Thayer Scale Introduces the Bridgebreaker™ Hopper for the Bioenergy Industry

Thayer Scale designed the Bridgebreaker™ Hopper to dramatically improve the effectiveness of storage bins used to store woodchips in the Bioenergy industry. With the rapid shift to biomass instead of fossil fuels as a primary energy source, energy producers struggle to efficiently store, discharge, and feed woodchips and other woody-biomass. Frequent bridging and poor flow out of discharge chutes and storage bins result from a combination of issues, a high angle-of-repose, wide particle size distribution, and the tendency of woodchips to interlock.

To mitigate these material handling issues, producers store woodchips in bins with excessive wall angles to promote mass flow (often greater than 60 degrees) or overly large outlets that may not be suitable for the receiving elements (chute, valve or feeder) directly below .

To address these challenges, Thayer Scale developed a unique “active funnel” solution that combines multiple Bridgebreaker Flow Aids, patented in 1959, with a unique hopper geometry controlled by a sequencing controller to provide a more effective discharge of woodchips to downstream processes. The resulting hopper geometry permits a 20:1 reduction in inlet-to-outlet area in just eight vertical feet. The hopper has been tested with several challenging materials and is available for testing in the Material Testing Lab at the Thayer Scale headquarters in Pembroke, MA.

For more information visit www.thayerscale.com.
 

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