Abstract: A method for heating a chip slurry in a pulping system including an impregnation vessel and a chemical digesting vessel, the method including: impregnating chips in the impregnation vessel with a liquor; transporting the chips from the impregnation vessel to an upper elevation of the digester vessel; extracting liquor from a lower elevation of the digester vessel, wherein the extracted liquor has a temperature substantially higher than a temperature of the chips being transported to the upper elevation of the digester vessel, and adding extracted liquor from the lower elevation of the digester vessel to the chips being transported from the impregnation vessel to the digester vessel.

Abstract: A pressurized torrefaction reactor vessel including: a rotatable shaft extending vertically down from a top of the vessel; scraper devices each at a different elevation within the vessel and mounted to the shaft; a tray associated with each one of the scraper devices such that the scraper device is immediately above a tray of the tray assembly; wherein the tray is an open mesh and impermeable to passage of biomass through the tray; each tray includes a discharge opening to transfer biomass from the tray and down to a tray of a lower one of the tray assemblies, and wherein the discharge opening in the lowermost tray assembly transfers the biomass to a pile of the biomass in the vessel, and a bottom discharge port of the vessel through which the torrefied biomass is discharged.

Abstract: A method for torrefaction of lignocellulosic biomass comprising: continuously feeding the biomass to an upper inlet to the torrefaction reactor vessel such that the biomass material is deposited on an upper tray assembly of tray assemblies stacked vertically within the reactor; as the biomass moves over each tray assembly, heating and drying the biomass material with a non-oxidizing gas under a pressure of at least 3 bar gauge and at a temperature of at least 200° C.; cascading the biomass down through the trays by passing the biomass through an opening in each of the trays to deposit the biomass on the tray of the next lower tray assembly; discharging torrefied biomass from a lower outlet of the torrefaction reactor, and circulating gas extracted from the reactor vessel back to the reactor.

Abstract: A scrubber removes matter (e.g., particulate, gaseous, or liquid) from a gas stream in order to recover the matter and/or to clean the gas. In particular aspects, the scrubber contains multiple venturis that may provide additional flexibility and increased efficiency. The invention also pertains to related methods.

Abstract: A method for torrefaction of biomass using a torrefaction reactor vessel having stacked trays including: feeding the biomass to an upper inlet of the vessel; cascading the biomass down through the trays by passing the biomass through an opening in each of the trays to deposit the biomass on a lower tray; heating the biomass material with an oxygen deprived gas; extracting moisture from below each of the upper trays; as the biomass undergoes torrefaction in the lower trays retaining the gas with the biomass until the biomass falls from the stacked trays to a pile of biomass in the reactor vessel; exhausting gases containing organic compounds through a gas outlet at an elevation between the stacked trays and the pile of biomass, and discharging torrefied biomass from the torrefaction reactor vessel.

Abstract: A storm brake for a truck assembly supporting a large industrial device, wherein the truck assembly includes a truck chassis having a mount to support the device and a wheel engaging a raceway along which the truck assembly and device are to travel, the storm brake including: a storm brake shoe pivotably mounted to the truck chassis, wherein the storm brake shoe has a first pivot position in which the brake does not engage the raceway and a second pivot position in which the brake engages the raceway, wherein the storm brake shoe pivots in a direction generally aligned with a direction movement of the truck assembly along the raceway; an actuator having an extendable linkage coupled to the storm brake shoe and at an opposite end to a fixed mounting on the truck chassis, wherein extension of the linkage pivots the storm brake from the first position to the second position, and the fixed mounting provides a slidable engagement between the opposite end of the actuator and the truck chassis.

Abstract: A refining plate segment for a mechanical refiner of lignocellulosic material including: a convex conical refining surface on a convex conical substrate of the plate, wherein the refining surface is adapted to face a concave conical refining surface of an opposing refiner plate, the convex conical refining surface including bars and grooves formed between adjacent bars, wherein an angle of each bar with respect to a reference line parallel to a rotational axis of the refiner increases at least 15 degrees and the angle is a holdback angle is 10 to 45 degrees at a periphery of the refining surface, and wherein the bars each include a leading sidewall having an irregular surface having protrusions extending outwardly from the sidewall toward a sidewall on an adjacent bar.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to a method for treating a biomass comprising a lignocellulosic material to produce fermentable sugars comprising the steps of treating the biomass to produce a biomass with a depolymerized lignin, adding a carbonyl scavenger to the biomass before, during, or after said treating step to inhibit repolymerization of the lignin, adding at least one of a laccase enzyme and a cellulases enzyme to the biomass with depolymerized lignin subsequently to the addition of the carbonyl scavenger, and producing a fermentable sugar from the action of the laccase enzyme and cellulases enzyme on the biomass with depolymerized lignin.

Abstract: A refining plate segment for a mechanical refiner of lignocellulosic material including: a refining surface on a substrate, wherein the refining surface faces a refining surface of an opposing refiner plate, the refining surface including bars and grooves between the bars, wherein an angle of each bar with respect to a radial line corresponding to the bar increases at least 15 degrees along a radially outward direction, and the angle is a holdback angle in a range of 10 to 45 degrees at the periphery of the refining surface, and wherein the bars each include a leading sidewall having an irregular surface, wherein the irregular surface includes protrusions extending outwardly from the sidewall towards a sidewall on an adjacent bar and the irregular surface extends from at or near the outer periphery of the refining surface extends radially inwardly along the bars without reaching an inlet of the refining surface.

