Energy Saving Technology for Lowering Air Leakage of Sintering Pallets and Dust Collectors in Sinter Plant

The hot-wire type anemometers were used for measuring the velocity of effective air flowing through sinter bed in this study. Meanwhile, microphones were installed beside the pathway and close to the outer sidewall of travelling pallets for monitoring sound pressure generated by an abnormal air leakage. For identifying the passing pallet, a thermal-resistant type RFID technology was adopted. Based on the measured data via anemometers, the air leakage rate of sintering machine was calculated with the mass balance method, and pallets with the abnormal leakage can be detected and ranked in the severity of leakage from the measured sound pressure with the relevant criteria. In addition, for examining the leakage situation, this study set up a capillary type of differential pressure gauge to double cone valve (DCV) below the electrostatic precipitator (EP) in sintering plant for collecting the larger dust. The criteria of determining leaked DCV and the patterns for replacing the DCV were proposed to develop a detecting and predicting system on the air leakage into dust collectors of sinter machine. It offered field staff a basis of maintaining or renewing DCV via a warning reminding and reducing air leakage to increase EP efficiency for avoiding the dust emission from the stack. These technologies had been implemented in the sintering plants of China Steel Corporation, and they can effectively reduce the air leakage rate by 5% at least and further decrease the electricity consumption of the suction fan and coke rate, increase the production for the sintering machine.