Design and Development of a Rotary Airlock Valve for Using in Continuous Pyrolysis Process to Improve Performance

Abstract:

A rotary airlock valve is a widely used device in material handling processes. It can be applied to the conveying of pyrolyzing wood chips into pyrolysis ovens for wood vinegar production. In a pyrolysis process, the process conducted in a closed system, under limited amount of air and high temperature conditions, and then a rotary airlock valve is provided for conveying pyrolyzing wood chips to be pyrolyzed. This research aims to design and develop a rotary airlock valve to achieve a uniform feed and an airlock operation (feeding without leaking), and consequently to improve its performance, for using in continuous pyrolysis process, in which a continuous material feeding is required. Due to the better airlock the better pyrolysis product yields. The rotary airlock valve is designed by concept of minimum clearance between the blade tips and the housing, along with using a rotor with the adjustable and replaceable blade tips mounted on blades welded to a rotor shaft, and a packing seal, in the closed rotor, and thus minimize leakage. According to the airlock performance test results of the developed rotary airlock valve, its performance improved approximately 60% when compared to the conventional counterpart. In this paper, conclusions for future research are described.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 383-390)
• Pages: 7148-7154
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.383-390.7148
• Online since: November 2011
• Authors: Nisakorn Somsuk, Teerapot Wessapan, S. Teekasap
• Keywords: Continuous Pyrolysis Process, Performance Improvement, Rotary Airlock Valve

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