Kilns rotary

The rotary kiln is simple in concept, but difficult to operate in practice. The rotary kiln is a refractory lined, steel cylinder mounted horizontally on trunions and riding rings. It is pitched slightly toward the discharge end to facilitate material flow through the kiln. The kiln is fed from the high end and can be fed either whole tires or TDF chips. It can be fired internally or heated externally. 

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The ABS polymer is recovered through coagulation of the ABS latex. Coagulation is usually achieved by the addition of an agent to the latex which destabilizes the emulsion. The resulting slurry can then be filtered or centrifuged to recover the ABS resin. The wet resin is dried to a low moisture content. A variety of dryers can be used for ABS, including tray, fluid bed, and rotary kiln type dryers. 

A wide variety of special-purpose incinerators (qv) with accompanying gas scmbbers and soHd particle collectors have been developed and installed in various demilitarisation faciUties. These include flashing furnaces that remove all vestiges of explosive from metal parts to assure safety in handling deactivation furnaces, to render safe small arms and nonlethal chemical munitions fluidized-bed incinerators that bum slurries of ground up propellants or explosives in oil and rotary kilns to destroy explosive and contaminated waste and bulk explosive. 

Calcination. Calcination involves a low (<1000° C) temperature soHd-state chemical reaction of the raw materials to form the desired final composition and stmcture such as perovskite for BaTiO and PZT. It can be carried out by placing the mixed powders in cmcibles in a batch or continuous kiln. A rotary kiln also can be used for this purpose to process continuously. A sufficiendy uniform temperature has to be provided for the mixed oxides, because the thermal conductivity of powdered materials is always low. 

A furnace is a device (enclosure) for generating controlled heat with the objective of performing work. In fossil-fuel furnaces, the work appHcation may be direct (eg, rotary kilns) or indirect (eg, plants for electric power generation). The furnace chamber is either cooled (waterwaH enclosure) or not cooled (refractory lining). In this article, furnaces related to metallurgy such as blast furnaces ate excluded because they ate coveted under associated topics (see... 

Rotary Kiln Incinerators. The rotary kiln has been used to incinerate a large variety of Hquid and soHd industrial wastes. Any Hquid capable of being atomized by steam or air can be incinerated, as well as heavy tars, sludges, pallets, and filter cakes. This abiUty to accept diverse feeds is the outstanding feature of the rotary kiln and, therefore, this type of incinerator is often selected by the chemical and waste treatment industries. 

Fig. 4. Cross section of a rotary kiln. is the wall area that is in contact with the soHds (see eq. 10) is the wall area that is in contact with the gases is...

Heat Transfer in Rotary Kilns. Heat transfer in rotary kilns occurs by conduction, convection, and radiation. In a highly simplified model, the treatment of radiation can be explained by applying a one-dimensional furnace approximation (19). The gas is assumed to be in plug flow the absorptivity, a, and emissivity, S, of the gas are assumed equal (a = e ) and the presence of water in the soHds is taken into account. Energy balances are performed on both the gas and soHd streams. Parallel or countercurrent kilns can be specified. 

The time constants characterizing heat transfer in convection or radiation dominated rotary kilns are readily developed using less general heat-transfer models than that presented herein. These time constants define simple scaling laws which can be used to estimate the effects of fill fraction, kiln diameter, moisture, and rotation rate on the temperatures of the soHds. Criteria can also be estabHshed for estimating the relative importance of radiation and convection. In the following analysis, the kiln wall temperature, and the kiln gas temperature, T, are considered constant. Separate analyses are conducted for dry and wet conditions. 

Comparisons of the complete heat-transfer model with pilot-scale rotary kiln data are shown iu Figure 5 (21) for moisture levels ranging from 0 to 20 wt %. The tremendous thermal impact of moisture is clearly visible iu the leveling of temperature profiles at 100°C. 

Mass Transfer and Kinetics in Rotary Kilns. The rates of mass transfer of gases and vapors to and from the sohds iu any thermal treatment process are critical to determining how long the waste must be treated. Oxygen must be transferred to the sohds. However, mass transfer occurs iu the context of a number of other processes as well. The complexity of the processes and the parallel nature of steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Figure 2, require that the parameters necessary for modeling the system be determined empirically. In this discussion the focus is on rotary kilns. 

The desorptive process may be analyzed before boiling. The key assumption is that the vapor and adsorbed phases are ia equiUbrium ia the bulk of the bed. This assumption eliminates iatraparticle resistances from further consideration and is reasonable for rotary kiln appHcations. The two remaining resistances are associated with hydrocarbon diffusion out of the bed and with convection from the bed surface to the bulk gases. The flux of species Fi from the desorbiag bed becomes... 

The abihty of a four-parameter, two-parallel reaction model to correlate pilot-scale rotary kiln, toluene-desorption results (26) is shown in Figure 6. The model assumes that the adsorbed toluene consists of two fractions, T and F, which are tightly and loosely bound, respectively. 

