Solids pumps consistently deliver fuel to electric utility's mills
When vibratory feeders and rotating table feeders provided inconsistent fuel feed at an electric utility, the utility installed solids pumps to meter the fuel.
Pennsylvania Power & Light's [PPL's] Sunbury Steam Electric Station, Shamokin Dam, Pa., generates 425 megawatts from four units. Railcars deliver coal to the facility. The coal is placed in a 1-million-ton storage pile [and reclaimed later by earth-moving equipment called scrapers] or dumped and moved directly to the plant by belt conveyor. For units 1 and 2, the coal is screened by vibratory screeners, and oversize is crushed by a hammermill before the coal is distributed by gravity into one of forty bunkers through a 30-inch-diameter stainless steel pipe called a downcomer.