What is Biomass and Is it a Practical Source of Energy?
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Biomass is any organic material that is made by plants and animals. This includes all parts of plants, animal flesh and excretions such as manure. Biomass in rich in energy that can be used for fuel which is called biofuel.
Fossil fuels are also a biomass since it's believed that they come from ancient plants and animals. But usually when people speak of biomass they are talking about material produced from sources that are alive now or were recently.
Biofuel is often talked about as though it was a new technology that we can use in the future to help solve our energy supply problems. But humans have been using biofuel since the beginning of humanity. The food we eat is a form of biofuel that we wouldn't exist without. Humans have also used plant materials such as wood wax and whale oil as a fuel to burn for heat and light for thousands of years.
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Newer technologies have allowed us to use biomass for making other biofuels. Biomass can be burned to power electric generators or made into methane, alcohol or bio diesel for powering our cars. These processes are energy intensive meaning a lot of energy is lost in converting biomass into the other forms of fuel or energy. Because of this these biofuels have not been cost effective or practical.
With all the technology going into biofuel research the one form of biofuel that we have been using since ancient times still remains the most efficient and practical. Burning biomass such as wood for direct heating is still the most efficient.
Instead of focusing on trying to use biomass to fuel our cars and generate electricity we may be 
better off using it to heat our homes and buildings. Firewood may not be practical for most people but pellets made from wood and other biomass may be. Burning pellets is cost effective, clean and may be the most efficient way to utilize the energy in biomass.
For those who want to use biomass as a renewable energy source heating with wood or other biomass pellets are practical and economical and the technology and distribution systems are already available.
<<< RECOMMENDED ~ DIESEL AND GAS TURBINELearn more about how biomass works.Learn more about wood pellets.
You can also check out this short video to learn how energy can be derived from biomass. It presents the using of energy from biomass to generate electricity at the Nanticoke Generating Station. Very interesting... :)
Labels: Biodiesel, Biofuel, Biotechnology, Energy, Environmental, Steam, Technology
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 2:41 AM,
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Profiting from Ultrasound Steam System Inspection
Friday, September 19, 2008
Just to share some info / news that was delivered to my mailbox by PlantServices.com. It's actually a webminar (web seminar) that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home / office to learn about how to profit from ultrasound steam system inspection.
From the brief information provided, it mentioned how we can use ultrasound to inspect steam traps and valves which are very critical and important in a processing plant. I remembered how crucial the steam traps were when i was working in a production plant before. Whenever some steam traps fail to function and when the boiler unintentionally sent us wet steam, our vacuum pressure will drop and hence disrupt our product quality. We were forced to regularly monitor all steam traps in our 7 storey plant and maintain a checklist. Once in a while, i personally checked some of the steam traps using my bare hands.
I guess that's enough for my rambling. What I wanted to highlight here is actually the webminar organized by Plantservices.com. If you want to learn about it register yourself for the program. I don't think I can make it there due to other commitments. Read the rest of the information....
Presented by PlantServices.com
How to profit from ultrasound steam system inspection
Sponsored by: UE Systems
Content type: Webcast
Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008
Time: 12 PM ET/9 AM PT
Length: 60 minutes
This tutorial will demonstrate how to conduct an ultrasound steam trap and valve survey. Viewers will learn the basics of ultrasound technology followed by details, including sound samples of various steam traps in good and in failure conditions. Strategies for effective trap and valve survey preparation and methods of recording, analyzing and reporting results will be included, as well as how effective steam trap inspections help conserve energy and increase profitability!
Featured Speaker: Douglas Waetjen - UE Systems, Inc.
Mr. Waetjen has been involved with ultrasound technology since 1986. He has lectured about the technology worldwide, written numerous technical articles, and has been instrumental in the program implementation of ultrasound for hundreds of companies. Mr. Waetjen is an active member of the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) and is chairman of the Supplier Relations Committee for this organization. As a certified Level III, Mr. Waetjen teaches Ultrasound Level I and Level II courses. In addition to his efforts to educate and lecture, Mr. Waetjen is the director of worldwide sales for UE Systems, Inc.
© 2008 Putman Media Inc.
555 West Pierce Rd., Suite 301, Itasca, IL 60143. Phone: 630-467-1300
The content of this message is protected by copyright and trademark laws under U.S. and international law.
All rights reserved.