In a rotary kiln, the burner can produce both thermal and fuel NO, if the fuel contains nitrogen. Many soHd waste streams also contain nitrogen, typically as much as 20 wt %, which contributes to the fuel NO pathway. Key sources of soHd waste fuel nitrogen include plastics, nylons, dyes, and other process wastes. Nylon, for example, is 33 wt % nitrogen. 

In the briquetting process, ore fines usually are mixed with a binder and are formed into compact masses between two rotating roUs. The roUs exert pressures of 1.5-4.2 t/cm in forming the briquettes. In the nodulizing process, which is relatively uncommon commercially, ore fines are heated in a rotary kiln to a temperature, usually 1250—1370°C, at which the ore begins to melt and bind. The ore balls in the kiln to form nodules that are discharged and cooled. 

The carbon content of DRI depends primarily on the direct reduction process used and the way the process is operated. Carbon content can be adjusted within limits by operating changes within the DR process. Most steelmakers prefer slightly more carbon than is required to balance the remaining FeO in the DRI. DRI from gas-based processes typically contains 1 to 2.5% carbon, mostly in the form of cementite [12169-32-3] Fe C. DRI containing approximately 6 to 7% carbon in the form of cementite is called iron carbide. DRI from coal-based, rotary-kiln processes contains very low (ca 0.5%) levels of carbon. 

SL/RN Process. In the SL/RN process (Fig. 4), sized iron ore, coal, and dolomite are fed to the rotary kiln wherein the coal is gasified and the iron ore is reduced. The endothermic heat of reduction and the sensible energy that is required to heat the reactants is provided by combustion of volatiles and carbon monoxide leaving the bed with air introduced into the free space above the bed. The temperature profile in the kiln is controlled by radial air ports in the preheat zone and axial air ports in the reduction zone. Part of the coal is injected through the centerline of the kiln at the discharge end. The hot reduced iron and char is discharged into an indirect rotary dmm cooler. The cooled product is screened and magnetically separated to remove char and ash. 

The latest installations incorporate a waste heat boiler in the off-gas cleaning system to recover sensible heat from the rotary kiln off-gas. There is sufficient sensible heat in the off-gas from the SL/RN process to generate 500 to 700 kWh/t of DRJ, depending on the type of reductant used. 

Other DR Processes. The other DR processes, eg, the CODIR, DRC, ACCAR, and Dav Steel processes, make up 4.4% of worldwide production and mosdy consist of coal-based, rotary-kiln processes. Ah of these are similar to the SL/RN process. In addition, one small coal-based, shaft-furnace plant based on the Kinglor-Metor process is operating. 

The iron carbide process is alow temperature, gas-based, fluidized-bed process. Sized iron oxide fines (0.1—1.0 mm) are preheated in cyclones or a rotary kiln to 500°C and reduced to iron carbide in a single-stage, fluidized-bed reactor system at about 590°C in a process gas consisting primarily of methane, hydrogen, and some carbon monoxide. Reduction time is up to 18 hours owing to the low reduction temperature and slow rate of carburization. The product has the consistency of sand, is very britde, and contains approximately 6% carbon, mostly in the form of Ee C. 

Fig. 5. Schematic of the Kennedy van Saun (KVS) patented low pressure drop (LPD) preheater/rotary kiln lime calcining system available in sites...

Many kilns that formerly were direct coal-fired or producer-gas verticals were retrofitted to natural gas firing with center-burners and after World War II, dramatically improving lime quaUty, kiln capacity, and fuel efficiency. By the 1960s, this improved vertical kiln had lost favor to rotary and other special kilns because of the supply and cost problems of oil and gas in the United States and the spectacular improvement in rotary kiln performance. Many natural gas-fired center burners were permanently closed and dismanded because they could not be converted to coal. However, the reverse occurred in Europe where the extensive oil and gas discoveries heightened interest in the new, advanced vertical kilns. 

Rotary kilns and, to a lesser extent, Fluo-SoHds kilns are used to calcine a wet precipitated calcium carbonate filter cake in the kraft or sulfate paper-pulp process (15). Lime is regenerated for use as a causticization reagent in recovering caustic soda for pulp digestion. Losses in lime recovery are replaced by purchased lime (see Paper Pulp). 

Portland Cement Manufacture. The second greatest use of limestone is as raw material in the manufacture of Pordand cement (10). The average limestone factor per ton of Pordand cement is 1.0—1.1 t of pulverized limestone. The limestone, calcined to lime in the cement rotary kiln, combines with siUca and alumina to form tricalcium siUcate and tricalcium aluminate and other lesser cementing compounds (see Cement). Most cement companies operate captive limestone quarries. 

VoIa.tiIes. Manganese may contain some chemically bonded water or carbon dioxide both of which can be removed by calcining or sintering. The Mexican Molango ore (Table 4) is an example of a low grade ore that is upgraded by calcination in a rotary kiln. 

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