MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING PROCESS ...

14th World Congress oflFAC

Copyright © 1999 IFAC P-8b-03-3

14th Triennial World Congress, Beijing, P.R. China

MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING

PROCESS

Dlof Lindgarde *,1 Matz Lenells "'*

* Control Engineering Laboratory, Department of Signal and

System!J, Chalmers University of Technology, 5E-41£ 96
Gotebo1g, Sweden, ol@s2.chalme'f'S.se
U ITN, Vii:rjo University College, 5E-351 95 Viixjii, Sweden

AbstI'act: In this work a semi-physical model is developed £0£ an industrial clry lime
slaking process. The model is based on mass and heat balances for two non-stationary
ideal stirred tank reactors in series. The ma.ss balance equations are described by two
partial differential equations. It is shown how the total reaction rate is derived from
the conversion rate for lime particles. The evaporation model is based on experimental
data from the pilot plant slaker. The slaker model is simulated and compared to a
step response experiment performed on the slaker. Copyright © 1999 IFAC

Keywords: Lime, dry slaking, physical model, segregated flow, local reaction rate

1. INTRODUCTION good servo performance is desirable, so that the

slaker can respond to changes in the flue-gas flow.
The industrial applicat.ion studied in this work is
a dry lime slaking process at ABB Environmental
Systems AB. The slal{ing process is used in con-
nection with flue-gas cleaning and sulfur dioxide
removal. ABB uses a Ilumber of different tech-
niques to clean the flue-gas from sulful' dioxide.
--]
One of them is a newly developed type, called
the NID-tcchniqllc (Novel Integrated Dcsulphur-
ization). The absorbent in NID is foilaked lime. Tank 1 Tank 2
Slaked lime is obtained by mixing burned lime
with water. Today this process is not integrated Figure 1. The lime slakeI' at ABB seen side-face
with the cleaning process. Instead, slaked lime is
produced separately or is bought from an external
distributor. The ambition is. to slake the lime at
the power plant and to integrate the lime slaking
process (henceforth called tbe slaker) with the
cleaning process.
A problem with the dry slakers of today is the
risk of process breakdowns. Theff~fore, a robust I
Lefl side Right side
control design is needed. Also, a controller with
Figure 2. The lime slaker at ABB seen from above
1This work is supported by NUTEK within the Regina
The ambition is to derive a physical model of the
program. The project i~ entitled "Multivariable control for
sampled-data system" (project number P7896-1). slaker, so that a proper control design can be

