A special GSDH2 back pressure regulator with bronze diaphragm

Equilibar offers a wide variety of back pressure regulators. Nevertheless, there are always applications that require new materials or a different design to cope with process conditions never faced before. Equilibar is always open to design a product that meets our customer’s needs.

In this case, one of our customers wants to run a process with a supercritical water gasification-pilot unit with high flow rates and high pressure at a temperature of 200°C. Therefore, Equilibar designed a special GSDH2 back pressure regulator as part of the GS series. It can handle a pressure of 250 bar gauge at a maximum of 300°C (with Kalrez Seals) with a required Cv of 1.7. A standard GSDH2 unit has a maximum pressure of 172 bar gauge and a maximum Cv of 1.2.

Equilibar adjusted the standard GSDH2 unit to create the special GSDH2 unit suitable for higher pressures and flow rates. A larger body is used, thicker bolts and a different diaphragm material. The diaphragm is thicker and made out of bronze. The performance on the test bench showed a good low flow performance even with this thick and rigid diaphragm. The disadvantage of using a thick diaphragm can be that the difference between the reference pressure and the process pressure is larger than normal. You can overcome this by creating a closed loop control. In such a case, the reference pressure is automatically adjusted to meet the required process pressure.

Do you also have a process that requires a special back pressure regulator, that is not in our product portfolio? Please let us know, so we can take a look at our options! You can contact us via e-mail or you can give us a call at +31 (0) 318 25 00 50!