JP4845010B2 - Gas hydrate pellet manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a pellet-shaped molded product by compression molding gas hydrate.

  In the gas hydrate, which is a hydrate in a solid state by reacting a raw material gas such as natural gas (hereinafter referred to as “raw material gas”) with water, in order to improve handling during transportation and storage, Processing is performed by compression molding into a pellet-like molded product (hereinafter referred to as “pellet”). (For example, see Patent Document 1).

  For manufacturing the pellets, a so-called briquetting roll type gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus as shown in FIG. 3 is used.

  This manufacturing apparatus rotates a pair of metal rolls 21 having a plurality of pockets 20 as a forming die on the outer peripheral surface, and continuously supplies a gas hydrate 24 between the rolls 21 by a hopper 22 and a screw feeder 23. Then, the pellets 25 are manufactured by compression molding while being difficult to insert into the pocket 20.

  In order to continuously produce pellets 25 of uniform quality in such a gas hydrate pellet production apparatus, it is necessary to manage the supply amount and supply speed of the gas hydrate 24 between the rolls 21.

However, since it is difficult to grasp these, there is a problem that the quality of the pellets 25 varies.
WO2003 / 006589

  This invention is made in view of such a subject, and it aims at providing the gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus of a briquetting roll system which can manufacture a pellet with uniform quality. is there.

To achieve the above object, the present invention according to claim 1 includes a pair of rolls rotating with a plurality of molds on an outer peripheral surface, hopper and said supplying gas hydrate into between the pair of rolls A screw feeder inserted substantially vertically into the hopper from above, and a screw conveyor for supplying gas hydrate to the hopper and screw feeder, and the supplied gas hydrate is compression-molded in the mold the gas hydrate pellets manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing the pellets, and measuring means savings distillation distribution of gas hydrate in the hopper, the control means for controlling the direction of rotation of the front Symbol screw feeder based on the measurement result of the measuring means with the door, wherein, when the maximum value of the difference of unevenness of the gas hydrate surface is larger than a predetermined value Is a gas hydrate pellets manufacturing apparatus characterized by reversing the direction of rotation of the screw feeder.

Here, the savings distillation distribution is to agree taste uneven distribution of gas hydrate in the hopper.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the measurement unit includes a plurality of cameras that acquire image data of a gas hydrate surface stored in the hopper, and an image process that creates a three-dimensional image from the plurality of image data. The apparatus for producing gas hydrate pellets according to claim 1, comprising an apparatus.

Incidentally, in the gas hydrate pellets manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the plant value is preferably less than or equal to the value 20 cm.

According to the present invention, the gas hydrate pellets manufacturing apparatus briquetting roll type provided with a supply means comprising a hopper and a screw feeder, be determined savings distillation distribution of the image Karaso gas hydrate surface in the hopper the possible measuring means is provided, by which is adapted to control the direction of rotation of the scan clew feeder on the basis of the result of the measuring means, it is possible to manage the supply amount and the supply rate of the gas hydrate into between the rolls Pellets with uniform quality can be manufactured continuously.

  Below, the gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus which concerns on this invention is demonstrated with reference to drawings.

  A gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention is shown in FIG. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus.

  This gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus is a gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus provided with a pair of rolls 1 and gas hydrate supply means and supply means. Measuring means for measuring and control means for controlling the supplying means and the replenishing means based on the measurement result are installed.

  The pair of rolls 1 have a plurality of pockets 3 which are molds for the pellets 2 on the outer peripheral surface, and are driven by an electric motor 15 to rotate in opposite directions.

  The supply means continuously supplies the gas hydrate 4 between the rolls 1, and includes a screw feeder 6 and a hopper 7 that are rotated by an electric motor 5.

  The replenishing means replenishes the gas hydrate 14 into the hopper 7, and is composed of a screw conveyor 9 driven by a gas hydrate electric motor 8 installed above the supplying means, and the gas hydrate is put into the hopper 7. 14 is continuously replenished.

  The measuring means includes a plurality of cameras 10 installed on the top of the hopper 7 and an image processing apparatus 11 connected to them.

  The plurality of cameras 10 may be installed at any location where the surface 12 of the gas hydrate 4 stored in the hopper 7 can be photographed from different fields of view. From the viewpoint of facilitating installation and maintenance, the hopper 7 It is desirable to be near the upper end of

  In addition, these cameras 10 need to have a performance capable of acquiring digital image data after performing a three-dimensional process described later.