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Labels: Chemical Plant, Environmental, Processing., Seminar, Steam, Study, Technology, Training, Webcast
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:33 PM,
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Water Shortage? Hot Water Circulating Systems Save Lots Of Water!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
If you live in an area affected by severe water shortages you should look into obtaining a hot water circulating system. Hot water circulating systems can save tremendous amounts of water, and at the same time provide the user with fast hot water. Fast hot water is a convenience that once experienced, is difficult to do without. Not only that, but when you do have to run water down the drain for long periods of time to obtain your hot water, you feel exceedingly guilty about doing so...or at least I do.
There is a variety of hot water circulating systems on the market, so we shall examine several systems to get a feel for what the differences are. There are pros and cons to every system, and by knowing what they are you can make an intelligent decision as to whether or not you would benefit from such a system, and which kind of system to purchase.
We can begin with the traditional hot water circulating system. The traditional system, the hot water pipe connects from the outlet of the water heater to the first fixture, and then loops from fixture to fixture, and finally it connects back to the inlet of the water heater. There is circulating pump in the hot water line that keeps hot water circulating in the piping. The pump can be placed on a time to reduce the heat loss from the system and the pumping energy during periods of little or no use.
The traditional system is very wasteful of energy, since it keeps all the hot water piping full of hot water, which continuously looses heat to the environment. The water heater must work a lot harder than with a non circulating system, and could end up needing replacement much sooner than normal. The system is so wasteful of energy that it can't be used in California for new residential construction. Grundfos and Taco are manufactures of traditional pumps.
A better approach is to use what is being called a "hot water demand system". It's similar to a traditional system, but it uses the cold water line as the return line. A small pump is placed under the sink furthest from the water heater. When the pump is turned on, it pumps water out of the hot water line and into the cold water line. In effect, it's pumping the water in a big loop out of the water heater and back into the heater. No water goes in or out of the water main and no water gets run down the drain.
When hot water reaches the pump it shuts off. Now you have instant hot water without running water down the drain. According to Grundfos, a large international manufacturer of circulating pumps, a typical family can save up to 16,000 gallons of water per year with a circulating system. Demand systems do not use any more energy than a non circulating system, since they don't really circulate the water; they just pump it to the sink where it was going to go anyway. The pumps run for such a brief time that the energy usage is very small...typically less than $2.00 per year. With a demand system you save time, water, energy, and money. Metlund and Chilipepper Sales are two manufactures of demand systems.
Another type of system is kind of halfway between a traditional system and a demand system. This system uses a pump that connects between the hot and cold water lines like the demand systems, but run continuously or on a timer like the traditional system. The pumps turn on at one temperature and off at a second higher temperature, keeping the water in the piping at warm temperature range. Since the run pump often, the cold water line ends up with a lot of luke-warm water, and when you turn on the hot faucet you get warm water not hot. Like the traditional system it uses a lot of energy since it keeps the piping warmer than normal for long periods of time. Laing's AutoCirc and RedyTemp are two such systems.
True hot water demand systems are by far the most energy efficient and save the same amount of water as the traditional types of systems. Traditional systems are not usually installed in existing homes due to the extensive plumbing usually required along with the expense of operation due to the heat loss. Demand systems range in price from under $200.00 to over $500.00. In many cases the systems are eligible for rebates from the local water company. In some cases the rebate can cover the entire cost of the system.
Saving water and energy also reduces the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere as a result of the pumping, treating, and distribution of drinking water. So be green and install a circulating system in your home now.
William Lund has been an inventor for over 35 years, and has been working with circulating systems for many years. He has been issued several patents for hot water systems. For more information about hot water circulating systems visit his website: Faster Hot Water
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Labels: Equipments, Learning Curve, Problem, Steam
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:19 PM,
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Steam and Vacuum Related Q and A
Saturday, August 11, 2007
I received 2 interesting questions at my "Vacuum Dropped Alert" post last June. I think its better for me to answer them in a new post for the benefits of others. I discussed the questions/problems with my colleague at work. I hope Mr Owais and Mr Vinay do not mind we discuss it here.
The first questions from Mr Owais (as adopted from the comment section);
"I'm working as a chemical engineer in GamaLux OleoChemical, Fat Splitting Unit.We're facing the same problem. Our main boiler is under maintenance and smaller one in progress time and again vacuum drop and our production get effected but when we don't have good vacuum then we hold the plant or lower down the feed input and product out put but the main problem is that if we lower down the product Fatty acid flow rate then it get chance to stuck in the pipeline then we have to flush the line which is more troublesome. What will u suggest me about how to solve the problem."
