Advanced Cyclone Systems, S.A. (ACS) is exclusively dedicated to the development, commercialization and installation of most efficient cyclone systems worldwide. Applications include particulate matter (PM) emission control in boilers and furnaces and product recovery in the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries.
ACS holds the patents of the most efficient cyclone designs available in the market, branded as `Hurricanes`.
ACS`s most recent innovation - ReCyclone System - is the most efficient cyclone technology available worldwide, reaching near bag filter performance with low investment costs. “Electrostatic Recirculation for Fine Powder Capture” was the winner of the 2008 national environmental innovation award. This prize, sponsored by the Environmental Ministry and the Portuguese Environmental Agency, aims the recognition of Portuguese and European innovations that contribute for a better environment.
About Us
Advanced Cyclone Systems, S.A. (ACS) is Portuguese company exclusively dedicated to the development and commercialization of the most efficient cyclone systems worldwide. ACS works in a very close cooperation with its clients in order to design “taylor made” cyclone systems that really solve their unmet needs.
ACS was founded by Professor Romualdo Salcedo (CTO) from the Engineering Faculty of Porto (FEUP) and Pedro Araújo (CEO), Engineer from FEUP and MBA from Nova University. ACS was supported by CoHitec’s program from COTEC Portugal since its establishment.
Even though the company is very recent, several systems have already been commercialized in the past years through an agreement between the inventor (Romualdo Salcedo) and an engineering company.
The Company
Our mission is to achieve total particle capture with cyclones, reaching bag filter redundancy.
Applications include particulate matter (PM) emission control in boilers and furnaces and product recovery in the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries.
Products include numerically optimized cyclones – Hurricanes – which are more efficient than any other cyclone geometry in the market, and mechanical or electrostatic recirculating cyclones – ReCyclone Systems® which achieve ESP efficiencies with low investment costs.
Electrostatic recirculation for fine powder capture was the winner of the 2008 National Environmental Innovation Award. This prize, sponsored by the Environmental Ministry and the Portuguese Environmental Agency, aims the recognition of Portuguese and European innovations that contribute for a better environment.
Extensive scientific knowledge in cyclone design and particle agglomeration Professor Romualdo Salcedo, CTO, together with his research groups from the Engineering Faculty of Porto, are in the frontline of cyclone design optimization and particle agglomeration modelling. A sophisticated computer program is being developed which is already able to predict the capture of submicrometric and nanometric particles. Several related scientific papers have been published since 1993 and the most relevant can be downloaded here.
Taylor made systems and accurate efficiency forecasts through our pilot systems ACS holds an extensive particle size distribution data from very different industrial dusts which give a very truthful estimation for new cases presented by clients. When there is still uncertainty, ACS is able to carry out field tests with a portable pilot system. Since the true operating conditions are tested, efficiency forecasts are very accurate. In case dusts samples are available, clients just have to send these to ACS to be tested off-site at pilot scale.
Markets
Gas-solid separation is very common to many industrial areas. This need can be separated in two main groups:
1) Pollution Control – where the separated product does not have economic value, namely in Particulate Matter (PM) emission control of exhaust gases from boilers or furnaces, and
2) Product Recovery – where the particles have an economic value, as in the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) through drying processes.
The problem
Industrial cyclones are for their robust construction, absence of maintenance and general application, the preferred technology for particle collection.
Nevertheless, in the pollution control application, cyclones’ relatively low efficiency, particularly for small particles (< 10µm), leads many users to complement them with Bag Filters (BF) or Electrostatic Precipitators (ESP). BFs are relatively inexpensive but are very maintenance demanding. ESPs are operationally effective but their high investment is out of reach for small and medium size companies.
For the recovery of sensible products as APIs, cyclone collectors are frequently irreplaceable equipments for being able to discharge the powder directly without contamination, as opposed to filters. Nevertheless, associated product losses due to low efficiency of cyclones are very common.
The solution
Patented ReCyclone® Systems are based on a numerically optimized cyclone geometry, different from any other in the market, and an innovative recirculation system. In result of these innovations, ReCyclones’ efficiency is by far superior to that of any other cyclone system in the market and equivalent to that of ESPs.
Being much simpler equipments, ReCyclones have 2 to 3 times lower investment costs than ESPs, which assures them to be very competitive on a global scale and usable by small-to-medium size companies that do not have the resources to buy ESPs, or to cope with high maintenance costs of BFs and fire hazards.
In the product recovery application, ReCyclone® Systems represent 4 to 6 times lower losses, in comparison with the best cyclones available in the market. Typically, investment cost is recovered in a matter of months.
Primary addressable markets
For PM emission control, ACS’s primary addressable market is the power production through biomass firing – the renewable energy source which represents the largest growth. Other applications include diesel engines, steel or glass fusion furnaces
For the product recovery application, addressable markets are the chemical, food&dairy and pharmaceutical dryers, mainly spray dryers. Spray Drying is increasingly common in the pharmaceutical area, particularly for being very competitive in producing very costly inhalable drugs. Losses during powder recovery after drying due to very small particle size are frequently over 20% to 30%.
Business Strategy
- ACS’ objective is to become the leading company in cyclone system design at a global scale, aiming total particle capture without the investment costs of ESPs and the maintenance costs of BFs.
- ACS is focused in terms of technology with a short line of products but highly dispersed in respect to application and geographical scope.
- Distribution is tailored according to each market segment. Retrofitting is addressed through direct sales force, while new equipments are approached through commercial agreements with boiler and dryer manufacturers or broad solution providers.
FEATURED PRODUCTS
 | ReCyclone Emc (Electrostatic ReCyclone retrofitting Multiciclones)
Electrostatic Recyclones for retrofitting are composed by existing cyclones, usually Multicyclones, and electrostatic recirculation systems. The main purpose of the recirculation system is to reintroduce the non captured particles into the cyclones after those particles have been driven to the outer walls of the concentrator. Electrostatic forces in the recirculation system assure that the smallest particles don’t escape to the atmosphere. Efficiency rises due to recirculation and agglomeration of very small particles with larger ones coming ... » Read more » Contact now / Request quote |
 | Hurricane (Numerically Optimized Cyclone)
Hurricanes are patented numerically optimized cyclones.
Hurricane geometries maximize powder collection for each different application, while minimizing reentraintment and keeping pressure drop at reasonable levels.
These cyclones are the output of nonconvex nonlinear problems formulated and solved after years of work in partnership with the Faculty of Engineering of Porto.
A single Hurricane is more efficient than any other known cyclone available in the market ... » Read more » Contact now / Request quote |
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