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MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING PROCESS ...
made. In this \vork we have taken advantage of
ABB's in-house NID pilot plant., where a number
of experiments have been carried out.
Industrial lime slaking is a complex process and
is difficult to model. There are several reasons for
this the complexity. Lime slaking is a heteroge-
Ileous reaction between a solid phase (lime) and
a liquid phase (water) and furthermore, lime is
a natural product where the lime partides vary
in Hize and in reactivity. It is therefore difficult to
model the kinetic properties of the slaking process.
The slaking process at ABB is a so called "d!'Y"
process. This means that moisture content in the
lime outflow is low (0-20 w%). This complicates
the modeling and it means that the water inflow
plays an important role in the process behavior.
In the literature on the subject a number of
models for fluid-solid or gas-solid reactions are
suggested, see e.g. (Bhatia and Perlmutter, 1980;
Bhatia and Perlmutter, 1981; Smith, 10Sl; Adrover
and Giona, 1997). The shrinking-core and the
grain models are examples of well-known models
for heterogeneous reactions. However, there is lit-
tle work published on modeling lime slaking pro-
cesses, and in the field of "dry" industrial lime pro-
cesses ,ve have not found any published material.
In (Irabien et aL 1989; Sohn and Chaubal, 1986)
kinetic expressions for lime slaking are suggested.
The model proposed in (Irabien et al., 1989) is
further commented on in Se( ~tion 2.2.
A more thorough description of this work is pre-
sented in (Lindgarde et al., 1998; Lindgarde and
Lenelis, 1998; Lindgarde, 1998).
2. MODELING A LHvIE SLAKING PROCESS
The purpose of this section is to desc.ribe the
mass and heat balance equations in the lime
slaker model. The results presented in Section 2.1
and Section 2.2 are described in more detail in
(Lindgarde et al., 1998; Lindgiirde, 1995). In this
work the lime slaker at ABB, see Fig. 1, is de-
scribed as two ideal stirred-tank reactor in series.
Thi;; assumption is motivated in Section 3.
2.1 Mass and heat balance equations for a tank
reactor with segregated flow
In the slaker the following reaction between
burned lime CaO (A) and water H 2 0 (B) oceurs:
Ca.Q(.';) + H 2 0(I) --t Ca(OHh(.s)
The product is hydrated or slaked lime Ca(OH)2
(C). The lime consists of particles which inde-
pendently reacts with the water. Consider a lime
particle and let x denote its conversion from (A) to
Copyright 1999 IFAC
14th World Congress oflFAC
(C), i.e. the mole fraction of slaked lime, see Fig. 3.
Init.ially, when burned lime is mixed with water
the reaction is very fast. However, when a layer
of slaked lime has been formed around the lime
particle the reaction rate is diffusion controlled
and much slower. It is therefore said that lime
slaking is product inhibited. This means that the
local reaction rate of each particle is a function of
the conversion x(t), i.e.
x(t) = lex , t) x(to) =0 (2)
It is assumed that the reaction rate also depends
on a number of global time-dependent parameters,
and that i~ t.he reason why the time t appears
in f(x , t). In this work the glohal time-dependent
parameters will considered to be the temperature
T(t) and moisture content ZB(t).
Figure 3. A schematic description of how a particle
is converted from A to C. The reaction starts
at t = to and is completed as t --+ 00. Note
that x(to) = 0 < X(tl) < X(t2) < x(oo) = 1
Let r denote the total rate of reaction in a tank
reactor. The reaction rate r and the mole number
N A in the reactor satisfies the following mole
balance relation
(3)
where Q~ and Q~ denote the mole inHow and
outflow of burned lime.
The proposed model describes how the total re-
action rate r is based OIl the local reaction rate
f(x , t). The problem is non-trivial since the re-
actor contains particles with different degrees of
conversions. Also, the model has to include the
dynamics of the reactor inflow and outflow. It
will be assumed that the conversion rate of each
new infinitesimal batch Q~ (T )dT proceeds inde-
pendently and is given by (2).
Figure 4. Two ideal stirred-tank reactors in series.
(1)
Consider the two ideal stirred-tank reactors tanks
in Fig. 4. Let Pl(X,t) denote the density of A + C
with respect to the conversion x at the time t,
Le. J:Pl(X, t)dx denotes the amount of A +C in
the reactor at the time t of which the conversion
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MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING PROCESS ... 14th World Congress ofTFAC

D2 =cc (CA1

x E [a, b]. The total amount of A and C is then DJ == (CpANAI + CpBNsl + CpeNel + mWlCpWl)

given by N Al (t) + NCI (t) = J~ PI (x, t)dx and D2 =cc (Cp ANA2 + C pI3 "VB2 + C yC NC2 + mW2CpW2)
1 EQl = (Q~1 CpA Qivcpw l(TI - TA)
/(1 -
-I-

NAJ(t) = X)Pl (x, t)dx (4) + Q'aCpS(Tl - T1)

