| Summary: | The panel bed filter (PBF) is a granular filter patented by A. M. Squires in the late sixties. PBFs consist of louvers with stationary, granular beds. Dust is deposited in the top layers and on the bed surface when gas flows through. PBFs are resistant to high temperatures, variations in the gas flow and hot particles. The filter is cleaned by releasing a pressure pulse in the opposite direction of the bulk flow (a puff back pulse). A new louver geometry patented by A. M. Squires is the filter tray louvers. The new design is believed to reduce the pressure drop and the number of louvers, and to make the filter more compact. We have designed and built a laboratory scale PBF with filter tray louvers based on the patent. Experiments with the prototype show that the new louver can be cleaned with a puff back pulse. A PBF system for a hypothetical biomass combustion plant has been designed. The heat from the flue gas will be used for district heating. The proposed PBF system design consists of double-sided modules with 46 filter tray louvers on top of each other. Five modules are mounted together in module columns, sharing the same clean gas duct and puff back pipe. The granular medium chosen is Sintered Bauxite 20/40 (SB). The module columns are placed in an enveloping house. SB and dust fall into bins in the bottom of the enveloping house during puff back cleaning. A vacuum pneumatic conveying system brings the dust and SB to the top of the filter. Dust and SB are separated in a sieve. Dust is deposited, and SB is transported back to the modules. NTNU is currently involved in the BioSOFC project. The objective of this project is to increase efficiency in energy production from biomass by using producer gas from a biomass gasification plant in a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. Field tests will be performed at a plant in Güssing, Austria. A PBF will be used for gas filtration. The operating temperature will be 500 °C to avoid tar condensation. We have performed heating experiments on the BioSOFC filter system. The results were not satisfactory, as the temperature in the filter ranged from 384 to 625 °C. The filter system was due to be shipped, and new tests could not be performed. This work proposes that modifications to the heating cable circuits are made, and new heating tests are performed before the field testing.
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