Fixed carbon production device

Abstract

A fixed carbon production device is provided with: a quench chamber for collecting fixed carbon; a dry distillation furnace which is erected and fixed in the quench chamber and into which raw material coal is fed; a dry distillation unit which is polygonal in horizontal cross-section and is partitioned by a separating wall which partitions the inside of the dry distillation furnace in the vertical direction; a dry distillation mini-furnace which is polygonal in horizontal cross-section and which is partitioned by a partition which partitions the inside of the dry distillation unit in the vertical direction; a pipe heating means which is arranged on the separating wall of the dry distillation unit and the partition of the dry distillation mini-furnace and which dry-distills the raw material coal; and a collection path for collecting fixed carbon collected in the quench chamber.

Claims

1. A fixed carbon production device comprising: a quench chamber for collecting fixed carbon; a dry distillation furnace which is erected and fixed in the quench chamber; a dry distillation unit which is partitioned into a rectangular or a polygonal shape in the vertical direction on a horizontal cross-section in the dry distillation furnace by a separating wall from an upper portion to a lower portion; a dry distillation mini-furnace which is partitioned into a rectangular or a polygonal shape in the vertical direction on the horizontal cross-section in the dry distillation unit by a partition from an upper portion to a lower portion; a pipe heating means which is arranged on the separating wall of the dry distillation unit and the partition of the dry distillation mini-furnace; a collection path for collecting fixed carbon produced in the quench chamber by feeding raw material coal from an upper portion of the dry distillation unit and performing dry distillation in each of the dry distillation mini-furnaces by the pipe heating means; and at a bottom portion of the quench chamber a fixed carbon extraction port comprising a rotary valve, and a means for sending high temperature steam or a carrier gas.

2. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein a heating temperature of the dry distillation furnace is of 350 C. to 500 C.

3. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein there are arranged in the dry distillation mini-furnace, a baffle plate, a metal mesh, and a metal plate with holes.

4. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 3, wherein the baffle plate is a holed structure at an angle not less than an angle of repose.

5. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein the carrier gas is carbon dioxide gas or nitrogen gas.

6. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein the rotary valve has a rotating vane with holes.

7. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein the raw material coal is a dried coal obtained through drying of low rank coal to a moisture content of not more than 20 mass %.

8. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein the grain size of the raw material coal is adjusted to 0.1 m to 5 mm.

9. The fixed carbon production device according to claim 1, wherein there is provided a combustion means for burning at least a part of the hydrocarbon gas and fixed carbon obtained through dry distillation of the raw material coal, and wherein the heating means utilizes the exhaust gas or waste heat of the combustion means.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a fixed carbon production device according to an embodiment.

(2) FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a simulated moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace.

(3) FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating analysis results of dry-distilled coal according to dry distillation temperatures.

(4) FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating thermogravimetric analysis results of dry-distilled coal according to dry distillation temperatures.

(5) FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating temperature change in brown coal in a dry distillation furnace.

(6) FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating changes in various combustion-related components of fixed carbon at a brown coal dry distillation processing temperature.

(7) FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a dry distillation unit 25 and a dry distillation mini-furnace 26 as described herein. Although one of the dry distillation mini-furnace 26 in the center part of the dry distillation unit 25 is shown as an example, 33 rows of dry distillation mini furnaces 26 are provide in the dry distillation unit 25 as described herein. In the blow-up at right, the arrangement of the pipe heating means 27 between the adjacent dry distillation mini-furnaces 26 is shown.

(8) FIG. 8 is a diagram providing an enlarged view of one of the dry distillation mini-furnaces 26 surrounded by the pipe heating means 27 between the adjacent dry distillation mini-furnaces 26. For ease of visualization, the center line is added along with an exemplification of the size for reference.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(9) In the following, the mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Embodiments

(10) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a fixed carbon production device according to an embodiment.

