Static Mixers

Static mixers are used in a wide variety of applications, including air pollution control, material processing and wastewater handling systems where deviations in process or product conditions need to be minimized. Fuel Tech is rapidly becoming a leader in the design and supply of mixing technology for the power generation industry, particularly for Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) process applications in which the consistency of flue gas velocity, temperature and ammonia-to-NO_X distribution at the catalyst face can greatly impact system performance.

Generally, static mixers can be used for mixing regions of low and high temperature flue gas, regions of low and high concentrations of flue gas components, and regions of low and high concentrations of particulate in flue gas.

The most common application of static mixers is in SCR systems, where mixers are used to mix temperature, velocity and NO_x maldistributions ahead of an Ammonia Injection Grid (AIG), as well as sometimes mixing ammonia (NH₃) downstream of the AIG. Other applications include the mixing of sorbents for mercury control and mixing of chemical components for optimal reactions.

Proven Performance of Combining Computational Fluid Dynamics and Experimental (physical) Modeling When Required

Static Mixers are utilized in many processes to enhance performance by redistributing fluid velocities, temperatures and chemical species. These mixers use static mixing elements, which are geometrically defined devices installed in the stream of one or more media. The media are mixed by the fluid dynamics generated by the streaming media and the motionless static mixing elements. Our static mixers have been used in applications to enhance material injection mixing, reduce reaction time, reduce temperature gradients, improve velocity distributions and improve ash distributions. Our proprietary mixer design, known as the HI-TEC (Homogenous and Isotropic Turbulent Energy Cascade) Static Mixer, is custom engineered using Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling for every application to provide the optimal balance of mixing with minimal pressure losses.

Our experience in designing and supplying the HI-TEC Static Mixer as a turnkey solution includes design analysis, fabrication drawings and installation instruction. In-house testing and design keeps customer costs to a minimum. Mixers are available in a wide variety of materials for your specific application needs:

The Process

The mixer design process begins with analysis of the flue gas train arrangement and understanding the customer’s objectives. Next, Fuel Tech engineers develop the computational and process models that will provide predictions as to the performance of a design. These engineers perform optimization of the static mixer geometry, linking the various models and objectives to determine the mixer arrangement that provides the “optimal” design per the minimization and maximization of the objective functions.

The Fuel Tech Advantage

Fuel Tech’s mixers are designed specifically for each, unique system. The constraints and objectives of each customer system is considered because no two systems are the same. Experimental (physical) modeling and computational fluid modeling are utilized to establish performance guarantees as well as provide the confidence that the system will perform as designed.

Performance Features:

• Flow Correction
• Velocity
• Chemical Species
• Temperature
• Enhance Material Injection Mixing
• Reduce Reaction Time
• Reduce Temperature Gradients
• Improve Velocity and Ash Distribution