My respond/answer;
First of all, I need more informations in order to answer this issue. What is the design requirement of the steam for the plant to get its vacuum? This should be known from the plant manufacturer or current practice. The steam from the boiler house must be supplied as per the requirement of the plant(s). Maybe your smaller boiler do not produce the same amount of steam as your main boiler. Hence, if your plant vacuum system is fragile, slight pressure drop or fluctuation from the small boiler will trigger vacuum dropped and destroy the oil quality.
As for your fatty acid, you probably need a better insulation for the piping and / or steam tracing along the line. This will prevent blockage in the line (hindering fatty acid from solidifying). Sometimes you need jacketed steam tracing if the product have a lower melting point.
If everything above is not an issue, check your cooling water temperature condensing the steam. Is the temperature low enough as per design. Is the pressure from the cooling tower sufficient? Is the strainer nearby the pump suction blocked?
If everything above is still not an issue, when you stop your plant, conduct a complete air test to check and find any leakages in the vacuum system. I hope I answer your questions.
Example of a fire tube boiler that produces steam for general heating and vacuum system.- The second questions from Mr Vinay (as adopted from the comment section);
- "I am working in a textile plant as a maintenance engineer. My steam requirement is about 5500 kgs/hr. The main line from boiler to header is 4 inch. Can a smaller pipeline size lead to water carryover. We maintain TDS level in boiler of about 4000-4500. Our's is a water tube boiler."
First of all, I need more informations in order to answer this issue. Is it true your plant need 5,500kgs/hr steam? For me, that is very high. Or maybe your production capacity is very big that it require huge amount of steam. I'm just checking some information/facts...I fear, if you reduce the diameter of the pipeline, the flow rate of steam will be slightly affected/restricted. From my observation/experience, if the boiler deliver water carry over, and the water is still in the line (no where to escape), that means wet steam will occur. This will make the vacuum weak. Hopefully no water hammering takes place!!! That means, reducing the line would not help.
Install some steam trap along the line to eliminate water carry over. Spirax Sarco have a number of good steam traps (I'm not related to them).
I think your TDS is on the higher side. Do your water treatment chemicals work at more than 4000 ppm? Please check with your chemical supplier on this matter. For my case, we control the TDS at 2000, the most 2300ppm. This applies to any type of boiler.
I hope I gave a reasonably acceptable answer/suggestion/comment. If anybody want to further comment or discuss about those two issues, you are most welcome...
Labels: Chemical Plant, Leak, Learning Curve, Problem, Process Parameters, Processing., Steam, Study
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 1:25 AM,
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Vacuum Dropped Alert!!!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The entire week have been an interesting. Besides my routine job, I learned and experienced new things. However, I will share only the following 3 stuffs.
Vacuum dropped due to wet steam
I hate this case!!! When vacuum pressure dropped, the quality of oil is affected and most of the time the oil have to be rejected. In this case, vacuum dropped occurred because of wet steam. Wet steam is basically water carry over from boiler. Boiler is supposed to produce steam and deliver it to plant. When boiler began sending steam + water to the plant (which is not suppose to happen), the vacuum system is interrupted. The vacuum lost its capability to suck fatty acid which is supposed to be removed from the oil. I could not let it happen again. I don't want my plant to reject oil again because of this 'typical' reason. The boiler people never want to admit that they sent steam + water to the plant.
Therefore, I decided to investigate the case further. Few minutes after the 3rd incident ocurred (wet steam) I took a bottle of condensate water sample (this is the condensed steam which became hot water) and tested its TDS (total dissolved solid). We tested the TDS using a digital TDS meter at the boiler house. The TDS of the sample showed 70 ppm. Normal condensate water should display reading less than 10 ppm. This implied that water carry over (wet steam) happened. Why? Because, steam is water (H2O) at 120 ++oC temperature (around 15-17 bar). Hence the boiler is/should only send steam (pure H2O). Pure H2O should have zero or very minimum content of metal/solids/substance inside it. When steam condensed and became condensate water, the content of metal/solids/substance should remain. However, when wet steam occurs (due to water level fluctuation inside the boiler), some water follows the steam to the plant. The water is chemically treated and this increased its TDS. Therefore, if the condensed water is 'rich' of TDS, this confirms that wet steam is taking place.
Up to today, I gathered 2 condensate water samples (as proof) after the wet steam incident and the TDS result is very high!!! The boiler people definitely have to do something to avoid this from worsening or happening again. I'm not accusing anybody to be responsible of the "oil rejection". I sincerely just want to solve the problem. Save cost and time as well.
