WO2022015145A1

WO2022015145A1 - Air cleansing and filtration system for the elimination of polluting gases in chemical and/or marine environments

Info

Publication number: WO2022015145A1
Application number: PCT/MX2021/050027
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alberto TREJO GONZÁLEZ; Benedicto Armando CASANOVA BUSTILLOS; Edmundo RODARTE VALDÉS
Original assignee: Cydsa, S.A.B. De C.V.
Priority date: 2020-07-13
Filing date: 2021-06-09
Publication date: 2022-01-20
Also published as: MX2020006709A

Abstract

The present invention refers to a system of air filtration and cleansing for the elimination of polluting gases in chemical and/or marine environments (40), compromising a cleansing subsystem (10) and a filtering subsystem (20) interconnected via a transition zone (41), where the filtration subsystem (20) comprises a lower ventilation inlet (21a) for cooling a turbine cabin (24) and an upper ventilation inlet (21b) for cooling a turbine (25) for an electrical energy generator, as well as an order and a quantity of filters for providing ideal cooling conditions.

Description

AIR FILTRATION AND WASHING SYSTEM FOR THE ELIMINATION OF CONTAMINANT GASES IN CHEMICAL AND/OR MARINE ENVIRONMENTS

Technical field of the invention The present invention relates to the field of machinery for generating electrical energy, and more particularly to a system for treating and cooling the air that enters a turbine that generates electrical energy.

Background of the Invention Air filtration systems are normally used for use with gas turbines, mainly to remove salt, dust, water, corrosives, gases and any other foreign matter. Said foreign material can cause some corrosion in the turbines and consequently affect their operation or even severely damage them, being very important the use of filtration systems with the aim of improving the useful life of the turbines and meeting the quality requirements. of air and/or with the quality standards of the industry.

To meet these requirements, filtration systems have been developed or improved that allow adaptation to the needs of the industry, for example, in the state of the art is patent US8167980B2 that describes a system for removing salts and humidity in the working current of a turbine. This system is mainly made up of membrane filters and polymeric fibers, protecting the system, with the benefit of being able to work in systems with high humidity and with particles of up to 20 microns. It should be noted that the patent specifies the type of salts that the system eliminates, in addition to denoting the specialization for high humidity environments. On the other hand, patent US7998249B2 describes a contaminant removal system by spraying water into the air stream, and passing said stream through a system of vertical filters. The system provides better thermal efficiency.

Patent application US20020092423A1 describes a polymeric fiber filter system composed of cyclic lactam and a Ce io diamine monomer or a Ce io diacid monomer combined with an additive material, where the filter system provides efficiency for working temperatures relatively high and high humidity.

Patent US9114347B2 describes a multi-stage air filtration and drying system for turbine air, which uses two-stage inertial moisture separators to remove the moisture present in the intake air entering the air treatment system, increasing the effectiveness and the life of high-efficiency filters that could otherwise become clogged by moisture buildup. The main advantage of the system is that it removes particles down to 0.1 pm.

As the main finding of the aforementioned documents, it is highlighted that there is no system that describes a combination of processes and filters as in the present invention. Additionally, the system of the present invention helps to eliminate polluting gases within the air stream, while other systems based solely on filters only remove particles in the air. Brief description of the invention

The present invention refers to an air filtration and washing system for chemical and/or marine environments that allows the elimination of polluting gases in gas turbine inlet streams, ensuring compliance with the manufacturer's air quality requirements. The system of the present invention is comprised of a washing subsystem and a filtering subsystem, where the filtering subsystem comprises a series of filters ordered in a specific order to obtain the ideal conditions of clean air currents to cool turbines.

One of the objectives of the system of the present invention is to eliminate contaminants that wear out and reduce the useful life of aeroderivative turbines, as well as to provide an improvement in its efficiency.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a contaminant-free flow of air, thereby reducing the possibility of these contaminants reacting with the internal parts of the turbine and causing corrosion and damage.

Still another objective of the present invention is to allow a decrease in downtime for maintenance and change of spare parts. The system of the present invention, by having an initial air washing stage, generates less wear in the stages that cannot be regenerated or changed with the process in operation, such as, for example, the change of carbon filters, which increase your life time with this application.

Brief description of the figures

The present invention will be better understood from the following figures taken in conjunction with the detailed description of the invention, where the figures describe:

Figure 1 shows a washing subsystem or stage that forms part of the system of the present invention;

Figure 2 shows a filtering subsystem or stage that forms part of the system of the present invention; Y Figure 3 shows the fully assembled system of the present invention.

Detailed description of the invention

Referring to Figure 1, a washing subsystem or stage 10 is shown in which a stream of contaminated air 1 enters a feed inlet.

2 through a path or channel (shown by arrows) to a packed bed 3 composed of multiple spheres evenly distributed throughout. It should be noted that the spheres comprised in the packed bed 3 may have non-uniform distributions. The polluted air stream 1 normally has an ambient temperature in the range of 2 to 40°C. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the spheres are replaced by cylinders, hollow spheres, rasching rings, metallic, ceramic or polymer structured packing, or by combinations of the above.

The contaminated air current 1 is washed inside the packed bed 3 with a flow of alkaline solution 5 coming from an alkaline solution tank or container 4, where the alkaline solution is pumped by means of a pump 6 and atomized countercurrently in the packed bed.

3 by means of a pipe 7 hydraulically connected to the pump 6. The alkaline solution container 4 is located at the bottom of the subsystem 10 and the packed bed 3 is installed above the alkaline solution container 4, although they can be located in different ways. After the polluted air stream 1 is washed, it is passed through a two-stage mist eliminator 8, that is, a first stage mist eliminator 8a and a second stage mist eliminator 8b, and the polluted air 1 becomes a washed stream, the which is led to an outlet 9 as shown by arrows.

