluid in relation to an impeller. All of these asymmetries are harmful.
There appears to be a general connection between equipment symmetry and process efficiency. Symmetry implies equivalency and therefore process homogeneity. Symmetries properly designed into equipment can force homogeneity upon a process and therefore reduce the aforementioned problems.
Using principles of symmetry leads to equipment quite different in size, configuration and appearance compared with conventional counterparts.
An example of using processing equipment designed to accommodate symmetries is a new cane raw sugar refining process based on chromatography. The process benefits from two new types of symmetric column design and two types of symmetric fractals.
