During mining and port operations, and coal power plants, material that is generated in both cases is typically laid in stockpiles for storage of the material before moving on to the next process or being loaded for shipping. Once in the stockpiles, one of the methods to remove the material and load to transport is via bucket wheel or portal reclaimers.
Reclaimers use buckets to either remove the material and load onto a conveyor or “scrape” along the stockpile and bring the material back to a transport conveyor. During this process, dust can be generated during the “scraping” or pick up point for the reclaimer and the drop back onto the transport conveyor. As these operations are typically more open and susceptible to wind, more fog would be required to ensure effective dust suppression.
Dry Fog provides an efficient and easily workable solution for operators that need to suppress dust during material loading and unloading. Micron size fog droplets are used to blanket the area around the pick-up point and the drop back to the transport conveyor, preventing dust from becoming airborne in the first place. The systems can be custom designed for additional nozzles and fog in other areas of the reclaimers to ensure optimal efficiency and decrease impact from the wind.
Moisture addition is very minimal allowing the operating of the system with moisture sensitive materials. Also, in port operations this avoids adding water weight to the product prior to shipping.