Product category:
Industrial Drives/Controls
News Release from: ABB Automation Tech (Drives and Motors) | Subject: ACS 600 MultiDrive
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 22 February 2000
ABB system helps cement works to UK
first
Accurate speed control of two fans within a chimney gas scrubber, has helped to virtually eliminate sulphur dioxide emissions and reduce overall emissions by 45% at Castle Cement's Ribblesdale works.
Accurate speed control of two fans within a chimney gas scrubber, has helped to virtually eliminate sulphur dioxide emissions and reduce overall emissions by 45% at Castle Cement's Ribblesdale cement works The fans are being controlled by an ACS 600 MultiDrive, comprising two variable speed drives fed by a common DC bus from a single rectifier, together with two AC motors and a 2000kVA phase-shift transformer
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 21 Feb 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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The whole system has been supplied by ABB Industrial Systems Ltd, through Parmley Graham, the company's Gateshead-based distributor.
Both motors are housed in a newly commissioned gas scrubber plant which is now part of the production process of kiln number seven at the works.
Each motor powers an ABB fan by means of one 1,700kW ACS 600 MultiDrive, which is housed in the scrubber plant's switch room.
The ACS 600 MultiDrive solution allows a single transformer from the plant's supply to provide a common DC bus for the control of both the scrubber fans.
The first fan is located at the end of the scrubber unit and is turned by a 1,100kW ABB AC motor.
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The speed of the 4m-diameter fan is governed by the ACS 600 MultiDrive, which in turn is connected to a PLC in the main plant control room.
The PLC monitors a pressure control loop and maintains a negative inlet pressure of 2 millibar.
This ensures that the exhaust gases are drawn through the scrubber unit from the main stack at a rate of around 296,000m³/hour.
"We could have bought components for the drive and motor units that we needed for this project from various suppliers but ABB proved to be the most competitive single source for the entire power and drive train," says Tim Dean, Product Manager at Chemitrol.
"The original brief was to provide a turnkey solution, but at a fixed price.
Sourcing all the key components from one supplier allowed us to keep the costs down." Because of the nature of the surrounding environment, the scrubber fan needs a specialised duplex alloy impeller to prevent any damage that may be caused by corrosive liquids condensing on the fan's blades and housing.
Inside the main scrubber body the emission gases from the kiln are mixed vigorously with water and finely ground limestone.
Sulphur dioxide gas in the exhaust reacts with the limestone to produce gypsum, which is later reclaimed and ground up with the kiln clinker to make the characteristic grey cement powder.
The second fan, driven by a 395kW ABB AC motor, reclaims heat from the kiln-cooling grate by drawing in atmospheric air.
This hot air is then mixed with the saturated gas exiting the scrubber prior to it being released to the chimney.
The hot gas, delivered at 240,000m³/hour and 250°C, ensures better plume dispersion and reduces the chances of water condensation inside the stack.
The new scrubber, which cost £5 million to install and costs a further £750,000 a year to run, is the first of its kind in the UK cement industry.
Castle has just announced a further £15 million investment plan for kiln seven, on which all production at the Ribblesdale works will be concentrated in future.
The kiln's production capacity is planned to increase from 750,000 to 1,050,000 tonnes per year.
The initial contract was won by Chemitrol Process Equipment Ltd of Stockton, the UK representative of Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems, one of the world's largest contractors to the chemical process industries and pollution control sectors.
Both companies then joined forces to manage the installation of one of Monsanto's branded DynaWave scrubber systems.
The installation follows a series of surveys that discovered local weather and topographical conditions occasionally caused the plumes of chimney gasses from kiln seven to fall to ground prematurely, resulting in sulphur dioxide odours at ground level.
In 1994 Castle Cement extended the height of the offending chimney to its structural limit.
However, the Environment Agency asked the company to look at further measures to reduce plume visibility and odour.
Recent tests by the Environment Agency have shown that sulphur dioxide emissions and dust from the chimney have been reduced by 95% and the previously small amounts of ammonia have been halved.
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