Equipment protecting enclosures

Abstract

Biomass (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) is processed to produce useful intermediates and products, such as energy, fuels, foods or materials. For example, systems and methods are described that can be used to treat feedstock materials, such as cellulosic and / or lignocellulosic materials, in a vault in which the equipment is protected from radiation and hazardous gases by equipment enclosures. The equipment enclosures may be purged with gas.

Description

[0001]This application incorporates by reference the full disclosure of the following co-pending provisional applications: U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 711,801 and U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 711,807 both filed Oct. 10, 2012; the co-pending provisionals filed Mar. 8, 2013: U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,684; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,773; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,731; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,735; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,740; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,744; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,746; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,750; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,752; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,754; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,775; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,780; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,761; U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 774,723; and U.S. Ser. No. 61 / 793,336, filed Mar. 15, 2013.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Many potential lignocellulosic feedstocks are available today, including agricultural residues, woody biomass, municipal waste, oilseeds / cakes and seaweed, to name a few. At present, these materials are often under-utilized, being used, for example, as animal feed, biocompost materials, burned in a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]In one aspect the invention relates to a method of protecting processing equipment, e. g., material (e. g. biomass), biomass processing equipment, and other ancillary equipment that can be required for irradiation of biomass. The processing equipment can include, for example, a vibratory conveyor for conveying a biomass material under an electron beam and the associated equipment required for the conveyor, especially that which facilitates moving the biomass. This includes the equipment that provides the vibration for the conveyor. The ancillary conveyor parts include all of the parts that are required for conveying and, optionally, the vibratory part of the conveyor. The methods include enclosing motor components of the vibratory conveyor in a substantially radiation opaque equipment enclosure (e.g., material including lead) while purging the equipment enclosure with a gas. The method can reduce the exposure of the motor to radiation as compared to the radiation exposure that would occur without the equipment enclosure. For example, the radiation exposure to the motors can be reduced by at least 10%, at least 20%, at least 30%, at least 50%, at least 70% or even more (e.g., at least 90%).

[0011]The equipment enclosures described are effective in protecting processing equipment / components utilized in radiation processing of materials. The equipment enclosures also provide a volume within which the atmosphere can be easily controlled, e.g., exchanged or evacuated for ozone free air and / or other inert gases. The equipment enclosures can be easy to construct and durable presenting an economical solution to the incidental, accidental and or unintentional degradation of processing equipment due to radiation.

[0016]The equipment enclosure can reduce the amount of radiation exposure the conveyor equipment gets by at least 10% when compared to no equipment enclosure. Alternately, the reduction of radiation exposure maybe at least 20%, optionally at least 30%, or further optionally at least 50% and further at least 70% and alternatively at least 90% reduction in radiation exposure.

Problems solved by technology

At present, these materials are often under-utilized, being used, for example, as animal feed, biocompost materials, burned in a co-generation facility or even landfilled.

This produces a compact matrix that is difficult to access by enzymes and other chemical, biochemical and / or biological processes.

Cellulosic biomass materials (e.g., biomass material from which the lignin has been removed) is more accessible to enzymes and other conversion processes, but even so, naturally-occurring cellulosic materials often have low yields (relative to theoretical yields) when contacted with hydrolyzing enzymes.

Radiation in the vault can cause damage to processing equipment in the vault or the radiation can create reactive gases, e.g., ozone, which can also degrade processing equipment.

This damage can present hazards due to equipment failure as well as incurring costs due to down time and necessary repairs.

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