Waste heat unit

The gas, along with entrained ash and char particles, which are subjected to further gasification in the large space above the fluid bed, exit the gasifier at 954—1010°C. The hot gas is passed through a waste-heat boiler to recover the sensible heat, and then through a dry cyclone. SoHd particles are removed in both units. The gas is further cooled and cleaned by wet scmbbing, and if required, an electrostatic precipitator is included in the gas-treatment stream. 

The final composition of the reactor product gas is estabUshed by the water gas shift equiUbrium at the reactor outiet waste-heat exchanger inlet where rapid cooling begins. Some units quench instead of going directiy to heat exchanger. 

Many units have waste heat recovery systems that generate low pressure steam from reaction heat. Such steam is often employed to drive adsorption refrigeration units to cool the reactor feed stream and to increase polymer conversion per pass, an energy-saving process that reduces the demand for electrical power. 

Some results of the constant-value pricing system are as foUow generation in a central unit at relatively low pressure, <4.24 MPa (600 psig) tremendous economic pressure to use turbines rather than motors for drives lack of incentive for high efficiency turbines excessively high temperature differentials in steam users tremendous incentive to recover waste heat as low pressure steam and a large plume of excess low pressure steam vented to the atmosphere. 

The Claus process is the most widely used to convert hydrogen sulfide to sulfur. The process, developed by C. F. Claus in 1883, was significantly modified in the late 1930s by I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, but did not become widely used until the 1950s. Figure 5 illustrates the basic process scheme. A Claus sulfur recovery unit consists of a combustion furnace, waste heat boiler, sulfur condenser, and a series of catalytic stages each of which employs reheat, catalyst bed, and sulfur condenser. Typically, two or three catalytic stages are employed. 

A derivative of the Claus process is the Recycle Selectox process, developed by Parsons and Unocal and Hcensed through UOP. Once-Thm Selectox is suitable for very lean acid gas streams (1—5 mol % hydrogen sulfide), which cannot be effectively processed in a Claus unit. As shown in Figure 9, the process is similar to a standard Claus plant, except that the thermal combustor and waste heat boiler have been replaced with a catalytic reactor. The Selectox catalyst promotes the selective oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to sulfur dioxide, ie, hydrocarbons in the feed are not oxidized. These plants typically employ two Claus catalytic stages downstream of the Selectox reactor, to achieve an overall sulfur recovery of 90—95%. 

The traveling-grate furnace requires less labor, increases the output per unit of grate area, and produces more uniform product than the WetheriU. furnaces. The traveling grate is an endless chain of cast-iron bars, driven by sprockets, which traverses a firebrick chamber. Anthracite briquettes are fed to a depth of ca 15 cm. After ignition by the previous charge, the coal briquettes are covered by 15—16.5 cm of ore/coal briquettes. The latter are dried with waste heat from the furnace. Zinc vapor evolves and bums in a combustion chamber and the spent clinker faUs into containers for removal (24,25). 

Raw material for dry process plants is ground in closed-circuit ball mills with air separators, which may be set for any desired fineness. Drying is usually carried out in separate units, but waste heat can be utilized directiy in the mill by coupling the raw mill to the kiln. Autogenous mills, which operate without grinding media are not widely used. For suspension preheater-type kilns, a roUer mill utilizes the exit gas from the preheater to dry the material in suspension in the mill. 

Energy source for driving the refrigeration unit (electricity, natural gas, steam, waste heat)... 

This discussion of offsites is subdivided into Utilities and Other Offsites. The utility portion interacts with the process area, while the other offsites have minor interaction w ith the process area, if any. In addition, the process area may have utility generation, such as waste heat boilers. It is convenient to discuss all utility generation as one package pointing out special considerations for the process area units along the way. The goal for this study phase is the same as for battery limits specification complete major material list and process specification sheets. 

Process Steam Generation. Steam generated in the process sections of the plant may be at the highest plant pressure level or an intermediate level. Also, the process area may have fired boilers, waste heat boilers, or both. There may be crossties between utility and process generated steam levels. Enough controls must be provided to balance far-ranging steam systems and protect the most critical units in the event of boiler feedwater shortage situations. 

The design of heaters and waste heat recovery units is beyond the scope of this book. Sizing and design are best left to manufacturers. However, the concepts discussed in this chapter and in Chapter 2 can be used to verify the manufacturer s proposals. 

In the United States, coal had a 57 percent share of the electric power fuel market in 2000, up from 46 percent in 1970. This amounts to 430,000 MW generated by steam turbines that are fueled with coal. Wlien considering other sources of generating steam for electric power—such as nuclear reactors, gas- or oil-fired broilers, and waste heat from gas turbines— steam turbines now comprise more than 600,000 MW of capacity, or approximately 75 percent of all generating capacity in the United States. 

Nevertheless, prudently decreasing the total amount of blowdown per unit time (e.g., by consistently running boiler TDS levels closer to the maximum suitable for the boiler design and operation) saves money from reduced waste heat and generates a subsequent lower demand for chemical treatments and makeup (MU) water. 

Carbon Monoxide Boilers Carbon monoxide boilers are used to recover waste heat generated from oil refining fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processes. The FCC process produces copious volumes of by-product gas containing 5 to 8% carbon monoxide (CO), which has a heat content of about 150 Btu/lb. A 10,000 barrel (bbl) per day FCC unit produces 60,000 to 150,000 lb/hr of CO. 

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