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ADEX Optimized Control of IKN Type Coolers | Cement | Industries | ADEX

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ADEX Optimized Control of IKN Type Coolers

It is well known that the cooler control plays a fundamental role in the clinker process optimization due to its influence in the flow rate and the temperature of secondary air reentering the furnace. The first application of adaptive predictive control in the Gadors cement factory cooler meant an outstanding technological progress. Its success was exposed on the first Colloquium Cement and Concrete in the year 1991, and extended this solution to multiple cement plants. Later technological evolution introduced a new type of clinker cooler (IKN) (shown in the first figure), where the clinker coming from the furnace doesnt fall directly on the mobile grid of the cooler, instead it is dropped into a steady surface in which it forms a slope cooled by a fan acting directly on it, before it falls on to the mobile grid. This new clinker coolers arrangement brought, as pred ictable, a new control problem. The optimization of this process requires simultaneously a good control of the slopes size and a good control of the thickness of the clinkers bed on the mobile grid. Clinker IKN Cooler The clinker IKN cooler (shown at the left) must refrigerate the hot clinker coming from the furnace in order to allow subsequent transport and storage and recover heat energy introducing the hot air produced by the refrigeration process (called secondary air) into the furnace. Thus it is necessary to stabilize the flow rates of air in the fans and the thickness of the clinkers bed acting, both, on the speed of the fans and of the mobile grid.

Problems associated to the IKN grid Two variables must be controlled, the size of the slope and the thickness of the clinkers bed on top of the grid, with only one control action: the grids movement speed. Of course, the process presents other difficulties: great changes on the dynamic behavior of the process, lack of a direct measurement of the clinkers bed thickness, strong non-measurable perturbations, etc. The figure at the left shows the most significant process variables in the plant before the ADEX solution was applied.

A DEX, S.L. 2007. Centro Empresarial "La A rboleda" Ctra. de Valencia, Km. 7,300 Madrid - 28031. SPA IN we b de ve lope d by lam anoazul

www.adexcop.com/industries/case-name/ikn-type-coolers-gador-holcim.html

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