Arrangement and method in electric filter

Abstract

An arrangement and method in connection with an electric filter of a boiler plant, the electric filter comprising an insulator chamber. The arrangement comprises a first scavenging duct for conveying warm scavenging gas to the insulator chamber. Said first scavenging duct is connected to a channel conveying process gas in the boiler plant, which means that it is possible to supply process gas to the insulator chamber.

Claims

1. An electric filter of a boiler plant, the electric filter comprising: an insulator chamber, and a first scavenging duct for conveying warm scavenging gas to the insulator chamber, said first scavenging duct being connected to a channel conveying process gas in the boiler plant such that the process gas is supplied to the insulator chamber as the warm scavenging gas, said process gas being secondary, tertiary, or some other corresponding air of the boiler plant.

2. The electric filter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the boiler plant is one of the following: a soda recovery boiler, a bubbling fluidized-bed boiler, a circulating fluidized-bed boiler, a gas plant, a pyrolysis plant, and a grate boiler.

3. The electric filter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the temperature of the process gas is in the range of 80° to 300° C.

4. The electric filter as claimed in claim 2, wherein the temperature of the process gas is in the range of 80° to 300° C.

5. The electric filter of claim 1, further comprising: a heating device, and a second scavenging duct that is connected between the heating device and the insulator chamber, whereby gas heated by the heating device is supplied to the insulator chamber as scavenging gas, the second scavenging duct being connected to the insulator chamber through a valve arrangement arranged to open and close the second scavenging duct.

6. The electric filter as claimed in claim 5, wherein the valve arrangement comprises: a three-way valve arranged in the first scavenging duct with a third connection being connected to the second scavenging duct, and the valve arrangement further comprises control means for controlling said three-way valve and for changing the scavenging gas supply from the first scavenging duct to the second scavenging duct and vice versa.

7. A method for supplying scavenger gas to an insulator chamber of an electric filter of a boiler plant, the method comprising: conveying warm scavenging gas from a first scavenging duct to the insulator chamber, wherein process gas of the boiler plant is used as the scavenging gas, and wherein the process gas is a secondary, tertiary, or some other corresponding air of the boiler plant.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the process gas used as the scavenging gas is from one of the following boiler plants: a soda recovery boiler, a bubbling fluidized-bed boiler, a circulating fluidized-bed boiler, a gas plant, a pyrolysis plant, and a grate boiler.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the scavenging gas is conveyed to the insulator chamber at a temperature in the range of 80° to 300° C.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the scavenging gas is conveyed to the insulator chamber at a temperature in the range of 80° to 300° C.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising feeding scavenging gas to the insulator chamber through a heating device and a second scavenging duct during a start-up phase of the boiler plant, and after the boiler plant reaches normal operation, feeding process gas of the boiler plant as the scavenging gas to the insulator chamber.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising conveying the scavenging gas to the insulator chamber through a three-way valve arranged in the first scavenging duct with a third connection being connected to the second scavenging duct, and controlling said three-way valve to change the scavenging air supply from the first scavenging duct to the second scavenging duct and vice versa.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) The arrangement and method are described in greater detail in the attached drawings, in which

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an arrangement and method, and

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a second arrangement and method.

(4) In the figures, the matter is shown simplified for the sake of clarity. Like reference numerals identify like elements in the figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an arrangement and method.

(6) While electric filters are known, an arrangement for an electric filter 1 according to the present invention as shown in FIG. 1 comprises an insulator chamber 2, which in this case, is divided into four fields 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d. Each field has a bottom funnel 4a to 4d, through which solid matter removed from the flue gases is also removed from the insulator chambers 2.

(7) The electric filter 1 comprises numerous components and elements, such as electric isolators, supports, shakers, pressure transmitters that are not shown in the figures to simplify the presentation.

(8) The task of the electric filter 1 is to purify the flue and product gases created as a result of a thermal process. In this context, the thermal process refers to the processing of fuel in a boiler plant by combustion, gasification or pyrolysis, for instance.

(9) The boiler plant 5 may comprise one or more soda recovery boilers, bubbling fluidised-bed boilers (BFB), circulating fluidised-bed boilers (CFB), gas plants, pyrolysis plants, grate boilers or the like.

(10) Process air or gas is used in the operation of the boiler plant 5. In this specification, the term process air is used later for process air and process gas.

(11) Process air may be secondary or tertiary air or some other air needed in the combustion process of the boiler plant, for instance.

(12) The arrangement comprises a first scavenging duct 6, through which suitable process air is fed as scavenging air into the insulator chamber 2. The scavenging duct 6 may be an element formed of a metal pipe or duct known per se. It may comprise a thermal insulation layer, for instance.

