95 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
95 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=78, TM=2, BM=2)
|
||
|
Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
|
||
|
Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
|
||
|
PO BOX 1031
|
||
|
Mesquite, TX 75150
|
||
|
|
||
|
August 2, 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
Courtesy of NASA BBS at 205 895-0028
|
||
|
|
||
|
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS
|
||
|
|
||
|
Started in 1980, Project Recoup was a program for applying
|
||
|
advanced technology to the solution of a problem shared by a growing
|
||
|
number of U.S. communities: how to dispose of refuse in areas where
|
||
|
acceptable landfill sites are scarce.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Jointly sponsored by Langley Research Center, Langley Air Force
|
||
|
Base and the adjoining City of Hampton, Virginia, the program
|
||
|
involved development of a Refuse-fired Steam Generating Facility
|
||
|
that incinerates trash, reduces it to a readily-disposable ash, and
|
||
|
employs the heat of trash burning to create steam for practical use
|
||
|
at Langley Research Center.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A design base for modeling similar projects elsewhere, the
|
||
|
facility has proved eminently successful. It disposes of all solid
|
||
|
waste from the NASA center, the Air Force Base, and other government
|
||
|
installations in the area, and it also accommodates about 70 percent
|
||
|
of Hampton's municipal waste.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Hampton, principal financier for the project, realizes revenue
|
||
|
from trash disposal fees and from the sale of steam to Langley
|
||
|
Research Center. And there is an energy conservation bonus in that
|
||
|
the steam generated by burning waste cuts the amount of fuel
|
||
|
normally used by Langley by some two million gallons a year.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The project produced another bonus that has largely escaped
|
||
|
notice: an air pollution equipment control device, developed of
|
||
|
necessity in the course of the program, that is now commercially
|
||
|
available.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The device is an advanced electronic control for electrostatic
|
||
|
precipitators, widely used in pollution control applications
|
||
|
throughout industry. It is built by Kinetic Controls, Inc., Newport
|
||
|
News, Virginia, a company formed by two NASA/Langley employees--T.K.
|
||
|
Lusby, Jr. and David F. Johnston--who developed the control as their
|
||
|
contribution to Project Recoup, working for the most part on
|
||
|
personal time and with private funds.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
The function of an electrostatic precipitator is to remove
|
||
|
particulate matter from the combustion gas created by the burning of
|
||
|
a fuel before the gas is expelled through a smokestack.
|
||
|
|
||
|
When standard fuels are burned, the smoke is of relatively
|
||
|
constant composition and the highest practical voltage is fairly
|
||
|
constant; once the voltage is set, as long as the same type of fuel
|
||
|
is used, only small changes in precipitation voltage are needed.
|
||
|
|
||
|
But when refuse is used as a fuel, the composition of the smoke
|
||
|
changes continually and that requires corresponding changes in
|
||
|
voltage over a very wide range.
|
||
|
|
||
|
To insure minimal pollution of the atmosphere, the two
|
||
|
NASA/Langley employees undertook to develop an innovative,
|
||
|
microprocessor-based control that automatically senses and
|
||
|
compensates for the changes in smoke composition by adjusting the
|
||
|
precipitator's voltage and current to permit maximum particle
|
||
|
collection.
|
||
|
|
||
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as
|
||
|
this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard
|
||
|
Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your
|
||
|
consideration, interest and support.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
|
||
|
Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
|
||
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
If we can be of service, you may contact
|
||
|
Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 484-3189
|
||
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|