Matrox UHMWPE Linings Offer Solutions to Flow Challenges
TRUEnergy’s Yallourn W Power Station is located in the Latrobe Valley, 150 kms east of Melbourne. The power station supplies approximately 22% of Victoria’s electricity needs and 8% nationally.
Every hour, two thousand four hundred tons of brown coal is used to boil water into superheated steam to drive the four turbine generators. These turbines have a combined capacity of 1,480 megawatts of electricity and generate approximately 10,500 gigawatt hours per annum. This is enough to supply around two million homes.
To sustain this enormous supply of power, a continuous flow of brown coal to feed the power production units is required. The coal is mined and transported from the adjacent coal mine to station bunkers at Yallourn Power Station.
The station bunkers where routinely lowered and occasionally lanced to reduce coal build up on the bunker walls. This maintenance procedure had little impact on power generation.
Problems Experienced:
The change of mining technology from bucket wheel coal dredgers to bulldozers resulted in the supply of coal to the power station becoming a lot finer. This caused the station bunkers to become blocked & funnel or rat Hole on a regular basis. The problem became even worse when the moisture content of the coal increased.
This phenomenon led to a major increase in generation losses due to a lack of continuous coal feed and the need to increase the lancing routines of the bunkers. Health and safety concerns where raised and increases in a lost time because of injuries resulting from heavy manual handling requirements.
The bunkers where originally lined with 6mm Polyethylene (PE), that over the years have become grazed, brittle and prone to inevitable damage when exposed to significant impacts. A decision was made to replace the bunker lining and investigate what materials were available on the market that could replace the current polyethylene.
Criteria for material selection included:
•Achieving a greater flow rate.
•Minimising of the funnelling or rat holing effect.
•Significant reduction in the need to lance the bunkers.
Solutions offered:
After investigating possible replacements, The University of Wollongong was enlisted to undertake Flow Property Tests on eight different types of lining materials against coal samples supplied. The station bunker design was accounted for and a comprehensive test report, with recommendations compiled.
In 2007, the decision was made to undertake a material trial of Rochling®’s Matrox in 2 of the 8 zones in the Unit 1 Bunker.
Matrox is a high performance, polymer lining material, specially developed for bulk materials handling and mining industries to reduce the typical flow problems of bulk solids in bins, hoppers, chutes and truck beds.
The results of the trial where favourable from the outset with increased flow rates, reduced funnelling and lancing requirements in these 2 zones.
Since this initial trial, in 2008 Unit 2 has also been completely fitted out with Matrox high performance polymer lining up to the high tide mark of the bunker.
The need to have the extra scheduled and call-in’s of lancing crews is no longer required as the bunkers only require to be routinely lowered with the occasional lance.
Matrox also offer numerous economic advantages. The cost of lining an existing bunker with Matrox is about one third the cost of steel. Re-lining with Matrox as opposed to steel, results in almost a two third weight reduction, reduced structural load and simpler installation process. The lifespan of Matrox is also substantially longer than that of steel.
Matrox UHMWPE Linings
Matrox UHMWPE Linings Offer Solutions to Flow Challenges
TRUEnergy’s Yallourn W Power Station is located in the Latrobe Valley, 150 kms east of Melbourne. The power station supplies approximately 22% of Victoria’s electricity needs and 8% nationally.
Every hour, two thousand four hundred tons of brown coal is used to boil water into superheated steam to drive the four turbine generators. These turbines have a combined capacity of 1,480 megawatts of electricity and generate approximately 10,500 gigawatt hours per annum. This is enough to supply around two million homes.
To sustain this enormous supply of power, a continuous flow of brown coal to feed the power production units is required. The coal is mined and transported from the adjacent coal mine to station bunkers at Yallourn Power Station.
The station bunkers where routinely lowered and occasionally lanced to reduce coal build up on the bunker walls. This maintenance procedure had little impact on power generation.
Problems Experienced:
The change of mining technology from bucket wheel coal dredgers to bulldozers resulted in the supply of coal to the power station becoming a lot finer. This caused the station bunkers to become blocked & funnel or rat Hole on a regular basis. The problem became even worse when the moisture content of the coal increased.
This phenomenon led to a major increase in generation losses due to a lack of continuous coal feed and the need to increase the lancing routines of the bunkers. Health and safety concerns where raised and increases in a lost time because of injuries resulting from heavy manual handling requirements.
The bunkers where originally lined with 6mm Polyethylene (PE), that over the years have become grazed, brittle and prone to inevitable damage when exposed to significant impacts. A decision was made to replace the bunker lining and investigate what materials were available on the market that could replace the current polyethylene.
Criteria for material selection included:
•Achieving a greater flow rate.
•Minimising of the funnelling or rat holing effect.
•Significant reduction in the need to lance the bunkers.
Solutions offered:
After investigating possible replacements, The University of Wollongong was enlisted to undertake Flow Property Tests on eight different types of lining materials against coal samples supplied. The station bunker design was accounted for and a comprehensive test report, with recommendations compiled.
In 2007, the decision was made to undertake a material trial of Rochling®’s Matrox in 2 of the 8 zones in the Unit 1 Bunker.
Matrox is a high performance, polymer lining material, specially developed for bulk materials handling and mining industries to reduce the typical flow problems of bulk solids in bins, hoppers, chutes and truck beds.
The results of the trial where favourable from the outset with increased flow rates, reduced funnelling and lancing requirements in these 2 zones.
Since this initial trial, in 2008 Unit 2 has also been completely fitted out with Matrox high performance polymer lining up to the high tide mark of the bunker.
The need to have the extra scheduled and call-in’s of lancing crews is no longer required as the bunkers only require to be routinely lowered with the occasional lance.
Matrox also offer numerous economic advantages. The cost of lining an existing bunker with Matrox is about one third the cost of steel. Re-lining with Matrox as opposed to steel, results in almost a two third weight reduction, reduced structural load and simpler installation process. The lifespan of Matrox is also substantially longer than that of steel.
Regards
David Boad
Coal Delivery Team Leader
Alliance Yallourn
TRUenergy
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