Nitric acid concentration Plants

The core of the plant is a series of packed columns for concentration and bleaching, fabricated from borosilicate glass 3.3 in diameters typically ranging from DN80 up to DN800, ensuring reliable performance from pilot to full industrial scale.

Borosilicate glass offers outstanding resistance to most mineral acids and oxidizing environments, so the equipment maintains dimensional stability and smooth, clean contact surfaces even after long term exposure to hot nitric acid. Tantalum or similarly resistant metals are used for column heaters and reboiler internals, while glass coil heat exchangers and glass or glass lined shell and tube exchangers serve as pre heaters, condensers, and coolers within a fully compatible material system.

A typical flowsheet treats incoming weak nitric acid—often around 60–70% by weight—through extractive or azeotropic distillation steps to break the nitric acid–water azeotrope and drive the concentration into the high purity range required for nitration and specialty chemical processes.

The plant is designed as a closed, low hold up system with efficient gas scrubbing and off gas handling, minimising NOx emissions and providing safe operation under vacuum or slight overpressure conditions.

Because all key vessels, columns, and pipelines are transparent, operators can visually monitor flooding, foaming, and packing wetting, making commissioning, troubleshooting, and optimization significantly easier than with opaque metallic systems.

These nitric acid concentration plants are widely used in explosives, agrochemicals, dyes, and pharmaceutical intermediates manufacturing, wherever high strength nitric acid is required and long term corrosion resistance, low contamination, and operational safety are critical design drivers.