(11) In the drawing, 1 denotes a fixed carbon production device; 2 denotes a quench chamber for cooling and receiving fixed carbon (product dry-distilled char); 3 denotes a dry distillation furnace including a dry distillation unit which is erected on the upper portion of the quench chamber and which is partitioned by a separating wall portion described below, dry distillation mini-furnaces partitioned by partition plates described below provided in the dry distillation unit, steam piping and high temperature waste gas piping which are heated to a temperature of 500 C. to 600 C. are provided on the inner surface of the dry distillation furnace, the separating wall, and the partition plate, and dry-distills fed dried brown coal at a temperature of 350 C. to 500 C.; 3a denotes the separating wall arranged vertically from the upper portion to the lower portion of the dry distillation furnace 3 to divide the dry distillation furnace into rectangular dry distillation units; 3b denotes partition plates arranged vertically from the upper portion to the lower portion of the dry distillation furnace to divide each dry distillation unit divided by the separating wall into rectangular dry distillation mini-furnaces; 4 denotes dry distillation gas piping for recycling dry distillation gas produced through dry distillation which is provided in the upper portion or the lower portion; 5 denotes a dried brown coal feeding device for feeding into the dry distillation furnace dried brown coal obtained through drying of low rank coal to a moisture content of not more than 20 mass %; and 6 denotes a path for fixed carbon (product dry-distilled char).

(12) The fixed carbon production device according to the embodiment arranged as described above provides the following effects:

(13) (1) Each of the dry distillation mini-furnaces is equipped with a pipe-shaped heating means, so that it is possible to perform indirect heating by high temperature heat medium, it is easy to make the temperature in the dry distillation furnace uniform, and it is possible to prevent generation of heating spots. Further, there are provided dry distillation units each equipped with many rows of dry distillation mini-furnaces, and a dry distillation furnace equipped with many rows of the dry distillation units, so that the device is excellent in rigidity and durability;

(14) (2) Since there are provided dry distillation units each formed with many rows of dry distillation mini-furnaces, and a dry distillation furnace formed with many rows of dry distillation units, the device is of high rigidity and undergoes no deformation even when pressure is applied to the inside of the furnace due to generation of a volatile component in the dry distillation furnace or due to expansion of the raw material coal in the dry distillation furnace; thus the device is excellent in operation stability;

(15) (3) Since a pipe-shaped heating means is formed, it is possible to perform heating in a stable manner by using high temperature heat medium such as steam, so that the device is excellent in operation stability;

(16) (4) There is provided a quench chamber for collecting fixed carbon in the lower portion of the dry distillation furnace, so that it is possible to cool the fixed carbon reformed in the dry distillation furnace, and to collect the product dry-distilled char in a stable manner;

(17) (5) Since the dry distillation is performed at 350 C. to 500 C., the hydrocarbon gas (volatile content) is removed, and it is possible to convert to high rank coal, making it possible to obtain a high rank coal of a fuel ratio of 2 or more;

(18) (6) Since it is possible to perform the dry distillation at a low temperature of 350 C. to 500 C., the device is excellent in cost-saving efficiency in terms of the cost of the device itself and the input heat value; and

(19) (7) Since it is possible to perform the dry distillation while retaining heavy oil, there are no problems such as the clogging of the reactor.

Experiment Example 1 . . . Dry Distillation Test

(20) In experiment example 1, the dry distillation temperature of the moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace was examined.

(21) FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the simulated moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace used for collecting test data of the present embodiment.

(22) In FIG. 2, 20 denotes a simulated moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace; 21 denotes a container furnace filled with a brown coal specimen (which was obtained through pre-heating and drying Loy Yang brown coal (raw coal) in the atmosphere and at room temperature to reduce its moisture content to around 20 mass %, setting the grain sizes to 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm through crushing/classification, drying the resultant coal in an inert gas atmosphere at 110 C., and removing the moisture therefrom) and partitioned in the length direction and the perpendicular direction (horizontal plane direction) with a SUS mesh; 21a denotes an inert gas feeding port through which N.sub.2 gas is caused to flow in at a rate of 200 ml/min to create an inert gas atmosphere in the container furnace 21; 21b denotes an inert gas outlet for the inert gas input from the inert gas feeding port 21a; 22 denotes an electric furnace arranged in many stages in order to form a temperature distribution; 23 denotes a motor for moving the container furnace 21 inside the electric furnace 22 at a constant speed for spuriously preparing the data regarding the carbon flowing down in the furnace; and 24 denotes the moving direction of the container furnace.

(23) The inert gas flows from the inert gas feeding port 21a toward the inert gas outlet 21b in FIG. 2 (from the upper side toward the lower side in FIG. 3).

