REAL-TIME EFFICIENCY The COALSCAN 9500X is installed on the conveyor and only takes up one metre of belt space
To avoid incorrect plant control decisions and plant inefficiencies, technologies that measure mining process streams must be implemented directly and in real time. Australia-based bulk materials monitoring company Scantech uses real-time analysis technologies to measure conveyed bulk materials at coal mines and power stations in South Africa. The collieries use analysers to improve plant efficiencies.
Real-time analysis technologies for conveyed bulk materials have been used in the coal and cement industries for many years, with Scantech providing the service for the last 15 years. In this time, the company has developed and refined sampling methods to enable the collection of a “more representative” sample.
The company explains that sample preparation and analysis methods remain time consuming. Real-time, online analysis systems have, therefore, been designed to eliminate the need to take routine samples for process control. Analysing the whole stream eliminates the possibility of sampling errors.
Scantech’s real-time analyser technologies can be applied to a range of applications for the bulk materials industry. This gives collieries control over coal quality, with timely information on ash, moisture, sulphur, energy content and elemental analysis, with updates provided about every two minutes. These benefits aid decision-making, which optimises process control, increases the value of the resource and reducers operating costs.
Scantech’s Coalscan 9500X incorporates a proprietary detector array, providing a better spectrum by allowing for simultaneous detection in individual detectors. This overcomes the limitations of conventional, low-efficiency detection systems. The analyser’s spectrometer can operate at higher count rates than conventional systems, with lower pulse pile-up. This innovation improves the signal-to-noise ratio and spectral peak resolution.
Scantech has supplied its Coalscan ash and moisture monitors, its carbon-in-fly-ash (CIFA) analyser and the Coalscan 9500X elemental prompt gamma-neutron activation analysis analysers to the world’s coal and power markets for over 30 years.
The Coalscan 9500X, installed on the conveyor, only uses 1 m of belt space, has low maintenance costs and does not require sampling during normal operation. The analyser has been engineered as a compact, fully integrated, single-enclosure measurement unit.