Compact Technology for Dust Control in Cement Industry
Donaldson Australasia has released a new cartridge-based range of dust collectors that are highly suitable for control of air borne pollution caused by cement dust.
PowerCore filter cartridges have a patented nanofibre media technology that delivers performance efficiency greater than that of traditional cellulose-based cartridge filters and bags. In addition to improved efficiency, the performance characteristics of the PowerCore media technology allows for the creation of the company’s CPV collector units which are up to 70% smaller than conventional collector units.
This smaller footprint and unit size delivers added benefit from PowerCore units. They are easier and cheaper to install than conventional bag collectors, making them attractive to operations where space is at premium. Maintenance is also a simple task as the PowerCore filter cartridges are engineered so that they may be removed by hand and replaced without the need for messy service machinery.
Cement dust is known to create ill health by skin contact, eye contact, or inhalation. Hazardous materials in the dust can include alkaline compounds such as lime (calcium oxide) that are corrosive to human tissue; crystalline silica, which is abrasive to the skin, and can damage lungs; and, chromium that can cause allergic reactions. In addition, excess dust can clog machinery, thus affecting operation and impacting on equipment maintenance costs.
Customers in Australia have already implemented Donaldson’s range of PowerCore CPV series collectors are offering. Morgan Cement, for instance, required a dust filter to vent a finished product bin being fed by two screw conveyors and aerated by air pads for product discharge. The site at Port Kembla in NSW has many dust collectors, all of which are traditional baghouses. Morgan Cement was attracted to the relatively smaller size and higher efficiency of PowerCore and was happy to install a PowerCore CPV-3 unit as the first trial unit in Australia.
After updating the unit with revised pulse-valve targeting and cradle design in the tube sheet, the unit continues to perform well with a stable delta-p. The customer is also impressed with PowerCore’s ability to recover from high delta-p situations.
Donaldson Australasia has had a similar positive experience at another leading cement plant in south-west Sydney with its PowerCore CPV-6 collector unit. In this instance, Donaldson was required to replace an existing dust collector that was proving to be inefficient in the ongoing operating conditions on site, where cement mixes were being loaded from silo storage units into haul trucks.
Concerns were raised about the filtration efficiency and size of the dust collector required due to the limited amount of space to house the unit at the customer’s site. There were also concerns over the unit’s ability to handle a mix of different types of dust in an area where other machinery, including haulage vehicles, needed to be protected from dust pollutant which could damage equipment.
Donaldson’s PowerCore CPV-6 unit matched both requirements. This unit has now been operating for 12 months on intermittent duty with a stable and low deltaP below 50 mmwg.
The customer commented that the performance has been more than adequate for the application and have loaded a number of different cement blends from storage silos into trucks with no complaints from truck drivers about dust problems during the filling operation.
