Vibrating grate stokers for the sugar industry.

Some 15yearsago in the UnitedStates,it becameapparent that travelling grateand water-cooled pinhole grate stokers were no longerable to cope with the increasing demands of the biomass burning industry, particularly pulp and paper. These demands included lower excess air firing for efficiency and emission control, higher boiler capacities, and greater availability to the plant.The demands weremetin part by the air-cooled vibrating grate stokerand,moreimportantly, the newly developed watercooledautomatic ashdischarge grate. Thismachine allows high efficiency firing at lowest possible emission rates, andprolonged operation without shutdown for maintenance or for grate cleaning. The demands of the sugar industry are growingin the same direction and vibrating grate stokers are well suited to answer the challenge for highly reliable firing of bagasse and coal in the new evolution of co-generating power plants.