RE:RE:RE:The Swedish studyRummager ... All of a sudden, you remember!
Interesting that this is a 1999 patent. One would assume that it would have captured all the contract opportunities in the iron pelletization market by then. Especially that it's associtated to Air Liquid, a major company.
But no!
So why? ... ;-)
Maybe it's because it's not as good (or complete) as you might think.
But what you seem to ignore is that the design of torches makes a huge difference. The example below
is just one example, in the sake of adding more perspectives to the debate.
Take a look at this 2003 one below (and understand that PYR has gained even more understanding since then, which is probaly why they won the 2020 Swedish torch contract in a competitive bid with flying colors, as per this
link):
OPTIMIZATION OF THE MARINE PLASMA WASTE DESTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY Ada Kaldas, Theodora Alexakis and Peter Tsantrizos - PyroGenesis Inc.
Although MARPOL regulates CO emissions and opacity, NOx emissions are not regulated.
In anticipation of future more stringent regulations, a study aimed at reducing NOx emissions was undertaken. In a high temperature combustion process, thermal NOx forms from the dissociation of N2 and O2. High temperatures, excess oxygen and a low carbon concentration favour the formation of thermal NOx in a combustion process. In view of this, maintaining a reducing environment in the eductor and providing sufficient residence time at a controlled gasification temperature are important in reducing the formation of NOx. Achieving and maintaining a proper reducing environment was only possible after implementing the previously described changes to the waste feed preparation system and achieving a stable feed rate.
Further design modifications to the eductor combined with operating parameter adjustments have resulted in further improvements to the system emissions, beyond current MARPOL requirement, in particular with respect to NOx. A reducing environment in the eductor was achieved by decreasing the amount of air that conveys the waste from the mill into the eductor and also by increasing the waste feed rate. Figure 7 demonstrates the effect of reducing the total air injected at the mill on the system NOx emission. The waste feed rate was kept constant at the lowest setting used for this study. Lower carrier air flow rate reduced the total NOx generated from close to 4000 mg/Rm3 to around 2300 mg/Rm3. At the highest carrier air flow rate, the estimated excess air for gasification (conversion of all carbon to CO) is greater than 1.5, as compared to 1.2 at the lowest carrier air flow rate used in this study. Figure 8 demonstrates the additional effect of increasing the waste feed rate to the system on NOx generation. A low carrier air flow rate was used for this series of tests.
The NOx concentration was further reduced from 2300 mg/Rm3 to around 1400 mg/Rm3 as the waste feed rate was increased. At the highest waste feed rate, there is essentially no excess air for gasification, which is ideal for minimizing NOx formation. Further reduction in NOx emissions has been achieved through optimizing the geometry of the eductor to provide increased residence time for the gasification reaction. As can be seen in Fig. 9, increased residence time in the eductor has allowed the reduction of the PAWDS NOx emission to below 300 mg/Rm3. As can be seen by these test results, optimization of the plasma-fired eductor has led to significantly improved NOx emissions, which are expected to be well within the limits of future stringent MARPOL regulations. CONCLUSIONS:
The Marine Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System developed by PyroGenesis has been optimized and has resulted in an improved reliability and improved emissions, well beyond the requirements of current MARPOL regulations. Optimal performance of the eductor and combustion chamber is achieved by maintaining a consistent waste feed rate and lint quality.
NOx emissions were dramatically reduced by maintaining a reducing environment and by allowing sufficient residence time in the eductor. __________
So if they were able to adjust in this particular environment
and that they are not afraid to go to modeling before signing a contract, that's probably because they know they can adjust torches to the suited environment of their Clients. Ever thought of that?