(24) The simulated moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace 20 is a device simulating the brown coal conversion characteristics and the gasification characteristics in the dry distillation. The container furnaces 21 of cylindrical reactors formed of SUS are fixed in series in 15 stages, and these are raised by the motor 23 in the direction of the moving direction 24 from the lower portion toward the upper portion of the vertical electric furnaces 22 arranged in a number of stages, whereby there was obtained the test data when the brown coal filled in the container furnace 21 flowed down from the upper portion to the lower portion of the moving bed. From the upper side in FIG. 2, the container furnaces 21 were numbered as the first, second, . . . , to 15th container. There were provided nine electric furnaces 22; and the first through fourth electric furnaces as ordered from the lower side in FIG. 2 were set to 165 C., the fifth furnace was set to 300 C., the sixth furnace was set to 400 C., the seventh furnace was set to 500 C., the eighth furnace was set to 600 C., and the ninth furnace was set to 700 C., respectively. It is noted that the container furnaces 21 were raised at a rate of 6.9 ram/min within the electric furnaces 22. The temperature rise rate at this time of the container furnaces 21 was about 10 C./min. Of the fifteen container furnaces 21, the container furnaces 21 which have passed the electric furnace uppermost portion were the first through sixth container furnaces 21.

(25) FIG. 3 and (Table 1) are graphs showing the dry-distilled coal analysis results according to the dry distillation temperatures. More specifically, FIG. 3 shows the solid yields of the respective containers obtained based on the mass of the solid remaining after the completion of the experiment using the simulated moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace 20 of FIG. 2.

(26) At this time, the first through sixth of the container furnaces 21 have passed the electric furnaces; the seventh through eleventh container furnaces 21 correspond to 200 C. to 595 C. of the thermal decomposition zone; and the 12th to 15th container furnaces 21 are the portions heated at 165 C. and they are at a temperature of about 140 C.

(27) The carbide yield at the first container furnace 21 was 56 mass %; the carbide yield gradually increased from the second to the sixth container furnaces 21, i.e., the lower the stage; and the yield attained 58.7 mass % at the sixth container furnace 21. This resulted from the volatile component containing heavy oil generated from the upper stage container coming into contact with the brown coal carbide and half-carbide of the lower stage, with the carbide yield increasing due to sorption of the heavy oil and co-carbonization of the heavy oil and the brown coal. Further, from the 12th container furnace 21 onward, there was recognized an increase in weight by 10% to 20% of deadweight probably attributable mainly to the sorption of the heavy oil. On the downstream side of the reactor (the 12th to 15th container furnaces 21), the production gas and the condensation component were recycled, and the recycle rate of these generated products was 99% or more. As a result of the analysis of the recycled condensation component, it was found that the high boiling point heavy oil condensed due to the presence of a low temperature portion in the furnace; further, it is possible to perform selective production of light oil components through supply of heavy oil due to the brown coal particles present here; and, as shown in FIG. 3 and (Table 1), in the temperature range of 200 C. to 595 C., dry distillation rapidly progressed in the moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace, making it possible to retain the heavy oil component in the fixed carbon.

(28) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Container furnace number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Solid yield 56 56.4 56.9 57.5 57.9 58.7 59.3 61.4 (mass %) Container furnace number 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Solid yield 65.7 72.4 88.9 107.9 112.4 110.4 108.9 (mass %)

Experiment Example 2 . . . Evaluation Test Through Thermogravimetric Analysis

(29) In experiment example 2, the dry distillation temperature was examined through thermogravimetric analysis.

(30) FIG. 4, (Table 2), and (Table 3) are graphs showing the results of the dry-distilled coal thermogravimetric analysis according to the dry distillation temperatures. More specifically, in order to check the dry distillation temperature through thermal decomposition of brown coal, Loy Yang brown coal (raw coal) was pre-heated and dried at room temperature and in the atmosphere to reduce its moisture content to around 20 mass %; then, its grain sizes were set to 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm through crushing/classification, and the coal was dried in an inert gas atmosphere at 110 C. to remove moisture therefrom; the resultant coal was measured by using a thermogravimetric analysis apparatus (EXSTAR TG/DTA 6000 manufactured by SII Nanotechnology Inc.) to obtain the following results.

