Continuous Process Output | Marchington Consulting

Understanding the science of silica milling properly avoids £37m CAPEX
Deep science problem solving – silica sand milling

Business

Owner:

Private Chemical Company

Objective:

Increase output to avoid £37m spend on a third mill

Results:

• Output increased by 14.7% to meet additional sales without capital expenditure

•. The proposed location of the third mill would have not worked, due to high temperature and relative humidity

Approach

• Technical problem solving exercise with a small client team

• Identify that there is high frequency throughput variation by direct observation and installing weigh cells to demonstrate variability of output – cost £15k

• Understand the relationship between output and atmospheric conditions

• Forensic investigation showing that the classifier returns agglomerate due to magnetic properties in quartzite crystals

•. Measure and understand the effect of seasonal and diurnal temperature and humidity; install water injection system (with up to 3 kg/hr) to maintain best output on the 3D surface plot above – at a cost of c.£15k

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