o EQ2 = (Q AI C pA + QIn CpD + Q~l C pW1
+ Q Cl Gpe )(72 - Td
The total rate of reaction 1""1 is then given by, see
(Lindgarde et al., 1998), Here CpA, CpB , Cpc denotes the specific heat
1
capacity in fJ /moljK] while Cpw denotes an es-
timat.ed value of the specific heat capacity in
1'1 (t) =/ PI (x, t)f(x, t)dx (5) [J j gjK] of the inert material (W). The variables
o w
Q and mw are given hy the degree of purity of
burned lime RA.
L et ()1 ( t ) = (NAl (t)+NCl
(QAl (<)+'2 C1 (I}
(T . Then ..
PI IS
b
given y Equations (9) -(12) together with (6) and (8) are
the differential equations of the model that de-
{)
-[) PI (x, t) =- -I)
a fPl(X, t)f(x, t)J scribe the behavior in the slaker. In the deri"vation
t x above the local reaction rate lex, t) is assumed to
1 be identical for all infiniteflimal volumes in the two
- (h(t)pdx: t) (6) tankl'l. In practice the slaker will contain particles
that vary in size and in reactivity. Therefore, the
with the boundctry condition pJ (0, t)f(O, t) local reaction rate used in the model is an average
Q~ (t). Here, it is assumed that f(l, t) = O. In . value estimated from a batch of lime particles.
(Lindgarde et al., 1998) it is shown that (3) can
he derived by using (4)-(6).
The result in (6) can be generalized to the case 2.2 Estimating the local reaction rate
with a series of ideaJ stirred-tank reactors, Bee
(Lilldgarde et al., 1998). Consider the second tank The local reaction rate is determined by studying
. F·Ig. 4 . Let e2 (t) = (Q~2t)+QC2
reac t or III (N 12f t l+ NC2ft)) Th
i))' e
the slaking process in a batch reactor. Parameters
that have a great impact on the conversion rate
total reaction rate for the second tftuk is given by
in the mixture, besides from the conversion itself,
are t.he temperature T{t) and the moisture content
I
1

r2(t) = P2(X, t)f(x, t)dx (7) zBCt). It is well known that slaking is independent
of zn when it is above a certain threshold /3, Le.
o

where x(t) = f(x, t) = f(x, T, ZB)

= g(x, T) ZB > (3 (13)
8 8
8tPz(x, t) = - oX [P2(X, t)f(x, t)] The case when the moisture content ZB is belo,'"
1 1 the threshold (3 is discussed in Section 2.3.
- e2(t)P2(X,t) + Bl (t)Pl(X,t) (8)

with the boundary condition P2(O, t)f(O, t) = o.

The mass balance of the water is given by

NB1 = -7'1 + Qk - Q'},n - Q-;i (9)

IVB2 = -1'2 + Q'i:il - Q'}32 - q';f (10)

Here Q};'I' and Q';f denote the water evaporation

flow from Tank 1 and Tank" 2. The model of the
water evaporation flow i~ discussed in Section 4.
The heat balance equations for two ideal t.anks are
given by

Figure 5. The local rea.ction ra.te 9 as a function

Tl = -1/ Dl (T16 e H(TJ) + Q~ar l'.v..pH + EOl) (ll)
7'2 = -1!D2 (r26. H(T2) + ,r;fc,.vapH + EQ2)
T (12)
where
of the conversion x and the temperature T.
Lindgarde (1998) report.s how the local reaction
rate g(x, T) is estimated. The identification of

