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Ice pigging is a process in which an ice slurry is pumped through a pipe, forcefully removing unwanted deposits and leaving the pipe clean. [1] It has many applications in the water, sewage, and food industries. [2] Ice pigging was invented and first patented by Professor Joe Quarini of the University of Bristol. [3]
Ice pigging is a technique used for cleaning pipes, distinguished from traditional pigging by the use of a semi-solid 'pig' made of ice, rather than a solid object. This ice pig is capable of flowing through pipes, navigating obstructions such as valves and variations in pipe diameter, due to its fluid-like properties. The process allows for the insertion and ejection of the ice pig using fittings of small diameter, enhancing its adaptability to various piping systems.
The process can be undertaken with pipes made of most common pipe materials, and on pipes with diameters ranging from 8 mm to 600 mm and lengths of several kilometers. The ice pigging process takes less time than traditional pigging methods for underground pipes and can be operated by fewer people. [4]
Minimal work is required to insert the ice pig and remove it. [5] By doing this, the disruption of water supply is decreased.
Any water flushing method (such as uni-directional flushing, air/water flushing, or closed loop with side stream filtration) is limited by the flow of liquid through the pipework due to a boundary layer of slower flow that occurs at the pipe surface. As a result of this boundary layer the wall shear generated is negligible, even at high flow rates. Because the ice pig moves through the pipework like a solid object, movement concentrates at the pipe wall resulting in high wall shear even at velocities as low as 0.2 m/sec.
The process provides a low risk solution to cleaning a pipe compared to traditional pigging as, in the unlikely scenario of the ice becoming stuck, it can be left to melt and then flushed out.
Ice pigging uses less water and requires less cleanup than traditional flushing or underground pipe pigging techniques. [6] The production of ice slurry demands a substantial amount of energy.
The University of Bristol has produced a paper entitled "Investigation and development of an innovative pigging technique for the water supply industry." in which they have detailed the research that they have carried out. It looks particularly at how the properties of the ice pig behave with different ice fractions and varied levels of particulate loading as well as looking into the effects of shear strength, viscosity, and heat transfer characteristics. [7]
A tobacco pipe, often called simply a pipe, is a device specifically made to smoke tobacco. It comprises a chamber for the tobacco from which a thin hollow stem (shank) emerges, ending in a mouthpiece. Pipes can range from very simple machine-made briar models to highly prized hand-made artisanal implements made by renowned pipemakers, which are often very expensive collector's items. Pipe smoking is the oldest known traditional form of tobacco smoking.
A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using the force of water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location for treatment, either nearby or at a communal facility, thus maintaining a separation between humans and their waste. Flush toilets can be designed for sitting or squatting, in the case of squat toilets. Most modern sewage treatment systems are also designed to process specially designed toilet paper. The opposite of a flush toilet is a dry toilet, which uses no water for flushing.
A plumbing fixture is an exchangeable device which can be connected to a plumbing system to deliver and drain water.
Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid.
In pipeline transportation, pigging is the practice of using pipeline inspection gauges or gadgets, devices generally referred to as pigs or scrapers, to perform various maintenance operations. This is done without stopping the flow of the product in the pipeline.
A grinder pump is a wastewater conveyance device. Waste from water-using household appliances flows through the home’s pipes into the grinder pump’s holding tank. Once the wastewater inside the tank reaches a specific level, the pump will turn on, grind the waste into a fine slurry, and pump it to the central sewer system or septic tank.
A plate heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that uses metal plates to transfer heat between two fluids. This has a major advantage over a conventional heat exchanger in that the fluids are exposed to a much larger surface area because the fluids are spread out over the plates. This facilitates the transfer of heat, and greatly increases the speed of the temperature change. Plate heat exchangers are now common and very small brazed versions are used in the hot-water sections of millions of combination boilers. The high heat transfer efficiency for such a small physical size has increased the domestic hot water (DHW) flowrate of combination boilers. The small plate heat exchanger has made a great impact in domestic heating and hot-water. Larger commercial versions use gaskets between the plates, whereas smaller versions tend to be brazed.
A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of small solids. It can also be used for structural applications; hollow pipe is far stiffer per unit weight than solid members.
A fitting or adapter is used in pipe systems to connect sections of pipe or tube, adapt to different sizes or shapes, and for other purposes such as regulating fluid flow. These fittings are used in plumbing to manipulate the conveyance of fluids such as water for potatory, irrigational, sanitary, and refrigerative purposes, gas, petroleum, liquid waste, or any other liquid or gaseous substances required in domestic or commercial environments, within a system of pipes or tubes, connected by various methods, as dictated by the material of which these are made, the material being conveyed, and the particular environmental context in which they will be used, such as soldering, mortaring, caulking, Plastic welding, welding, friction fittings, threaded fittings, and compression fittings.
In chemical engineering, biochemical engineering and protein purification, crossflow filtration is a type of filtration. Crossflow filtration is different from dead-end filtration in which the feed is passed through a membrane or bed, the solids being trapped in the filter and the filtrate being released at the other end. Cross-flow filtration gets its name because the majority of the feed flow travels tangentially across the surface of the filter, rather than into the filter. The principal advantage of this is that the filter cake is substantially washed away during the filtration process, increasing the length of time that a filter unit can be operational. It can be a continuous process, unlike batch-wise dead-end filtration.
Slurry ice is a phase changing refrigerant made up of millions of ice "micro-crystals" formed and suspended within a solution of water and a freezing point depressant. Some compounds used in the field are salt, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, alcohols like isobutyl and ethanol, and sugars like sucrose and glucose. Slurry ice has greater heat absorption compared to single phase refrigerants like brine, because the melting enthalpy of the ice is also used.
Deepchill Technologies Inc. registered the world's first slurry ice patent application in the US in 1976. Deepchill pioneered and continued to develop the field of slurry ice and is today the world leader in slurry ice systems, with numerous patents worldwide covering various processes for the production, storage and distribution of slurry ice.
A tremie is a watertight pipe, usually of about 250 mm inside diameter, with a conical hopper at its upper end above the water level. It may have a loose plug or a valve at the bottom end. A tremie is used to pour concrete underwater in a way that avoids washout of cement from the mix due to turbulent water contact with the concrete while it is flowing. This produces a more reliable strength of the product. Common applications include the following.
Pipe Insulation is thermal or acoustic insulation used on pipework.
Plastic pipe is a tubular section, or hollow cylinder, made of plastic. It is usually, but not necessarily, of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow—liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of small solids. It can also be used for structural applications; hollow pipes are far stiffer per unit weight than solid members.
A milking pipeline or milk pipeline is a component of a dairy farm animal-milking operation which is used to transfer milk from the animals to a cooling and storage bulk tank.
Tube bending is any metal forming processes used to permanently form pipes or tubing. Tube bending may be form-bound or use freeform-bending procedures, and it may use heat supported or cold forming procedures.
Pumpable icetechnology (PIT) uses thin liquids, with the cooling capacity of ice. Pumpable ice is typically a slurry of ice crystals or particles ranging from 5 micrometers to 1 cm in diameter and transported in brine, seawater, food liquid, or gas bubbles of air, ozone, or carbon dioxide.
The Jameson Cell is a high-intensity froth flotation cell that was invented by Laureate Professor Graeme Jameson of the University of Newcastle (Australia) and developed in conjunction with Mount Isa Mines Limited.
A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements.
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