Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Presentation

by
Michael Kaden
Pr Eng Dipl Ing
Member Nat. Ass. For Clean Air (NACA)

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Many stacks
Are still emitting
high levels
of particulate

But particulate emission control requirements

will become more and more stringent

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art
Reasons for excessive particulate emissions:

Particulate is
extremely fine

Actual measured
Size Distribution

Standard
Tests conducted Distribution
May 1999 at the
John Thompson
Training center boiler
South Africa

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Equipment is operated at unsuitable conditions:

i.e. cyclones running at part load gas velocities

Operational Gas Flow Cyclone Inlet Efficiency Emission

Condition am3/h Vel. - m/s % mg/Nm3

Design + 10% 11,800 19.2 97.8 44

Actual
10,800 17.45 96.7 66
Design
50 % part
5,400 8.73 82.6 348
load

All values for 2000 mg/Nm3 inlet loading with 12 m mean particle size

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Equipment worn & defective

Repair or Upgrade ?

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Additional reasons for excessive particulate emissions:

Operation is not at optimum:

Equipment is not maintained to the best standard

Required maintenance and repairs are not carried out
Operation is incorrect or outside of specification
Untrained operators run the equipment
Best available fuel is not used
Combustion air is not properly controlled
RECTIFY !

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

What systems are available to control

Particulate emissions ?

• Electrostatic precipitator
• Bag house fabric filter
• Wet scrubber
• High efficiency cyclones

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Selection criteria

ESP Bag house Scrubber Cyclones Spraycone

(normal) Cyclones
Emission 100 30 200 250 < 100
mg/Nm 3

Reliability ++ + ++ ++++ ++++

Cost ++++ ++++ +++ + +

CyDesign
Gas Cleaning – The state of the art
Evaluation of ESP for industrial boilers:
• High cost (investment, maintenance & operation)
• Complex large size plant with sub-systems
• Requires constant gas conditions (sulphur, temp, moisture)

Evaluation of bag filters for industrial boilers:

• High cost (investment, maintenance & filter bags)
• Difficult to handle sulphur and sparks
• Not robust (one faulty bag destroys efficiency

Evaluation of wet scrubbers for industrial boilers:

• High cost (large water treatment plant)
• Difficult to separate fine particulate
• Sulphur control costly & difficult

CyDesign
 Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art
Evaluation of cyclone “grid arrestor” :

• Low collection efficiency due to:

• Wrong design (see velocity analysis)
• Air ingress
• Bad manufacturing quality
• Lack of maintenance (blockage of cyclone cells)

But cyclone system advantages are low cost and robust installation

Can a cyclone reach efficiencies of ESP / Bag filter / Wet scrubber?

This question triggered our cyclone development Program

in 1994 to improve cyclone efficiency and to invent the
“dry spray agglomeration principle”

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

History:

1975 - 1980 work with Prof. Stairmond (UK)

Cyclones for coal fired gas turbine 80 MW PFBC

1993 – 1998
basic research in
cyclone technology

CyDesign - Cape Town

development center

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

On site technology studies & testing:

Glass melting furnace

JTA boiler training center

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Commercial applications of high efficiency cyclones:

BurnerMax
Fluidized bed furnace
High efficiency cyclones
operating at 400 C

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art
Project 1996 / 97
30 year old Büttner solid fired wood chip dryer equipped
with low efficiency cyclone. Emission > 650 mg / Nm3
Solution:

Step 1 = retrofitting of high efficiency cyclones

Reduction of emission to < 100 mg / Nm3

First idea of agglomeration spray in 1997

Step 2 = installation of THERMAX agglomeration sprays
upstream of cyclones

Reduction of emission to < 20 mg / Nm3

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

High efficiency cyclone plant

with fully evaporative
fine agglomeration sprays
(Installation 1997)

Efficiency > 99 %

Emission < 20 mg / Nm3

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

What is the agglomeration spray?

•Water spray with very fine droplets
•Fully evaporative (dry system)
•Droplets capture small particles
•and agglomerate them
•Larger particles are easily collected

Typical water consumption

30 liter / t steam generation

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Case study:

Wet scrubber installed at a

130 t/h JTA water-tube boiler

Inlet conditions:

• 5000 mg / Nm3
• 5 % (250 mg / Nm3) < 5 micron
• Emission > 300 mg / Nm3

• Required 120 mg / Nm3

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art
Solution: Installation of 3 horizontal “spraytrees”

Water consumption
minimal.

Fully evaporative

Final emission
< 100 mg / Nm3

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Current CyDesign specifications for

advanced cyclone technology:

Integrated cyclone system with

fully evaporative agglomeration
water spray (20 l / h per cyclone)

To provide a robust, economic,

low maintenance,
very high performance,
flue gas cleaning system

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Cyclone parts are manufactured to high precision as

erosion & corrosion resistant castings

Wax dies

Cyclone vortex blade ring

with pressure recovery Castings

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning– The state of the art

CyDesign - Reference list – Flue gas cleaning installations

Year Client Installation Main Contractor Satus
1997 PG Bison 10 MW Dryer Thermax Running

1998 Algoa 10 MW FBC Thermax Running

2000 Sugarbird 5 t/h boiler Thermax Running

1999 Distillers 4 t/h boiler Thermax Running

2000 PPC (Cement) Raw Meal Cyclone Re-design Thermax Running

2001 Cape Galvaniser 8 t/h boiler BMS Running

2001 Multistyrene 6 t/h boiler TL Mechanical Running

2001 TSB (Sugar) 130 t/h boiler sprays only JTA Running

2002 TSB (Sugar) 110 t/h boiler sprays only JTA Running

2002/3 SAPPI 4 x 10 t/h boiler Thermax Running

2002/3 South African Breweries 5 x 20 t/h boilers Steam Installation Running

2003 Parmalat 6 t/h boiler BMS Running

2003 Anglo Gold 16 t/h boiler Steam Installation Running

CyDesign
Flue Gas Cleaning – The state of the art

Outlook:

To offer industry a
robust and
cost effective system to
reduce emissions
to the highest standards !

For a cleaner
Environment!

CyDesign