Solarized textile drying at Westpoint Pepperell. Phase III. Final report, December 1978-June 1979

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5163454· OSTI ID:5163454

This program has resulted in the installation of a solar energy collection system for providing process heat to a textile drying process. The solar collection subsystem uses 700 square meters (7500 square feet) of parabolic trough, single-axis tracking, concentrating collectors to heat water in a high temperature water (HTW) loop. The solar collectors nominally generate 193/sup 0/C (380/sup 0/F) water with the HTW loop at 1.9 x 10/sup 6/ Pa (275 psi). A steam generator is fueled with the HTW and produces 450 kg/hour (1000 pounds per hour) of process steam at the nominal design point conditions. The solar-generated process steam is at 0.5 x 10/sup 6/ Pa (75 psi) and 160/sup 0/C (321/sup 0/F). It is predicted that the solar energy system will provide 1.2 x 10/sup 6/ MJ/year (1.1 x 10/sup 9/ Btu/year) to the process. This is 46% of the direct insolation available to the collector field during the operational hours (300 days per year) of the Fairfax mill. The process being solarized is textile drying using can dryers. The can dryers are part of a slashing operation in a WestPoint Pepperell mill in Fairfax, Alabama. Operation of the system over the first six months after start-up demonstrated improving reliability as the system was initially operated under manual supervision (for three months), then generated low pressure steam under automatic operation. Poor performance of the shadow bar suntrackers limited the range of efficient system operation.

• Research Organization: Honeywell, Inc., Roseville, MN (USA). Technology Strategy Center
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76CS35124
• OSTI ID: 5163454
• Report Number(s): DOE/CS/35124-T1; ON: DE82019278
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140905*
ALABAMA
BOILERS
CONCENTRATING COLLECTORS
DRYING
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
FEDERAL REGION IV
HEAT
INDUSTRY
INSOLATION
NORTH AMERICA
OPERATION
PARABOLIC COLLECTORS
PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTORS
PROCESS HEAT
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR DRYING
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PROCESS HEAT
SOLAR TRACKING
STEAM GENERATORS
TEXTILE INDUSTRY
TEXTILES
USA
VAPOR GENERATORS