Hog Fuel (Wood Waste) Tall Day Bin
This is an example of a storage bin designed specifically to handle difficult flowing biomass, including stringy woody biomass.
Why Conventional Live Bottom Bins Suffer from Chronic Plugging and Inconsistent Discharge
Standard storage bins used to handle biomass are typically negative taper, and use a live bottom reclaim system such as augers or a stoker.
In summary, live bottom negative taper bins struggle handling biomass because: 1) they allow the stored biomass to compact on itself and place a heavy load on the reclaim system, 2) promote material compaction by driving material against the bin front wall, and 3) withdraw material in a funnel flow discharge pattern, which induces rat-holing.
Kamengo’s Solution
The solution to a reliable biomass storage bin starts with good bin design and moving away from the negative taper bin to a positive taper bin where the majority of the load in the bin is carried by the bin walls, and where the biomass will accelerate from the storage bin during discharge. However, for reliable discharge, the geometry of the positive taper storage bin must be correct. The most conservative bin shape for handling biomass is a plane flow hopper shape with a wide and long discharge opening. A plane flow hopper only converges in one plane at a time, and is vertical in the opposite plane. The plane flow hopper is the most conservative hopper shape. The purpose of using a conservative bin shape with a long and wide discharge outlet is to employ a geometry where if the Feeder were removed, the entire bin would self-empty with gravity in a mass flow or first-in, first-out discharge pattern.
The second half of the solution is to pair the plane flow hopper with a fully-effective feeder – that is a feeder that withdraws material evenly from its entire infeed opening. By definition, to achieve mass flow, where the stored material comes down as a single body, the feeder must withdraw material evenly from its entire opening. If the Feeder withdraws material selectively from the bin discharge outlet, sections of material in the bin will be stagnant and funnel flow will ensue.
A great example of a fully-effective feeder is the Kamengo Feeder. In addition to being fully-effective, the Feeder offers consistent metering, and can be made as wide as needed and as long as wanted. As a result, the Kamengo Feeder offers valuable advantages when designing for a difficult flowing fibrous material.
Learn More
To learn more about the physics of storage bin and feeder design as well as the root causes of bin plugging, please download our white paper entitled: The Design of Reliable Storage Bins and Feeders for the Biomass Industry.