  The image processing apparatus 11 processes image data taken by a plurality of cameras 10 to create a three-dimensional image. For example, a personal computer equipped with a three-dimensional visual system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2961264 is used. It can be configured by a system provided.

  Further, a monitor 12 for displaying a three-dimensional image as a processing result can be connected to the image processing apparatus 11 as necessary.

  The control device 13 is connected to the image processing device 11, and controls the operation of the supply means, the replenishment means and the roll, specifically, the three electric motors 5, 8, 15 which drive each based on the processing result. It is.

  The operation of the gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus having such a structure will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the control device.

In addition, about operation | movement which concerns on pellet manufacture, since it is the same as that of the past, description is abbreviate | omitted.
The surface 12 of the gas hydrate 4 in the hopper 7 is photographed by a plurality of cameras 10 every predetermined time, and image data is acquired. These image data are three-dimensionally processed by the image processing apparatus 11 so that local unevenness (reserved height distribution) of the gas hydrate surface 12 is obtained, for example, as a contour line distribution.

The control device 13 inputs this local height distribution data (S100), calculates the horizontal average value H of the storage height of the gas hydrate surface 12 (S200), which is the first reference. If it is larger than the value Hmax, the amount of the gas hydrate 4 in the hopper 7 is assumed to be excessive, and the motor 15 is controlled to increase the rotational speed of the roll 1 (S400), and then the motor 8 Is controlled to increase the rotational speed of the screw conveyor 9 (S500), thereby consuming the gas hydrate 4 in the hopper 7.

On the other hand, if the value is smaller than the second reference value Hmin, the rotational speed of the screw conveyor 9 is decreased (S700), and then the roll 1 is assumed as the amount of the gas hydrate 4 in the hopper 7 being too small. (S800), the gas hydrate 4 is stored in the hopper 7.

The reference values Hmax and Hmin are 70 to 80% of the height of the hopper 7, respectively, from the viewpoint that the supply amount of the gas hydrate 4 between the rolls 1 by the screw feeder 6 is within an allowable range. It is desirable that the value is 3 pitch or less of the screw feeder 6.

  When the storage height of the gas hydrate 4 is within a predetermined range, next, the local storage height maximum value X and minimum value Y are obtained (S900), and the difference is calculated (S1000). .

If the difference between the is larger than D is Tokoro value is as uneven distribution of the gas hydrate 4 in the hopper 7 is large, by controlling the electric motor 5 to reverse the direction of rotation of the screw feeder 6 (S1100) that To uneven distribution.

  If the above difference is not larger than D, the uneven distribution of the gas hydrate 4 is assumed to be small and the rotation direction of the screw feeder 6 is left as it is.

  The predetermined value D is preferably set to a value of 20 cm or less from the viewpoint of keeping the supply rate of the gas hydrate 4 between the rolls 1 within an allowable range.

It is sectional drawing which shows the gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of a control means. It is sectional drawing which shows the conventional gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Roll 2 Pellet 3 Pocket 4 Storage gas hydrate 5 Electric motor 6 Screw feeder 7 Hopper 8 Electric motor 9 Screw conveyor 10 Camera 11 Image processing apparatus 12 Monitor 13 Control apparatus 14 Supply gas hydrate 15 Electric motor

Claims (3)

A pair of rolls rotating with a plurality of molds on the outer circumferential surface, a screw feeder which is inserted substantially vertically from above into the hopper and the hopper for supplying the gas hydrate into between the pair of rolls, said hopper and A screw conveyor for supplying gas hydrate to the screw feeder ,
In the gas hydrate pellet production apparatus for producing pellets by compression molding the supplied gas hydrate in the mold,
Wherein comprising a measuring means savings distillation distribution of gas hydrate in the hopper, and control means for controlling the direction of rotation of the front Symbol screw feeder based on the measurement result of said measuring means,
The said control means reverses the rotation direction of the said screw feeder, when the maximum value of the unevenness | corrugation difference of the said gas hydrate surface becomes larger than predetermined value, The gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned .   The measuring means includes a plurality of cameras that acquire image data of a gas hydrate surface stored in the hopper, and an image processing device that creates a three-dimensional image from the plurality of image data. Item 2. The gas hydrate pellet manufacturing apparatus according to Item 1. Before the gas hydrate pellets manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 Kisho value is less value 20 cm.

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