Grind Dry or Wet; Regionally or On-site - Hot Topic Hour Yesterday

A good two-hour discussion was built around four presentations by two companies doing the grinding and two companies offering the equipment to do it. The speakers were

Ø  Putt Wetherbee, Vulcan Materials

Ø  Folke Friesen, Evonik

Ø  Doug Shaffer, Metso Minerals

Ø  Guillermo Benjumea, Loesche

Biographies of the speakers are found at http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/utilityalert/subscriber/UtilityE-Alert/2008/bios_photos_abstracts_August_7,_2008.htm

Putt cautioned the industry to not let demand get ahead of supply. Unless some new quarries are built there will be limestone shortages in a few years. Regional grinding makes sense for several reasons including lower capital cost and assurance of supply. Two 3,000 tons dry storage silos cost $2 million whereas two ball mills for two tons per hour could cost $30 to $40 million.

Folke summarized European experience and particularly that of Steag in Germany. Reagent flexibility is built in to the Steag designs. Units can utilize limestone, lime, dolomite and chalk. Purchasing limestone already ground has proved economic. A number of units have been switched to lime. At the same time one of the scrubber headers has been shut off. The lower energy cost for pumping has justified the higher lime price.

Doug graphed the soaring demand for ball mills and cautioned utilities to order sooner rather than later. Metso has sold 325 systems for FGD including limestone grinding and slaking. The grinding mill business was $100 million in 2002 and is over $800 million today. Growth was 19 percent in 2007 and the markets remain strong in 2008.

Guillermo covered the broad range of applications addressed by the Loesche dry vertical mills. They are applicable to both coal and limestone. There are a number of maintenance features which enhance both performance and reliability.

You can view the power point presentations in the FGD Decision Tree as follows.

Doug Shaffer – Metso Minerals

FGD Continuing Decision Process For: Products

Metso Minerals Product Technology. Presented by Doug Shaffer, Metso Minerals. Hot Topic Hour August 7, 2008.

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/FGD_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/DescriptionTextLinks/Doug Shaffer - Metso Minerals.pdf

Putt Wetherbee – Vulcan Materials

Folke Friesen - Evonik 

FGD Continuing Decision Process For: Analysis

Limestone Size Reduction Hot Topic Hour August 7, 2008. Presented by Putt Wetherbee, Vulcan Materials.

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/FGD_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/DescriptionTextLinks/Putt Wetherbee - Vulcan Materials.pdf
 

Limestone Particle Size and Grinding. Presented by Folke Friesen, Evonik. Hot Topic Hour August 7, 2008.

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/FGD_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/DescriptionTextLinks/Folke Friesen - Evonik.pdf