3D visualization of waste-to-energy facilities
How do you go about introducing the idea of a new WTE facility to the residents of your city? Typically the idea will be met with hesitation and arguments that it will be visually displeasing. Now an international consultancy offers virtual reality 3D visualisations of WTE facilities.
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One of the important steps in the planning process of a waste-to-energy facility is an analysis of the facility’s impacts on the environment, for the benefit of the environmental authorities. Another is the presentation of the project to the public. The new tool offered by Ramboll is equally useful in relation to both.
The 3D visualisation is a bird’s-eye view of any facility in its actual surroundings and a tour around the inside. It is compiled by modelling real-life photos, architectural concepts and drawings of the mechanical process equipment inside the facility. The virtual models developed may be either still pictures or 2–3 minute animations. Still pictures are very useful when you wish to focus on details or design, while animations are an effective way of demonstrating processes and layout arrangements and presenting realistic simulations of materials, shapes, light and movement.
Contact details: waste-to-energy@ramboll.com or see www.ramboll.com/wte
Thermya’s Torspyd™ process for ‘dry’ biomass
Bordeaux-based Thermya is dedicated to the design and development of systems for converting biomass into carbon or energy.
The company has developed industrial equipment to produce fuels from non-food biomass, like forestry or agricultural waste. For instance, Thermya has been working on a ‘fast torrefaction system’ which has been called Torspyd™, producing a dehydrated and easily-pelletable material – with all the energy potential contained in an organic solid.
Their torrefaction principle, is based on the drying of the raw material, which is then heated to 240°C in a gentle way until the whole material is thermally treated. The aim of the torrefaction is to eliminate all the water contained in the biomass, then continue the thermal treatment until the biomass fibres start to break, making the biomass material crumbly and easy to mill, and turn into pellets. This low temperature treatment, evaporating minimal light organic molecules, enables you to keep most of the organic matter of the biomass.
During the Torspyd™ process, a flow of neutral hot gas crosses the biomass (from bottom to the top) heating it progressively until it reaches its torrefaction point. Each kind of biomass has its proper torrefaction temperature point. At this point, it is important to clarify torrefaction: ‘classical torrefaction’ used to prepare coffee or cocoa beans is, in fact, a kind of toast, whereas Torspyd™ torrefaction, is the regular and equal heating of the particle, from its core to its shell, at a temperature which never exceeds the torrefaction point for that type of biomass.
Moreover, the process allows you to concentrate almost all the potential energy contained in the organic solid, because water has been eliminated and the fibres are broken and cannot absorb water again. Consequently the torrefied biomass becomes hydrophobic – this helps preserve its quality during storage. Water elimination makes the torrefied biomass a better fuel than the ‘raw’ biomass, because the potential energy contained and the effective energy restored during combustion are the same.
Finally, in terms of transport costs, it is more economic to carry torrefied biomass instead of raw biomass as it is generally compacted into high density pellets. At equal volumes, torrefied biomass has more effective energy than raw biomass.
Contact details: infos@thermya.com or see www.thermya.com
Maxon new burner release: the Kinedizer®-LE
Maxon recently released a new burner for high temperature applications – the Kinedizer®-LE. This new product is yet again another extension of Maxon’s growing LE (low emission) burner family.
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The Kinedizer®-LE is a nozzle-mix, medium-velocity burner. Using advanced mixing technology, the burner produces low emissions with very little excess air. Ruggedly built with a reinforced refractory block, it burns natural gas, propane and other gaseous fuels.
The combustion air for this burner can be supplied at temperatures ranging between ambient and 430°C. This feature will allow plant managers to increase their furnace thermal efficiencies to much higher levels by recuperating the heat in the exhaust fumes. The maximum furnace temperature the Kinedizer®-LE can handle is as high as 1100°C.
It is available in six different sizes, ranging from 160 kW to 7300 kW, each with a 20:1 turndown for maximum flexibility to control temperatures.
The flame outlet velocity is such that a good mixing inside the furnace will be obtained, resulting in an optimal temperature distribution.
More info on www.maxoncorp.com
