Exhaust fan

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ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Things changed already in the hour since my OP.

We have a temp axial flow fan set up to draw the steam out of the product. Yesterday I didn’t think it was going to work but the operators changed their process slightly this morning and they are happy. Still needing fans that can handle propionic acid in the steam but the HP went up from the hood style fan I was thinking of this morning.

add: The motor of an axial flow isn’t going to get it.
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
After two weeks of looking for fans, running air flow experiments in 15 degree weather, and being told they were not going to change their methods.

They are changing. I'd been hinting that, but it took an $$$$$ estimate to speed up the process.

It was interesting anyway.
 
Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
ptonsparky said:
After two weeks of looking for fans, running air flow experiments in 15 degree weather, and being told they were not going to change their methods.

They are changing. I'd been hinting that, but it took an $$$$$ estimate to speed up the process.

It was interesting anyway.
Click to expand...
So you got them to change their process to where they don't need the fan?
 
C

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
We are also battling a steam problem at a flake mill for a feedlot they just built 2 years ago. No acid in it though, just water vapor.

They put a couple of exhaust fans on the roof, it didn't even make a dent in the steam that's rusting the building from the inside out. Including our electrical.

It's a steel building. They ended up pulling all the metal sheeting off two sides of the building to help with cross ventilation. There is still a lot of steam, the only thing left to do would be to remove the roof IMO, but I don't see that happening though...
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Cow said:
We are also battling a steam problem at a flake mill for a feedlot they just built 2 years ago. No acid in it though, just water vapor.

They put a couple of exhaust fans on the roof, it didn't even make a dent in the steam that's rusting the building from the inside out. Including our electrical.

It's a steel building. They ended up pulling all the metal sheeting off two sides of the building to help with cross ventilation. There is still a lot of steam, the only thing left to do would be to remove the roof IMO, but I don't see that happening though...
Click to expand...

Does that mean no acids are intentionally added to the process? Might still be some naturally occurring acids in product given off by the process.
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Cow said:
We are also battling a steam problem at a flake mill for a feedlot they just built 2 years ago. No acid in it though, just water vapor.

They put a couple of exhaust fans on the roof, it didn't even make a dent in the steam that's rusting the building from the inside out. Including our electrical.

It's a steel building. They ended up pulling all the metal sheeting off two sides of the building to help with cross ventilation. There is still a lot of steam, the only thing left to do would be to remove the roof IMO, but I don't see that happening though...
Click to expand...

The changes they tentatively are going to make here are change the additive, and put regulators on the steam pressure going into the chests. I think they are delivering 100 psi to each spider now and will reduce it to half or less. Not sure. Not my area.

The acid etches the shell of the corn so it is easier to cook. IDK what they will use in its place.
The trick, from my visit to another feedlot, is to cook the corn in the top portion of the chest with no steam applied to the lower portion after initial daily startup. My feedlot does not use the lower spiders either but they have the steam problem. It’s not steam at this point but water vapor. Some mills have holding chests above the steam kettles that hold the steam in the kettles, others like mine and the one I visited, try to keep the kettles filled to the top via VFDs delivering just enough treated corn to keep them topped off. Mine use a time sequence to keep the tanks close to full. The “other vendors” equipment can not recognize product delivery at the rates these older flakers use.
 
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