PAGE EIGHT
THE ECHO
APRIL, 1944
Much Power And Steam Needed To Make Pap6t
BOUER, HJRBINE
ROOntS PROVIDE
POWER & STEAM
Both Rooms Well Equipped.
Details Of Operations
Are Given
COMBINATION OF WATER AND COAL PRODUCE POWER
Much power and steam are used
in the manufacture of cigarette
paper.
To provide for them, Ecusta has
a modem Boiler Room and Tur
bine Room. Ordinarily these two
are housed in the same building.
However, at Ecusta the necessity
for the utmost in cleanliness in the
process caused the Boiler Room to
be located well away from the
manufacturing buildings to prevent
contamination by fly ash and coal
dust. The Turbine Room, on the
other hand, is located in a build
ing of its own closeby.
All told there are four large
boilers in the Boiler Room capable
of producing a total of 138,000
pounds of steam per hour at
pressure of 425 pounds per square
inch gauge and a temperature of
700 degrees F.
To produce this amount of steam
requires close to 7V2 tons of bitu
minous coal per hour —175 tons
per day. This coal is received via
railroad in cars containing from
50 to 60 tons each. They are spot
ted on the coal trestle alongside
the Boiler Room, over a hopper
into which the coal is dropped
From the hopper, it is conveyed
by moving belt to a bucket eleva
tor which carries it up about 70
feet and deposits it in the two
silos, each of which can hold 100
tons. Thirty tons can be handled
in this manner per hour. Ground
coal storage facilities are also pro
vided to guard against failure in
coal deliveries. A drag line and
large traxcavator are used here for
handling. Coal so stored must be
well packed and temperatures of
the pile taken weekly to guard
against spontaneous combustion
From the silos the coal flows
by gravity into automatic weighing
scales and thence by screw con
veyor to the individual boiler hop
pers. The equipment is in duplicate
and the operation entirely auto
matic.
The boilers are of the four drum
bent tube type, multiple retort
stoker fired and with inclined
side water walls along and above
the stoker line. Two have a ca
pacity of 27,500 pounds per hour
each and the other two 41,500
pounds per hour each. Combustion
control is bailey automatic.
From the boiler hoppers the coal
is pushed into the furnace by cir
cular rams to a depth of about 18
inches and thencp to the rear by
a series of secondary rams. As it
progresses, combustion takes place
and by the time it reaches the
dump grates only ashes remain
These are dumped from time to
time into wheeled carts from
where they are transferred to the
ash silo by means of a skip hoist.
Twenty-five tons of ashes can be
stored in the silo at one time. It
is set at an elevation that permits
bottom dumping into auto trucks.
With controlled, accelerated com
bustion such as is required in these
modern boilers, forced draft must
be resorted to and each boiler is
therefore equipped with a forced
draft fan.
Water presents specific problems
—Turn To Page Nine
Shown above is the Boiler House and the two larger coal sUos. The photo in the center is » ,
view of the mezzanine floor under the coal silos, showing the coal scales and screw conveyors. ^ ]
bottom is a view of the water softeners through which all fresh water makeup must pass. .
Note the coal eaevator in the top .picture. The small silo with skip hoist is for ashes. The elevate^
track to the coal trestle and the, drag line house are in the rear. The scale on which the coal »
weighed, in the center, is a huge one. A lot of water and coal are needed to produce power.