Waste fuel handling system design: How to avoid or solve flow problems
- Jenike & Johanson, Inc., Westford, MA (United States)
- Jenike & Johanson, San Luis Obispo, CA (United States)
The number of power plants utilizing waste products as fuel has increased due to a number of factors. First, growing environmental concerns have provided a thrust for utilizing waste products, such as culm, gob, bio-mass, chopped tires, etc., rather than stockpiling them. At the same time, advances in combustion technology, i.e., high efficiencies and cleaner combustion have made energy extraction economically viable. A second driving economic factor has been incentives for co-generation plants provided by the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. In plants and processes involving solids handling, the proper operation of the solids handling systems is often one of the most crucial elements in preventing plant startup delays, reduced plant efficiency, and equipment downtime. The Rand Corporation conducted a six-year study of 40 solids processing plants in the U.S. and Canada. Their findings reveal that 80% of these plants experience solids handling problems. This study also found that these plants were slow in coming up-to-speed, with an average startup time for some types of plants approaching 18 months. Once startup begins, poor performance continues to plague these operations with performance between 40% and 50% of design. While the focus of this survey was not exclusively power plants, parallels can easily be drawn to waste-to-energy plants since the fuel is inherently variable and often difficult to handle. Problems with material handling systems can translate into big losses as heavy penalties may be imposed for startup delays and for not meeting on-line requirements.
- OSTI ID:
- 89486
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940243-; TRN: 95:005247-0016
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 4. alternate fuels technical conference, New Orleans, LA (United States), 8-9 Feb 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of Alternate fuels IV conference; PB: 285 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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