PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
The rotary kiln system depicted in this flow diagram is typical of the equipment available at Hazen. Primarily used to evaluate combustion and thermal oxidation applications, the two-foot-diameter by seven-foot-long rotary kiln can process feed at rates up to 100 pounds per hour (dry basis). The kiln can be operated in slagging mode for hazardous waste vitrification studies. The two-stage afterburner assembly was designed to meet temperature and residence time requirements to ensure destruction of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds that are present in the kiln discharge gas.
Often, new processes must be demonstrated on a semicommercial or pilot plant scale to secure detailed design criteria necessary for commercial implementation. Demonstration plants may integrate several complex unit operations to accurately portray commercial operating requirements such as internally recycling process streams. Our process engineering expertise and excellent craftsmen and shop facilities have enabled us to successfully design, construct, and operate a series of demonstration plants on behalf of clients in the mineral, chemical, and environmental industries.
Hazen Research, Inc. has played a key role in the development of many commercial processes. For example, a new process for producing iron carbide was developed in Hazen's thermal processing laboratories. The process, which is licensed by Iron Carbide Holdings, Inc. (Lakewood, Colorado), uses fluidized-bed technology to reduce and carburize the iron contained in an oxide ore to form Fe3C, an ideal electric arc furnace feed material. Hazen uses this two-inch-diameter fluidized-bed reactor system to evaluate the process amenability of iron ore samples on behalf of Iron Carbide Holdings.