Air Separators, Vacuum Degassers & Dirt Separators
Every modern Heating or Chilled water system should incorporate devices that are able to permanently remove circulating particles and Air, including dissolved gases from the system. Without these devices the systems will always be liable to oxygen contamination and the subsequent build-up of magnetite and other dirt particulates that will lead to poor water quality, increased maintenance costs through premature and frequent failure of system components along with increased energy consumption.
Deaerators.
Unlike traditional Air Separators such as AAV’s, oversized Air Bottles or Brush type units that typically only remove air whilst under static conditions, Deaerators create the correct environment for continuous removal of “Free Air” and even dissolved gases by harnessing “Henry’s Law of Physics” at flow rates of up to 3mtr/sec.

Vacuum Degassers.
Whilst Deaerators are extremely efficient at removing circulating Air, they do have limitations and this usually due to excessive static head. Once the head pressure is too great for the given temperature, Microbubbles simply cannot form in the circulating fluid and their removal is not possible with “inline Units”. The static head limitation is generally 15 mtrs for heating systems and 5 mtrs for Chilled Water applications. The correct solution beyond this to use a Vacuum Degasser. A range of pressures can be accommodated from 1 bar up to 16 bar. Above 200mm line size a Vacuum Degasser makes a very cost-effective solution when compared with inline Deaerators.

A Vacuum Degasser may also be provided with a “Refill facility” negating the requirement for an additional Pressurisation Unit again offering significant cost savings on a project.

A Vacuum Degasser is considered the ultimate Air removal device and offers the best retrofit solution for systems suffering from inherent Air related issues.

Dirt Separators.
Like Deaeration units, Dirt Separators can separate out particles down to 5 µm (=0.005mm), by harnessing “Stokes Law of Physics”. The Dirt is collected at the base of the unit whereby it is a simple process to “blow” the unit down whilst still online and no disruption to the operation of the system. Unlike traditional strainers and filter media whereby the pressure drop across the unit increases with the accumulation of dirt particles, the pressure drop across a Dirt Separator unit remains constantly low irrespective of the amount of dirt that has been collected.