Figure 2 shows a filtering subsystem or stage 20 comprising a lower ventilation inlet 21a and an upper ventilation inlet 21b into which AV ventilation air enters. The ventilation air AV is that air that results from a transition zone or stage 41, which will be explained later. The ventilation air AV that enters through the lower ventilation inlet 21a is passed through an intake that has first a carbon filter 22 and then a coalescing filter 23, the intake being directly connected to the lower ventilation inlet 21a. and after passing the ventilation air AV through the filters 22 and 23, a stream of clean air AL1 is obtained which travels through a channel or path 23 until it reaches a turbine cabin 24 with the aim of cooling said turbine cabin 24 .

The AV ventilation air that enters through the upper ventilation inlet 21b is passed through a grill 26 that removes water particles and then passes through a series of filters, specifically, through a coalescing filter 27 which removes small residual droplets, a carbon filter 28 to remove any remaining polluting gases, mainly sulfur, and HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) 29 particle filters, which remove any ultrafine particles, and a series of final filters 30, all of these filters corresponding to the upper ventilation inlet 21b placed within a containment zone 31 (see figure 3) in the order indicated from the inlet 21b to obtain a stream of clean and low temperature air, specifically a stream with a temperature between 5 and 15°C For practical purposes of clarity and understanding of the present invention, that stream will be referred to as clean air stream AL2. The stream of clean air AL2 enters through an inlet 32 directly towards the turbine 25 in order to cool it. In this way, the air filtering and washing system for the removal of polluting gases 40 of the present invention comprises two clean air inlets 21a, 21b, where the clean air AL2 passes through a series of filters that guarantee a better quality. of air directly into the turbine 25, where the order of the filters mentioned above demonstrates that they provide a clean stream of polluting gases and other solid or gaseous impurities from chemicals and/or marine elements (for example, salt).

The upper ventilation inlet 21b comprises air-water heat exchangers and/or condensers (not shown) that allow moisture to be removed by condensation from the AV ventilation air coming from the transition zone 41. With this, the AV ventilation air entering the the upper ventilation inlet 21b is at a temperature between 3 and 20°C.

Once the clean air current AL1 and AL2 fulfill their cooling function, they are let out through an air outlet 33 as "combustion air".

Now, referring to figure 3, the transition zone or transition stage 41 can be observed, which is an area that interconnects the washing subsystem 10 with the filtering subsystem 20, where the washed air is allowed to cool to a room temperature between 2 and 40°C to obtain the AV ventilation air that enters the upper ventilation inlet 21b and/or the lower ventilation inlet 21a through a guide 42.

With the system described above, one obtains a better cleaning of contaminants from hostile environments, a reduction in downtime for maintenance and replacement of spare parts, and an increase in the efficiency of industrial equipment. The system of the present invention is designed for friendly environments, but mainly for aggressive environments, such as marine environments with high humidity, alkalinity, acidity or extreme environmental contamination with highly corrosive gases or particles, such as, but not limited to, NOx, SOx, HC1, CI2, H ₂ SO ₄ , ¾S, NH ₃ , or any of the above combinations.

The decrease in downtime for maintenance is achieved thanks to the set of elements and processes that ensure the increase in the useful life of the equipment and the consequent lower need for spare parts.

The increased performance of the turbine is achieved thanks to the low temperature of the air. Decreasing the temperature increases the mass of the air (keeping the volume constant) and the oxygen content in the air stream. The system of the present invention can also be used or applied in fans, compressors, storage tanks for air or any other pneumatic work system.

Claims

1. An air filtration and washing system for the removal of polluting gases in chemical and/or marine environments (40), characterized in that it comprises: a) a washing subsystem (10) that has:

- a feed inlet (2) into which polluted air (1) enters and a channel that transports the polluted air (1) to a packed bed (3); - an alkaline solution container (4) containing an alkaline solution (5), the alkaline solution (5) being pumped and atomized by a pump (6) countercurrently into the packed bed (3) to wash the contaminated air (1 ) contained in the packed bed (3);

- a two-stage mist eliminator (8) in which the polluted air (1) is passed after washing it; Y

- an outlet (9); b) a filtering subsystem that has:

- an upper ventilation inlet (21b) and a lower ventilation inlet (21a) to enter ventilation air (AV);

- an intake directly connected to the lower ventilation inlet (21a) comprising first a carbon filter (22) and then a coalescing filter (23), where a path (23) leads clean air (AL1) to a cabin turbine (24); - a containment zone (31) comprising containment comprising a grid connected to the upper ventilation inlet (21b) and i) a carbon filter (28), ii) HEPA filters (29) and iii) a series of final filters (30), where an inlet (32) leads clean air (AL2) directly to a turbine (25); and c) a transition zone (41) that interconnects the washing subsystem (10) with the filtering subsystem (20), where the transition zone (41) transports the ventilation air (AV) towards the upper ventilation inlet (21b) and towards the lower ventilation inlet (21a) through a guide (42).

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the packing bed (3) comprises multiple spheres distributed uniformly or non-uniformly.

3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that the spheres can be replaced by cylinders, hollow spheres, rasching rings, metallic, ceramic or polymer structured packing, or by combinations of the above.

4. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the contaminated air (1) has a temperature in the range of 2 to 40°C.

5. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the pump (6) is hydraulically connected to a pipe (7).

6. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper ventilation inlet 21(b) comprises air-water heat exchangers and/or condensers.

7. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the clean air (AL2) has a temperature between 5 and 15°C.

8. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises an air outlet (33).