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Plasma Fundamentals for Processing of Advanced Materials
Published in Yashvir Singh, Nishant K. Singh, Mangey Ram, Advanced Manufacturing Processes, 2023
Tapan Dash, Bijan Bihari Nayak
In cases of processing of waste into energy, thermal plasma technology has recently been considered as a highly attractive route. It can be easily used for the treatment of various wastes (municipal solid wastes, heavy oil, used car tyres, medical wastes, etc.) for conversion of biomass to syngas at more than 99 percent efficiency (which is mainly composed of H2, CO and CH4), because of the ability of the plasma to vaporise anything and destroy any chemical bonds [4, 9, 19–21]. Each of these categories or applications of thermal plasma may include a broad range of endeavours and could be the topic of separate reviews. Most thermal plasmas can be generated by DC or AC electric fields (electric arcs) and inductively coupled RF energy, microwave energy or laser energy [4, 9–10]. Plasma torches are the most commercially available thermal plasma source which are used in industrial uses like welding, melting, furnace and thermal synthesis of materials, etc. Because of these reasons, more representation is required to generalize all the types and applications of thermal plasmas.
Beneficial Industrial Uses of Electricity: Metals Production
Published in Clark W. Gellings, 2 Emissions with Electricity, 2020
There are two types of plasma devices: transferred arc and non-transferred arc. In transferred arc processing, an arc forms between the plasma torch and the material. The plasma torch acts as a cathode, the material as the anode, and an inert gas passing through the arc is the plasma. These systems are used for metals heating and melting. With non-transferred arc processing, both the anode and the cathode are in the torch. The torch heats a plasma gas creating extremely high temperatures that can provide heat for chemical reactions and other processes.
Investigation of different cutting technologies in a ship recycling yard with simulation approach
Published in Ships and Offshore Structures, 2022
Sefer Anil Gunbeyaz, Rafet Emek Kurt, Osman Turan
Results of this study show that plasma cutting is a viable alternative to commonly used oxy-fuel cutting for the daily metal cutting tasks in the yard. Plasma cutting can provide around 60% improvement in the productivity of the primary and secondary dismantling zones of the ship recycling yards for the selected case study. Even though the initial capital and consumable costs of the plasma cutting is more expensive compared to the oxy-fuel cutting, plasma cutting is superior to the oxy-fuel (LPG in this specific case). The initial cost of the plasma cutting is around €10,000 that is high compared to the €300 investment cost of the oxyfuel cutter. Moreover, on the operation expense, oxyfuel cutting (€21/hour total operation cost) is also much cheaper compared to plasma cutting (€33/hour). However, using plasma cutting, the difference in investment and operation be compensated due to the high performance, which compensates through the lower operation time, lower worker cost and higher throughput of the yard. One of the causes for performance difference is the fact that the oxyfuel requires the metal to be preheated before cutting, while plasma does not have this requirement. This also improves the quality of the steel as there is minimal slag on the cut edges. Even though it is generally not crucial for ship recycling, sometimes plates are sold as it is for direct reuse if they are in good condition. Plasma torches can cut non-ferrous metals and stainless steels while oxy-fuel torches cannot. This is important for the ship recycling business as some ships contains stainless steel parts (equipment, pipes, cargo holds, and so forth), as well as aluminium or cast-iron parts. Plasma torches can operate on these metals without any loss of productivity.