Checking the Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) at different temperature
When I first checked the condensate water sample which was collected by my supervisor, it showed TDS of 67 ppm. The boilerman said, that is impossible. He claimed that my sample was very cold (I left the sample in my office for about 5 hours before testing it. Therefore the air condition has cooled down the condensate water temperature to about 24-27oC). That's fine....I told him, let's heat the same sample up to 65-70oC and repeat the TDS test. We heated up the sample and re-tested the sample at 65oC. The sample showed reading around 70ppm. At least, it's close the the earlier TDS reading. Before repeating the TDS test, I told the boilerman that TDS have nothing to do with temperature. However, he stubbornly claimed that temperature influenced the TDS reading. After that he kept quiet and admitted that temperature have nothing to do with TDS. Hence, the condensate water really have high TDS which means water carry over (wet steam).
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Labels: Chemical Plant, Experience, Learning Curve, Problem, Quality, Steam
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:05 AM,
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Steam Trap Failure Issue
Saturday, March 31, 2007
As I read through the "Expert Q and A - Timely Detection of Steam Trap Failure" post in the Chemical Engineering Blog, I was called to share my opinion and experience. This is because I also have similar problem in my plant regarding maintaining the steam trap functionality. (P/s: For those who don't have an idea what is steam trap and how does it work, and what is the importance of steam trap, learn about it from Maintenance Resources). In the post, a question was asked:
Q: A steam trap tested as operational during an annual survey can fail at any point after the test. These failures go undetected until there is some type of system failure or until the next time a steam trap survey is performed. What is the most effective approach to detect failure and maintain a best-in-class steam system?
Tracy Clupper from Armstrong International (Specialist in utility system solution) responded and provided an answer which from my opinion is good.
A: When evaluating methods of testing steam traps, it is important for companies to be realistic about their current needs and capabilities. A company with plans to implement an annual in-house trap-management program with no dedicated or trained personnel is wasting time and money. Hiring a third party to test traps and provide a condition and savings report can be a more effective way to manage a trap population when in-house labor is not available. This approach, however, does not solve the problem of system-related emergencies due to undetected trap failure, nor does it afford the ability to truly capitalize on energy-related savings. One failed-open, high-pressure drip trap can cost a company thousands of dollars in annual steam losses. These losses are shown on a static report as a function of a trap that has failed for an unknown period of time. There is no cost avoidance in this situation, only the potential to stop losses that have already occurred. In addition, the impact of high-pressure steam traps discharging into lower pressure parts of the condensate system can be detrimental to the overall efficiency of the entire system. A 24/7 monitoring system can more effectively detect and identify points of failure for immediate maintenance response. Both hard wired and wireless systems are available on the market. The key to implementing any continuous monitoring system successfully is to identify the costly, critical or dangerous areas of the steam system and target those areas first. Then evaluate the continuous monitoring system’s reporting capabilities; keeping in mind that immediate notification of trap failure is critical, but savings validation is also important toward proving the monitoring system’s effectiveness toward true cost avoidance.
Here I just want to add up some points to what Tracy Clupper has mentioned above (which I added inside the post comment section).
Initially, in my plant, there are nobody monitoring the steam traps. As a result, the steam consumption increase and our vacuum system became inconsistent. After realizing the situation (effect of steam trap failure), we assigned one manpower (from maintenance department) to inspect and record the steam trap temperature inlet and outlet every 2 months. We can know the steam trap is failing if the inlet and outlet temperature is different. However, this is still not enough, because the steam trap may fail in between those two months. Therefore, I asked my supervisors to check all the steam traps every time they round the plant during shift. They don't have to carry with them a temperature gun to check the temperature. They just need to feel the steam trap inlet and outlet by their bare hand (just a touch and it's not dangerous!). If the outlet is colder than usual, that means the steam trap is not working!!! Because steam is not flowing through. It is a simple practice, however, ensuring them to continuously doing the inspection on a daily basis is another challenge. I'm thinking of making a checklist, so they can follow the checklist and feel all steam traps available in the plants, and have the black and white record.
Hiring a third party is also a good option, but why need to pay them if we can enforce or ask our own people/staff to do it. Well, if the company have the luxury, than that's another story! Well, those are just my opinion about the steam trap failure issue.
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Labels: Chemical Engineering, Energy, Problem, Steam
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:48 AM,
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The Author
I’m Zaki. I used to be a project, process and chemical engineer. Few years ago I successfully became a Chartered Engineer (IChemE) and Professional Engineer (BEM). I'm now employed as a chemical engineering educator/researcher/consultant. Hope you like reading my blog. I welcome any feedback from you. My email: zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com. TQ!
