Dedusting Hopper Calculation

It depends upon a lot of things, such as the level of insulation, the mass flowrate, the thermal capacity of the material, its water content, its incoming temperature, the ambient temperature, the ambient humidity, the local air speed etc., none of which are stated in the original post.

This is one of those occasions where experimentation is the only way forward.

Oh, and it is also likely to vary from time to time as some of the above change.

Thank you for the reply. I am only told that the ambient is 10 degrees C. The material will be in a continuous flow.

Good luck with the experiments.

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I believe you can help me with this.

Could you please tell me the approximate power required.

Of course.

Can you plz elaborate on your reply. It is not clear with me.

Three heaters, Dude. Three times the power of one heater? Do keep up.

Ok I elaborate because I think it makes me looking better!

You did not ask what the heater requirements are but what the power requirements are.

Now this implements that you already have the heater question sorted.

This in turn means you can look up the power requirements for the heater and since you wanted to use 3 heaters it will be either 3 of the same kind or three different ones (which make no sense) so in reality if these heaters have a 5000 W sticker/label on them the will all toghether take 15000 W.

Of course you decide when to switch them on and off so the given number in the example would be the maximum power for those heaters.

All clear now?

Thank You for the answer. The problem that I am facing is on the calculation of the total Power required to heat the material inside the hopper to 50 deg. If the material didnot have a continuous flow, things would be easy but with the continuous flow, it is difficult to calculate the amount of power.

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In order to calculate it, one would need to have a great deal more information than that published hitherto. Experimental measurement is viable in such a situation. All clear now?

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Just coming back to this thread to sum this up but you beat me to it.

Its a fine documentation of the necessary engineering tools required to solve OP's problem.

GA

Hello Pal,

You won't find any better answer than #14, but here's a simpler one:

Maximum power will be the sum of all three heaters running continuosly.

How to control the ammounts of power to the heaters ?: Your PID temperature process control will do that for you.

You need to consider a revolving mixer to achieve even heat distribution thru your material's mass.

Homework!

Homework question would have provided more information.

True. Incoming temperature, rate of feed etc.

You have detailed 79.527% of the ingredients. What ingredient is the remaining 20.473%?

The various oxides are all fine powders. What is the grain/lump size of the iron?

You have a cone angle of approx 62º which on fine powders will cause bridging if there is even small amounts of moisture in the product. Is your objective to prevent moisture and thus bridging or to preheat the product prior to the next process?

What is the flow rate?

Is the product ever left to stand in the hopper or is it emptied when not in use?

I'm not sure of exactly what you are trying to accomplish, but it sounds as though you may be trying to keep your powder from clumping by keeping its dew point above the the clumping temperature. If that's the case, you might consider the use of a dew point meter (General Eastern or equivalent) to keep your powder temperature above the dew dew point temperature and use the heaters in a feedback loop to maintain the desired powder dew point. That will provide the best flow characteristics and the lowest power consumption.