Assessment and optimisation of 15 dust collectors lines for a primary mine company
OTP division successfully finalises the rerouting of ducts and full review of the engineering design of Air Pollution Control system
Material handling equipment
Application
15 lines
Dust collectors
Engineering assessment
CFD simulaton
Capture dust emissions
Environment-friendly
Figure: The Fabric Filter in Ipoh plant of Tasek Corporation, Malaysia
Project goals
- Eliminate the clogging of dust on the process
- Improve the dedusting action and get an APC system efficient and adequate
- Monitor all filter’s parameters and dust collector smooth operation in order to prevent future malfunctioning
Scope: Optimisation & assessment of 15 dust collectors lines
Country: –
FULL EP project: From Engineering to Construction and supervison activity during commissioning and start up.
Cleaning System: Traditional venturi technology
Start-up: 2022
The client highlights the issues below:
- Clogging and high slip of dust all along the process
- Difficulty to stay below the limits imposed by local authorities
- Risk for health and safety of personnel working on the process
the main complain is the high quantity of dust in the working area and exposition of personnel to dust slipped and released in the air. Moreover, the environment impact, the dust slipped and released in the atmosphere has high impact on emissions level. In addition, no 2 lines present higher criticality compared to the others without a clear reason.
First step is the site survey by OTP technical support, to deep assess the existing dedusting system and process. The site survey maps the suctions points and highlights that the dust could not be removed by the existing equipment. Based on the characteristics of the dust, the requirements of the served machines as well as the layouts aspects, OTP propose a challenging project consisting of the rerouting of ducts and full review of the engineering design of APC (Air Pollution Control) system.
The challenge of the project
The main problem for all the assessed lines was strictly related to the upstream equipment, only 8 lines showed the need to add additional dedusting unit. This means that in 50% of the cases the dust problem is solved thanks to a deep engineering restudy: new geometry of the suction points and ducts rerouting. Feasible thanks to a gap analysis and CFD simulation.
All the hoods changed geometry
The larger design for hood and optimisation of all the devices and components of the system allow to relax the capturing speed keeping unchanged the total air flow. The CFD simulation of the optimized solution allow to verify the feasibility of the new geometry and technical calculations.
Focus points of the solution:
- Optimised the capturing speed: monitoring the maximum capturing speed, to avoid draft product
- Keep minimum flow velocity at suction points to reduce the dust load and avoid clogging inside the ducts
- Start / Stop control philosophy
- Advisory and guidelines for proper rubber skirt and enclosure at belt installation
Critical operations are carried out internally
Manufacturing of the steelworks and inspections are carried out internally to guarantee the validity of the technical solutions and standards quality agreed with the mine company.
On-site
OTP provides full support during the maintenance procedures. All the machines are equipped with high quality spare parts. Each system is now controlled remotely thanks to the remote monitoring service.
Critical points to be faced
- Balance of suction points
As explain above the rerouting of ducts and the study of the new geometry and the support of the CFD analysis lead the optimisation of the dedusting system. The gap from design to reality is the balancing of the suction points: this criticality is related to that all the suctions points connected by one single duct affect each other during the fine tuning of the system. OTP technical support set the shutter’s position for the best dedusting result.
The project in short:
- Review of ducts engineering and size of APC system
- CFD study of existing equipment
- New equipment and optimization of existing hoods
- Supply of high quality spare parts
- Maintenance and technical service
- Assistance during commissioning and start-up
- Full system fine tuning
- Plan of preventive maintenance
Internal know-how & technology
Often happen that a common technical solution cannot always cover all the requirements, this is the criticality of all the brown fields projects. In this perspective the choice of a partner with internal know how built in many years of activity, make the difference in finding a comprehensive solutions, involving also aspects related to the control and management of the whole installation. Not to exclude in some cases to see also possible application of industry 4.0 technologies.
Mine company project and results
This approach allows to select all the possible solution to maintain a satisfactory operation of the mining plant in terms of availability with a significative improvement of the quality of the environment for workers as well as the reduction of pollutant emissions. The optimised solution is designed to meet dust emissions below 10 mg/Nm3, during in performance test the equipment registered emissions below 2 mg/Nm3.
Final conclusions
The optimisation study on each equipment provides its own contribute to the whole project, reaching the targeted results and high level of performances and reliability of the dedusting system. Additional benefits are the reduction of the OPEX linked to sharpened maintenance procedures and spare parts quality, as well as a better management of the equipment after a fine tuning of all the components.
Finally the remote monitoring services allow a drastic reduction in unplanned shutdowns and consequently peak emissions.