Drax power plant operation 5: biomass fuel dumper unloading

　　British Drax 6*660MW power plant biomass fuel power generation operation, introduced from multiple perspectives and multiple links. Section 4 introduces the biomass fuel storage bin in the Drax power plant. This section introduces the dumper unloading of the fuel pre-processing plant in the Drax power plant.

　　Sometimes, the most effective method can also be the most direct. A truck arrives at a biomass fuel pretreatment processing plant deep in the forests of the southeastern United States. It passes through a set of huge gates and then enters a metal platform. The driver got out of the car and pressed a button on the nearby console. The platform under the truck slowly tilted and rose. In this way, the truck's cargo was dumped into a large container at the back. The truck was empty in two minutes.

　　 This is the biomass bulk unloading method used by the biomass pellet plants invested and constructed by Drax Power Plant in Louisiana and Mississippi. This machine that tilts the truck and unloads is also called a dumper. Its role is easy to understand: lift the truck and use the force of gravity to quickly and effectively empty the truck. In Europe and other regions, the sight of trucks being lifted into the air may be rare, but this phenomenon is not uncommon in industrial facilities in the United States. The tipper can be used to unload the cargo in the truck, such as corn, grain, and gravel, and the cost is very low. Drax's three fuel processing plants in the United States use dump trucks to unload the bulk biomass that is transported daily.

　　How does the dumper work? The dumper uses hydraulic pistons to lift one end of the truck platform, while the truck itself leans on the reinforced barrier at the other end. To ensure safety, each vehicle must be reinforced at the end (where the cargo is being emptied) so that they can support the weight of the truck when it is tilted. Each dumper can lift up to 60 tons and can accommodate 50-foot-long vehicles. Once tilted far enough (each platform is tilted to about 60 degrees), the biomass bulk material will begin to unload, and the splitter at the end will guide the material to one of two positions, depending on the moisture content of the incoming material and the next The processing flow. One is sent to the wood chips and sawdust piles, and then passed through the pelletizing process of hammer mills, dryers, and particle crushers; or sent to the fuel pile for drying to ensure that the humidity of the wood chips before making pellets Between 11.5% and 12%.

　　The unloading efficiency of the dumper is very high, and it can unload 4 to 5 trucks per hour. It only takes a few minutes from full load, tipping to empty and driving away, and the truck can leave. Using gravity to unload a truck is a simple method, but it is also an effective method. More than one truck can arrive and unload every hour. Since the biomass bulk feeds directly into the transportation system in the plant, there is no time lost between the truck to the container and the unloading of the timber from the system.

　　Secondly, for truck owners, they do not need to carry out expensive vehicle hydraulic system maintenance on the truck, instead they use an in-field dumper to realize the unloading function. This is a kind of equipment in the factory, and its maintenance is to ensure the normal operation of the operation.

　　However, there is one thing that drivers need to be wary of: the things they leave in the truck cab, such as opened coffee cups, food containers-anything that is not firmly secured.