MBM fuel feeding system design and evaluation for FBG pilot plant
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan (Canada)
- Suncor Energy Inc., Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
- Fluidization Laboratory of Saskatchewan (FLASK) (Canada)
Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A 1-5 g/s fuel feeding system for pilot scale FBG was designed, built and tested. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Multiple conveying stages improve pressure balancing, flow control and stability. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Secondary conveyor stage reduced output irregularity from 47% to 15%. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Pneumatic air sparging effective in dealing with poor flow ability of MBM powder. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Pneumatic injection port plugs with char at gasification temperature of 850 Degree-Sign C. - Abstract: A biomass fuel feeding system has been designed, constructed and evaluated for a fluidized bed gasifier (FBG) pilot plant at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK, Canada). The system was designed for meat and bone meal (MBM) to be injected into the gasifier at a mass flow-rate range of 1-5 g/s. The designed system consists of two stages of screw conveyors, including a metering stage which controlled the flow-rate of fuel, a rotary airlock and an injection conveyor stage, which delivered that fuel at a consistent rate to the FBG. The rotary airlock which was placed between these conveyors, proved unable to maintain a pressure seal, thus the entire conveying system was sealed and pressurized. A pneumatic injection nozzle was also fabricated, tested and fitted to the end of the injection conveyor for direct injection and dispersal into the fluidized bed. The 150 mm metering screw conveyor was shown to effectively control the mass output rate of the system, across a fuel output range of 1-25 g/s, while the addition of the 50 mm injection screw conveyor reduced the irregularity (error) of the system output rate from 47% to 15%. Although material plugging was found to be an issue in the inlet hopper to the injection conveyor, the addition of air sparging ports and a system to pulse air into those ports was found to successfully eliminate this issue. The addition of the pneumatic injection nozzle reduced the output irregularity further to 13%, with an air supply of 50 slpm as the minimum air supply to drive this injector. After commissioning of this final system to the FBG reactor, the injection nozzle was found to plug with char however, and was subsequently removed from the system. Final operation of the reactor continues satisfactorily with the two screw conveyors operating at matching pressure with the fluidized bed, with the output rate of the system estimated based on system characteristic equations, and confirmed by static weight measurements made before and after testing. The error rate by this method is reported to be approximately 10%, which is slightly better than the estimated error rate of 15% for the conveyor system. The reliability of this measurement prediction method relies upon the relative consistency of the physical properties of MBM with respect to its bulk density and feeding characteristics.
- OSTI ID:
- 22020537
- Journal Information:
- Waste Management, Vol. 32, Issue 6; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2012 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0956-053X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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