(13) The first scavenging duct 6 is connected to the channel or chamber conveying the process air of the boiler plant 5. It should be noted that the connection between the scavenging duct 6 and the channel or chamber conveying the process air of the boiler plant 5 is not shown in the figures.

(14) The first scavenging duct 6 is connected through a scavenging connection 7 to the insulator chamber 2. The temperature of the air conveyed as scavenging air to the insulator chamber 2 is preferably 80 to 300° C. The duct or chamber conveying the process air of the boiler plant 5, to which the first scavenging duct 6 is connected, preferably contains process air at a temperature within said temperature range.

(15) The process air of one and the same boiler plant 5 can also be supplied to several insulator chambers 2. The first scavenging duct 6 could be constructed in such a manner, for instance, that is branches into several insulator chambers 2.

(16) Measures that affect its characteristics can be directed to the air to be conveyed as scavenging air. For this purpose, the first scavenging duct 6 may comprise one or more regulating elements 8 of the scavenging duct. Such a regulating element may be a closing valve, for instance, with which the scavenging duct 6 can be closed, a regulating valve or damper or some other corresponding element for adjusting the flow rate or pressure of the scavenging air.

(17) One advantage of the arrangement and method shown in FIG. 1 is that the process air need not, at least to a significant extent, be heated before it is fed into the insulator chamber 2, which means savings in energy costs. Another advantage is that the cost of implementing the arrangement and method is small.

(18) The proportion of scavenging air in the process air of the boiler plant 5 is insignificant. The pressure of the process air in the boiler plant 5 is typically so high that a pressure-increasing pump need not necessarily be connected to the first scavenging duct 6.

(19) FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a second arrangement and method that differs from that shown in FIG. 1 mainly in that the arrangement comprises a heating device 9 that is connected to the insulator chamber 2 through a second scavenging duct 10 and valve arrangement 11. The heating device 9 is an electrically operated heating device, for example.

(20) It is possible to connect to the second scavenging duct 10 a fan 12 that supplies air to the insulator chamber 2 through the heating device 9, second scavenging duct 10 and valve arrangement 11. The fan pressurizes the air into a pressure of approximately 3000 Pa, for instance, and the heating device 9 heats it to a temperature of approximately 140° C., for instance.

(21) The valve arrangement 11 is arranged to open and close the second scavenging duct 10 to the insulator chamber 2. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the valve arrangement 11 comprises a three-way valve arranged in the first scavenging duct 6.

(22) The second scavenging duct 10 is connected to the third connection 13 of the three-way valve. By adjusting the three-way valve, it is possible to change the source of scavenging air between the air arriving from the boiler plant 5 through the first scavenging duct 6 and the air arriving from the heating device through the second scavenging duct 10.

(23) To control its operation, the valve arrangement 11 is equipped with control means 14.

(24) During the start-up of the boiler plant 5, that is, before it has reached its normal operating status, process air suitable for scavenging air is not necessarily available. According to an idea, the control means 14 are arranged to control the valve arrangement 11 so that during the start-up phase of the boiler plant 5, scavenging air heated by the heating device 9 is fed to the insulator chamber 2 from the second scavenging duct 10. After the boiler plant 5 has reached its normal drift, process air of the boiler plant from the first scavenging duct is changed to be the scavenging air fed to the insulator chamber 2. The heating device 9 and fan 12 are then most preferably shut down to minimize their energy consumption.

(25) An advantage of the arrangement and method shown in FIG. 2 is, among other things, that the supply of scavenging air of suitable quality can be assured in all phases regardless of the status of the boiler plant 5 and that the consumption of electricity can be decreased to a significant extent.

(26) In some cases, features disclosed in this application may be used as such, regardless of other features. On the other hand, when necessary, features disclosed in this application may be combined in order to provide various combinations.

(27) In summary, the arrangement of the invention is characterised in that:

(28) said first scavenging duct is connected to a channel conveying process gas in the boiler plant, which means that process gas can be supplied to the insulator chamber. Further, the method of the invention is characterised by conveying process gas of the boiler plant to the insulator chamber for use as scavenging gas.

(29) The drawings and the related description are only intended to illustrate the idea of the invention. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the invention is not restricted to the embodiments described above, in which the invention is described by means of some examples, but many modifications and different embodiments of the invention are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined in the following claims.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

(30) 1 electric filter 2 insulator chamber 3a to d field 4a to d bottom funnel 5 boiler plant 6 first scavenging duct 7 scavenging connection 8 regulating elements of the scavenging duct 9 heating device 10 second scavenging duct 11 valve arrangement 12 fan 13 third connection 14 valve control means