Pneumatic vertical conveying of fine-grained and powdery dry bulk materials

The Airlift™ is a pneumatic conveying system designed for vertical transport of these kinds of dusty, dry bulk materilas materials. With hundreds of applications worldwide in cement, lime, gypsum, power and aluminium plants, among others, the Airlift™ is a proven low-maintenance solution with zero dust when connected to a dust collection system. Throughputs up to 1000 t/h are possible. A conveying height of more than 100 m can be achieved. And the equipment can be tailored to transport materials with temperatures up to 300˚C.

The Airlift™ doesn’t use any mechanical or drive elements and is therefore not subject to wear like conventional vertical conveyors. This means high availability for up to 1000 t/h lifting capacity. What little maintenance there is can be carried out with ease. The bottom part of the conveying line – centrally arranged above the booster nozzle – can be simply exchanged.

If extremely abrasive materials are conveyed, the exchangeable pickup pipe will be made of particularly wear resistant material. And should the bulk material contain large contaminants, the Airlift™ can be equipped with a grating to easily remove these contaminants from the conveying process. When the plant is shut down, they can be removed through the manhole.

The Airlift™ is designed with no rotating parts. That means there are no regular maintenance activities required to keep the system moving. Just maximum reliability.

The simple layout of the system is compact. It’s easy to integrate into existing material transport systems and alongside major plant equipment, without necessitating major structural works.

Depending on your application, the MÖLLER® Airlift can be equipped with fluidisation fabric – for bulk material temperatures up to 300˚C – or with wear-resistant lining for highly abrasive materials.

It’s totally enclosed, so no dust leaves the system. No spills. No clean-up. No environmental concerns. And it has low specific energy consumption, making it efficient and cost-effective to operate.

An Airlift™ System consists of a feed bin, a pickup and conveying pipe, bulk material-air-separation at the end of the conveying pipe, and the necessary conveying and aeration air supplies.

Airlift™ feeding with bulk material takes place from the top. The bulk material will be fluidised with air at the bottom of the Airlift™ and sucked into the pickup pipe by the upstream oriented conveying air stream.

The primary air conveys the material upward through the conveying pipe. At the upper end of the conveying line, bulk material and air flows are separated – usually by an expansion separator (pre-separation), a cyclone and a bag filter.

The actual conveying capacity in terms of line (back) pressure, the bulk material column inside the airlift and the pressure level of the conveying air supply are in balance to each other.

In operation, the Airlift™ system is self-compensating. As the product feed rate and the corresponding conveying capacity increases or decreases, the bulk material level inside the Airlift™ adjusts automatically. In this way, the Airlift™ system matches the conveying rate to the incoming feed, and compensates for any variations of the feed rate.

Inspection glasses in the cylinder help control the filling level, while a control circuit is enabled between the Airlift™ filling level and the feeding dosing unit for fully automatic operation.

The minimum capacity is approximately 1 t/h on a continuous basis, while capacities of 1000 t/h and lifting heights of up to 100 m can be achieved.

Airlift™ systems are custom-engineered for each application – the limits of capacities and lifting heights are a matter of design. And with more than 300 references around the world, we have the experience to design to your requirements.