Professional Articles

Dust Control

Dust Collectors at Cement Terminals - Longer Filter Life and Easier Change-out

The first example describes the application of insertable dust collectors at a cement storage warehouse; the second example shows how filter cartridges can improve dust collection during filling of cement silos.

1) Expansion of a Cement Storage Warehouse
The expansion included the addition of a 26 000 t storage bay to the two existing 36 000 t bays, an upgrade of the cement delivery system from the barge hopper to the warehouse, and an upgrade to the dust control system. This expansion not only provides more storage capacity, it also allows larger ships to be unloaded, and unloaded faster, which drives down the transportation cost per ton.
The storage expansion consisted of a new 160 ft × 160 ft (48.8 m × 48.8 m) flat bottom, airtight warehouse bay with unloading pit and cement pump. The ship unloading is via grab bucket using a ship-mounted crane to a barge-mounted hopper. Material is then transported to the warehouse by two pumps and five rotary vane compressors. The dust control upgrade consisted of 15 integrated insertable dust collectors, five in each of the three bays, installed into the roof of the warehouse, see Fig. 1.
Dust collection for the original facility entailed two central collectors with fans and dust return systems for control of the dust (a) from the transport system to the warehouse and (b) for the loadout system from the warehouse storage to either rail cars or bulk trucks. With the ship unloading upgrade, the collectors were no longer adequate.
The two barge-based pumps have a maximum volumetric capacity of. . .