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MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING PROCESS ...
g(x, T) is based on a number of batch experiments
carried out at the ABB analytical laboratory in
Vaxji). The local reaction rate g(x, T) for the lime
used at the pilot plant slaker is shown in Fig. 5.
A model of g(x, T) is proposed in (Irabien et
al., 1989). The suggested model is however only
valid for x > 0.5 and not for all x E [O,lJ. The
reason is that the initial behavior in lime slaking is
very complex and is difficult to model physically.
The estimation of g(x, T) is valid in the temper-
ature range 50 - 100"C. The temperature in the
slaker can in fact be higher than 1000e. However,
from a controlling pOint of view, the lower temper-
atures are of primarily interest since the desired
operating points are in the lower temperature
region.
As expected the reaction rate increases with the
temperature. This increase is large for tempera-
tures about the boiling point 100° C .
Note that the gradient txg(x, T) is positive for
10.."values of the conversion x. The initial reaction
behavior of lime slaking is very complex. During
this step breakage of the lime particles occurs, cf.
(Irabien et al.; 1989), and the schematic descrip-
tion in Fig. 3 is not valid. For larger convel'sioll
rates (x > 0.3) the react.ion rate decreases with
the conversion degree as expected.
2.3 The influence of moisture content on the
reaction rate
The experiments discussed in this section have
been performed with a surplus of water. The
slaker , on the other hand, is a so-called dry
process. This meanS that the moisture content is
actually below the earlier mentioned threshold /r
It is as~umed that the moisture dependence in the
local reaction conversion rate is given by
f(x, T, ZB) = V(ZB )g(x , T)
The most simple assumption is to let V(ZR) be
linearly dependent of moisture content when ZB
is below the threshold fJ. This means that
1 .
V(ZIl) = 73 mm(zB,.8) when~ (J E [0,1]
The threshold (j was e~t.irna.ted from water stf'oP re-
spOIl~e experiments on t.he slaker . Note that when
the moisture content ZB is above the threshold j3
in the slakeI', the tota.l reaction rate r: and hence
the temperature T(t), will not. increase after an
increase of the water inflow Qk. By succeSSively
increasing the water inflow to the slakeI' and by
studying the steady state behavior in the two
tanks the threshold fJ was estimated to be 0.4.
Copyright 1999 IF AC
14th World Congress oflFAC
In relation to the effort that has been put into
t.he identification of 9(x, T), the model of V(ZB)
and the identificat.ion of j3 is rough. However,
when simulating the model it was not found to
be sensitive with respect to the parameter (3.
3. CHOOSING TA?\iK REACTOR MODEL
A step response experiment was performed on the
slaker by adding a trace element (salt) to the
water inflow and by measuring the chloride con-
centration of the outflow. The purpose of this ex-
periment was to study the transport mechanisms
of the slaker. This gives information of what kind
of reactor model, e.g. ideal tube reactor or ideal
tank reactor, that is appropriate for the slaker.
During the experiment a samples of the outflow
was taken on the right and on the left side of
the slaker. After the samples had been dried the
chloride concentration was measured. The result
is shown in Fig. 6. During the experiment the
lime inflow Q~ was 160 kg/h and the water inflow
Qk was 95 kg/h. The normalized step response is
shown in Fig. 7.
··'r·-~-~-·~~
".
. ~
?-~-
'
'r .
"'r
o~ --t--~'"-~- ~,- .~-- - ~-di.- .:D
Figure 6. Chloride concentration in the outflow
(mg Cl - /g dry basis) vs time (minutes), Left
side (0), Right side (+).
(14)
Assume that the slakeI' can be IIlodeled as an
ideal stirred-tlwk reactor (l:st order system) or
as two such reactors in series (2:nd order system).
Observe that the density of burned lime PA is
about. three times higher than the densit.y of
slaked lime pc. Therefore, the mean residence
(15)
time will depend on the slaking de,e;ree Se. When
modcling the st.cp response assumptions have t.o
be made of the slaking degree in the tank. Step
responses from three suggested models (Ml, M2
and 2\'13) are shown in Fig. 7. Two step responses of
onc ideal tank are shown, where it is assumed that
