Universal Vortex Inc. (UVI) offers proptietary Vortex technology (11 USA and Foreign Patents) for gas cooling, heating or de-watering, and for hydrocarbons recovery.

The Vortex process is based on pressurized gas or atmospheric air (Vacuum Vortex) expansion in a specially-designed cylindrical device (the Vortex Tube) where released gas undergoes energy segregation (Vortex Phenomenon) forming ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ flows to be utilized in industrial applications.      


    

• No moving parts
• No freon or other chemicals and no electricity is needed to produce a significant cooling and heating load
• No operating cost
• No maintenance cost

Although the Vortex Tube (VT) has existed for decades, its commercial applications were restricted since the conventional VT design requires high inlet pressure and dried processed gas to operate efficiently .

UVI has developed proven solutions to overcome these negatives and has made the VT fit for industrial applications. The VT of UVI’s design features the following:

• Provides a significant (up to 200 ºF) temperature differential between ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ flows even with a low inlet gas pressure (Low Pressure Vortex)
   
• Operates efficiently and without freezing with fully saturated or even two phase feed (Non Freeze Vortex)
   
• Converts the entire inlet flow into a single super cooled and dried jet or into highly intensive heat flux (Single Flow Vortex Tube)
   
• Utilizes energy generated in the Single Flow Vortex Tube to efficiently heat a separate gas (or liquid) flow (Vortex Heater)
   
• Provides efficient vortex temperature segregation with inlet gas at atmospheric pressure and outlet gas at a negative pressure (Vacuum Vortex). The Vacuum Vortex can be designed with Low Pressure and Single Flow features.      

With these ‘building blocks’ in hand, and with unparalleled understanding of the Vortex Phenomenon, UVI has the ability to enhance practically any process where gas pressure differential (or source of vacuum) is available.

If your process requires gas pressure reduction, UVI's Vortex Technology provides you with non-freeze pressure regulation and simultaneously creates cooling or heating, or cooling and heating.

If your process requires to maintain the pressure regulated gas warmed, the Vortex Pressure Regulating Technology will do that without the use of external thermal energy.

If your process requires gas dehydration or hydrocarbons recovery, UVI’s Vortex Technology provides an efficient non-expensive solution.

UVI offers a number of standardized Vortex based products as well as customized Vortex tubes or Vortex cooling, heating and drying systems.

UVI can design and fabricate Vortex Tubes of any size to suit the application. The Vortex Tubes can also be used in series or clusters as the process dictates.

Range of the single Vortex Tube, which has been designed and fabricated by UVI:

1 The smallest: .109’’ DIA with a flow rate of .65 scfm @ 44 psia inlet pressure;		2 The largest: 3.15’’ DIA with a flow rate of 18,500 scfm @ 1500 psia inlet pressure.

 



VORTEX AIR COOLING INSTALLATION

 

These Vortex Tubes with a total flow rate of 18 kg/s have been designed by Universal Vortex to perform with a high-pressure air flow and were fabricated under ASME code. The achieved net Vortex temperature decrease is 100 deg. C (180 deg. F). It means that solely due to the Vortex phenomenon the VT’s inlet flow @ 68F comes out as the VT’s cold fraction @ minus 113F (20C and minus 80C respectfully).

Due to the proprietary VT’s self-heating design, no freeze up in the VT’s inlet nozzles and the VT’s cold fraction discharge orifice has ever occurred.  

It is understood that the benefits of the vortex technology become greater when the Vortex Tube operates in the process that requires gas pressure reduction. In this case the vortex cooling and heating is generated at no cost at all.

Keeping this in mind it is no wonder the most of the VT's based products and applications developed by UVI are related to such processes. In particular, to the gas pressure regulation and to the heavy hydrocarbons recovery in the natural gas industry.