Introduction

Technological processing equipment is usually designed for a specific quality of input materials (like raw materials, primary products etc.). But there is also another (and usually forgotten) requirement:

The fluctuation of quality features should be kept as minimal as possible.

Those variations are sometimes crucial for the stability of the technological process itself. Fluctuations of input quality could lead to increased costs, derogation of produced quality and even a stoppage in the production cycle.

Although some very sophisticated mixing methods were already invented and implemented, the problem of the input quality variations still concerns the engineering department. The techniques, used nowadays for the mixing of solid materials are all too often time, energy and resource intensive.

   

    

MIX++® - software package implements new technique for the producing of the solid material blending. It has the potential to retrofit or completely substitute the most of techniques used nowadays.

MIX++® Benefits:

• Improved production workflow
• Reduced material stress in piping systems, combustion chambers and control mechanism leads to maintenance costs reduction
• Improved utilization of raw materials
• Higher process stability without new controlling mechanism
• Reduced risk of ecological incidents

   

   

Appliance

MIX++® Features:

Optimizing of one quality parameter

(optionally with a user specified mean value)

Optimizing of N quality parameters,

(with a user specified mean values for a subset of qualities). The weight factors for any of N quality parameters can also be predetermined.

MIX++® Input:		MIX++® Output:
measurements prescribed blend qualities (optional)		percentage amounts of components in a blend minimal fluctuations of the quality

The costs of the MIX++® implementation in an existing production environment are relatively small, due to the possibility of the step-by-step implementation.

MIX++® Industry Branches:

• Power generation
• Steel industry
• Non-ferrous metal production
• Chemical industry
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Food processing

MIX++® Support:

• Customer specific case-studies
• Equipment engineering
• Support over the product Life-Cycle

Combustion Plant - an Example

Combustion plant - an example

 

 

PROBLEM

The fluctuations of the coal calorific value should be minimized before the combustion.The combustion plant could use three different types of coal (A, B and C). The calorific values of the representative samples have been examined in a lab and are presented ni the following table:

Type	Calorific value [kJ/kg]
	Sample No. 1	Sample No. 2	Sample No. 3
A	6700	6490	6910
B	8375	8090	8650
C	7535	7765	7305

This fluctuation should be minimized through achieving an optimal mixture of this components. The mean calorific value of the mixture should be 7830 kJ/kg.

 

SOLUTION

All the measurements and constraints listed above are entered in the MIX++^® application. The following table shows percentage ratios of components in mixture, as well as mean values and standard deviations ( S_n-1 ) of all components in comparison to the mixture, as obtained from a successfully finished computation:

 

Type	mean calorific value [kJ/kg]	stand. deviation  Sn-1 [kJ/kg]	percentage [%]
A	6700.0	210.0	12.25
B	8371.7	280.0	47.48
C	7535.0	230.0	40.27
Mixture (MIX)	7830.0	164.07	100.00

 

The following probability distribution diagram is constructed under the assumption that calorific value of the components is distributed according to normal Gaussian distribution:

 

 Calorific value - probability distribution diagram

 

As these diagrams reveal, the standard deviation of the mixture is considerably smaller then the standard deviation of any of the components in the mixture.

Downloads

Here you can download Mix++ related material and files.

• MixDemoSetup ver 1.1.4
• MIX++® Product Sheet (PDF)