the tank consists either of burned lime CMl) or of
slaked lime (M2) only. The solid line represents
the second order system where it is assumed that
the first tank consists of burned lime only while
the second tank r:ont.ains slaked lime only (i\13).
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MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING PROCESS ...
Figure 7. Normalized step response vs. time (min-
utes) for the left (0) and right (+) side of the
slaker. Step response of the models }"jl,NI2
(dashed lines) and 1\13 (solid line).
By studying the step response from the slaker
in Fig. 7 it follows that a tube reactor is not
an appropriate reactor model choice. Also, the
initial behavior of the step responses indicates
that onc ideal tank does 'not sufficiently well
de:ocribe the dynamics of the process. At least
two ideal tanks in series are needed to model
the process. Furthermore, it was found that the
difference between two and three tanks is small
compared to process disturbances. This motivates
the choice of a two-tank reactor system.
4. MODEL OF THE EVAPORATION
Slaking of lime is an exothermic reaction and due
to the heat release the evaporation from the slaker
is substantial. Therefore, the water evaporation
Q'i:f and Q:;:i' from the two tanks in the reactor,
see Fig. 4, are important variables in the heat
balance equations as well as for the rnass balances
of the water (9)~(12). Note that the slaker is a
"dry" process, i.e. the moisture content in the
mixture is low. This means that the moisture
content ZB as well as th~ temperature T will
influence the magnitude of the evaporation.
A Ilurnber of steady state experiments have been
performed on the pilot sla.ker for various choices of
lime and water inflows. During these experiments
the temperature (T} and T z ) was monitored at
the t.wo tanks. The water evaporation flux from
the two tanb (Q;r and Q;~J) and the moisture
content (ZBl and ZB2) has been estimated for each
experiment. This was done by solving the Ilon-
linear set of equat.ions (6) and (8)~(12) for each
st.eady state experiment. This procedure is further
described in (Lindgarde and Lenells, 1998).
Deriving a physical model of the evaporation
has not been considered to be within the scope
of this work. Therefore, a simple evaporation
model has been developed based on the estimated
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Copyright 1999 IF AC
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evapora.tion-data. By studying the evaporation-
data the follov.ring evaporation model has been
proposed:
It should be observed, that the model of the
evaporation is not derived from physical relations,
but is instead an expression that is identified for
the pilot plant at ABB.
5. STEP RESPONSES ANALYSIS
In this section t.he slaker model is simulated and
compared to a step response experiment that was
performed on the slaker.
During the experimentH on the slaker t.he dynam-
ical behavior was studied by analyzing step re-
sponses at different operating points. An example
of such an experiment. is shown in Fig. 8 where the
lime inflow Q~4 is 126 kg/h and the initial water
inflow is Qk is 77 kg/h. After about 47 minutes
the water inflow is increased to 95 kg/h.
Consider the slaker in Fig. 2 with temperature
sensors 1, ... ,6. In Fig. 8 the temperature st.art.ing
at about 110 QC is the mea.'lurement from sen-
sor (1). Correspondingly, the temperature start.ing
at 80 QC from sensor (2) and (3).
In Fig. 8 the corresponding simulat.ed tempera-
tures for the two tanks are shown. The simulations
show a good correspondence between the model
and the process, bot.h with regard to the station-
ary and dynamical behavior of the slaker. Fig. 9
shows how of the moisture content ZE and the
total degree of conversion Se in Tank 1 and Tank 2
changes in t.he Inolle! after the step response. As
expected, the moisture content increases in the
two tanks when the water inflow increases. Also,
the slaking degrees were improverl after the step
response. These changes in ZB and Se were con-
firmed from analysis of lime samples taken before
and after the step response.
The tempera.t.ure signals in Fig. S are very noisy.
The reason is that it is difficult to obtain a
constant and regular inflow of lime particles. The
t.emperature in t.he slaker may also vary due to