(31) As shown in FIG. 4, (Table 2), and (Table 3), it is recognized that the brown coal weight began to decrease at around 350 C., with the dry distillation being conspicuous from this temperature. Further, in a stationary bed dry distillation furnace, a similar specimen was dry-distilled in a nitrogen stream at 500 C., 550 C., 600 C., and 650 C., with the temperature rise rate being 10 C./min, and the retaining time at the peak temperature being zero seconds. The relationship between the fixed carbon yield and the temperature at this time is plotted in FIG. 4. By checking the graph, it is understood that the results of the thermogravimetric analysis and the temperature definition in the dry distillation furnace are in a satisfactory correlationship. The results of the dry-distilled coal thermogravimetric analysis in FIG. 4 are plotted in (Table 2), and the relationship between the fixed carbon yield and temperature in FIG. 4 is plotted in (Table 3).

(32) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Temperature ( C.) 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 Weight change 0.99 0.95 0.85 0.7 0.62 0.57 0.53 amount (mass %)

(33) TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Peak temperature ( C.) 500 550 600 650 Yield of fixed carbon 0.71 0.67 0.63 0.6

Experiment Example 3 . . . High Rank Conversion Temperature Demonstration Test

(34) In experiment example 3, the requisite temperature for conversion from low rank coal to high rank coal was examined.

(35) FIG. 5 and (Table 4) are graphs showing temperature changes in brown coal inside the dry distillation furnace. More specifically, Loy Yang brown coal (raw coal) was placed in a horizontally installed tubular furnace with N.sub.2 gas circulating therethrough; in this state, the in-furnace temperature was raised to each measurement temperature, and the temperature change time at that time and each temperature were measured.

(36) As shown in FIG. 5, it is understood that even after the moisture had vaporized at around 100 C., the temperature increased gradually; even when the set temperature was 300 C., there was a latent heat component, which shows that conversion to high rank coal occurred.

(37) TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Reaction time (min) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Set 300 Specimen 88 93 93 104 133 182 229 259 276 287 temperature 350 temperature 96 95 95 124 187 254 296 319 333 341 ( C.) 400 ( C.) 96 115 225 315 352 371 381 386 390 392 500 97 111 265 381 453 489 500 500 500 500 600 101 127 376 525 565 578 584 588 590 592 700 114 462 626 661 675 682 685 688 690 691 800 102 464 715 753 767 774 778 782 784 786

Experiment Example 4 . . . Dry Distillation Temperature Effect Test

(38) In experiment example 4, dry distillation temperature and the performance of the resultant fixed carbon were examined.

(39) FIG. 6 and (Table 5) are graphs showing changes in the combustion-related components of the fixed carbon at the brown coal dry distillation processing temperatures. More specifically, Loy Yang brown coal (raw coal) was pre-heated and dried at room temperature and in the atmosphere, reducing its moisture content to around 20 mass %; the resultant coal was placed in a horizontally installed tubular furnace with N.sub.2 gas circulating therethrough; in this state, the in-furnace temperature was raised to 400 C., 600 C., 700 C., and 800 C., and the inherent moisture, volatile content, ash, fixed carbon yield (%), and the fuel ratio at that time were measured.

(40) As shown in FIG. 6 and (Table 5), in the coal processed at 400 C., the fuel ratio was 2.5, thus showing that there has been realized a fuel ratio on the order of bituminous coal like Newlands coal.

(41) TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 5 Processing temperature ( C.) Newlands 400 600 700 800 coal Inherent moisture (mass %) 6.3 8.4 10.3 14.6 2.7 Volatile content (mass %) 26.3 13.0 10.2 7.3 27.3 Ash (mass %) 2.5 3.3 3.6 3.7 14.7 Fixed carbon (mass %) 64.8 75.3 76.0 74.4 55.3 Fuel ratio 2.5 5.8 7.5 10.2 2

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

(42) The present invention provides a fixed carbon production device which performs thermal decomposition and gasification while moving dried low rank coal in a dry distillation furnace and which makes it possible to recycle fixed carbon, hydrocarbon gas, etc.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

(43) 1 Fixed carbon production device 2 Quench chamber 3 Dry distillation furnace 3a Separating wall 3b Partition plate 4 Dry distillation gas piping 5 Dried brown coal 6 Fixed carbon 20 Simulated moving bed indirect heating dry distillation furnace 21 Container furnace 21a Inert gas feeding port 21b Inert gas outlet 22 Electric furnace 23 Motor 24 Moving direction 25 Dry distillation unit 26 Dry distillation mini-furnace 27 Pipe heating means