variations of the incoming lime quality.
There is a good correspondence bet.ween t.he tem-
perature sensor;; 2 and 3 in Tank 2, see Fig. 2.
This indicates that the assumption of an ideal
stirred-tank reactor model in the flow direct.ion
is reasonable. In this example the temperat.ures
on the right side fluctuated (sensors 1 2 and 3)
and differed from the left side. This was due to
the difficulty of obtaining an even distribution of
the lime inflow.
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MODELING AN INDUSTRIAL LIME SLAKING PROCESS ...
,)~ . work, to obtain a detailed model of the process
lOO
~-- ~ ----~-~-------
5'
Tiltlil(mhJ
Figure 8. Measured and simulated temperatures
(Cebius) vs time (minutes) in Tank 1 and
Tank 2
Cl 5 10 15 ~o 30
Tlm& (min)
Figure 9. Simulation of the moisture content ZH
and the total degree of conversion sc in
Tank 1 and Tank 2 after the step response.
6. CONCLUDING REiI,lARKS
In this work a model is developed for an industrial
lime slaking process. The model is based on a
mixture of physical modeling, such as the mass
and heat balances, and process identification. The
local reaction rate g(x, T) and the water evap-
oration are parts in the model that have been
estimated from experimental data.
From a control perspective, it is interesting to ob-
serve .vhat process disturbances that are relevant.
In an industrial lime slaking process the quality
of the incoming lime may fluctuate and hence
the local reaction rate g(x, T) will vary in time.
During the experiments on t.he pilot plant slakeI'
the problem of maintaining a constant lime inflow
was observed, i.e. the input signal QAW(t) may be
exposed to a process disturbance.
Industrial lime slaking is a mmpIex process and
a challenging task to model. The modeling of
the mass balances (6) and_ (8), the estimation
of the local reactiou rate g(x, T) in Section 2.2,
and t.he choice of reactor model in Section 3, are
areas that are dealt wit.h thoroughly. In other
Copyright 1999 IF AC
14th World Congress oflFAC
parts it was not possible, within the scope of this
- behavior. For instance , the estimation of the water
evaporation flow from the slaker is an area that
can be improved and refined. However, the model
has been developed for the purpose of a robust
control design and, as is shown in the eoncluding
example, the lIlodel reflect.s the most import.ant
parts of the dynamic behavior of the process.
7. REFERENCES
Adrover, A. and M . Giona (1997). Solu-
tion of unsteady-state shrinking-core lIlod-
els by means of speetral/fixed-point meth-
ods: Nonuniform rectant distribution and
nonlinear kinetics. Ind. Ent;. Chem. Res
36(6), 2452-24G5.
Bhatia, S.K. and D.D . Perlmutter (1980). A ran-
dom pore model for fluid-solid reactions: I.
Isothermal, kinetic contml. AICltE Journal
26(3), 379-386.
Bhat.ia, S.K. and D.D . Perlmutter (1981). A ran-
dom pore model for fluid-solid reactions: n.
Diffusion and transport. effeets. AIChE JO'U1"-
na.l 27(2),247- 254.
Imbien, A., A. Toquero and M.l. Ortiz (1989).
Kinetic behaviour of non-isot.hermallimc hy-
dration, The Chemical Engineering J01L1"1l.al
J5 ... 0
40 , 93-99.
LindgaTde, O. (1998). Estimation of the local reac-
tion rate of lime slaking. Technical Report 21.
ITN, Vaxje) University College. \Vritten in
Swedish.
Lindgarde, O. and £1"1. Lenclls (1998). Modcling a
lime slaking process. Technical report. ITN,
Va.xjii Univer~ity College. To appear.
Lindgarde, 0" P. Andersson and M. LeneIIs
(1098). Modcling a non-stationary ideal tank
reac.tor with segregated flow. Technical Re-
port 8. ITN. Vaxjo University College.
Smith, J.1\1. (1981). Chemical Engineering Kinet-
ics. third cd .. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Sohn , H.Y. and P.C. Chaubal (1986), Approxi-
mate closed-form solutions to various model
equations for fluid-solid reactions. AIChE
Journal 32(9), 1574- 1.578.
Appendix A. PARAMETER VALUES
Cl'A = 42.8 J /mol/K, C pE == 75.5 J /mol/K
Cpc = 89.6 Jimol/K, C pw = 1 J/g/K
AfA = 56.08 g/mol, Ma = 18.02 g/mol
M c = 74.09 g/mol, RA = 85.8 gig
T;\ = 18 DC, TB = 11.5 °C
T ref = 25 DC, VI = 27.5 . 1O- l m 3
v~ = 43 . 10- 3 m 3 , PA = 13.6· 10 3 mol/m 3
fiB = 55.5· 10 3 mol/m 3 , Pc = 4 .4 . 10 3 mol/m 3
D..,.H(Tref) = -65 kJ / moI, L:.vapH = 40.6G kJ/mol
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