Abstract: A biomass cooking device including: a treatment vessel having an biomass inlet adapted to receive biomass material to a processing chamber of the vessel, a biomass outlet adapted to discharge from the processing chamber the biomass material processed in the vessel, an extraction region of the vessel and a liquids outlet to the extraction region to discharge dissolved hemi-cellulosic material extracted from the biomass material in the processing chamber; a piston press in the cooking vessel defining a moveable wall of the processing chamber, wherein the piston press moves to reduce the processing chamber and thereby compress the biomass material; and a screen plate in the vessel forming a barrier between the processing chamber and an extraction region of the vessel, the screen plate having apertures to pass the dissolved hemi-cellulosic material through the screen plate from the processing chamber to the extraction region.

Abstract: A scrubber removes matter (e.g., particulate, gaseous, or liquid) from a gas stream in order to recover the matter and/or to clean the gas. In particular aspects, the scrubber contains multiple venturis that may provide additional flexibility and increased efficiency. The invention also pertains to related methods.

Abstract: A mechanical pulping apparatus including: a pre-treatment defibration device receiving comminuted cellulosic material; a primary refiner receiving the comminuted cellulosic material discharged from the pre-treatment defibration device; a source of a biological agent; a first conduit from the source of the biological agent coupled to pre-treatment defibration device, wherein the first conduit delivers the biological agent to or immediately upstream of an inlet to the defibration device; a source of a chemical agent, and a second conduit from the source of the chemical agent coupled to primary refiner, wherein the second conduit delivers the chemical agent to the primary refiner.

Abstract: A deflaker plate for use in a deflaker for reducing fibrous flakes in a slurry of fibers. The deflaker plate may include at least one annular ring consisting of multiple teeth, in which at least one tooth has a leading face, a trailing face, and an impact-generating side-face. The impact-generating side-face may be adapted to generate an impact force during operation, such that the force corresponds to a first vector radially pushing the slurry towards a center of the deflaker and a second vector tangentially pushing the slurry towards the leading face.

Abstract: A method of mechanically refining lignocellulosic material in a refiner having opposing refiner plates including: introducing the material to an inlet in one of the opposing refiner plates; rotating at least one of the plates with respect to the other plate, wherein the material moves radially outward through a gap between the plates due to centrifugal forces created by the rotation; as the material moves through the gap, passing the material over bars in a refiner zone of a first one the plates, each bar in the refiner zone having a leading face and an upper ridge, wherein the leading face includes a sidewall of the bar facing a direction of rotation of the opposing plate and the leading edge has an interior angle of between 150 degrees to 175 degrees, and discharging the material from the gap at a periphery of the refiner plates.

Abstract: Systems are provided for continuously producing chemical cellulose pulp from a slurry of comminuted hardwood material by subjecting the slurry of comminuted hardwood material to a first cooking stage under conditions sufficient to reduce syringyl lignin (s-lignin) content in the hardwood material as compared to guaiacyl lignin (g-lignin) content therein, and thereafter subjecting the slurry of comminuted hardwood material to a second cooking stage under conditions sufficient to reduce the g-lignin content remaining therein after the first cooking stage.

Abstract: A method to disrupt a smelt flow including: arranging a shatter jet nozzle assembly to direct a jet of disrupting fluid against the smelt flowing from a recovery boiler to a dissolving tank; supplying the disrupting fluid to the shatter jet nozzle assembly from a first source of disrupting fluid to form the jet directed against the smelt flow while a second source does not provide disrupting fluid to the shatter jet nozzle, and supplying the disrupting fluid from both the first source and the second source flow to the shatter jet nozzle assembly to form the jet of disrupting fluid directed against the smelt flow.

Abstract: A mechanical pulping method including: defibrating a comminuted cellulosic material; mechanically refining the defibrated cellulosic material in a primary refining step; introducing to the cellulosic material at least one of a chemical agent and a biological during the defibration step or the mechanical refining step, and producing pulp from the refined and defibrated cellulosic material.

Abstract: A vacuum drum washer including: a cylindrical drum including a screen and deck defining an exterior cylindrical surface; a plurality of outer filtrate channels disposed inward of the screen, the outer filtrate channels extending along a longitudinal axis of the drum and substantially an entire length of the drum; an radial array of filtrate end conduits extending radially inward from the outer filtrate channels towards a rotational axis of the drum, the radial filtrate conduits have an inlet positioned at a first end of the drum and draining filtrate from the outer filtrate channels; a filtrate chamber at the first end of the drum and receiving filtrate discharged from the end conduits, and an array of radial filtrate drainage conduits coupled to receive filtrate from the filtrate channels, the drainage conduits each having an inlet proximate to the filtrate channels, the inlets are arranged between a center of the drum and a second end of the drum, and the radial drainage conduits directing filtrate to the f

Abstract: A reactor vessel including: an upper inlet and a bottom discharge; a generally vertically oriented sidewall between the upper inlet and bottom discharge, wherein the sidewall defines a perimeter of an interior flow passage in the vessel; a first pair of support plates arranged on opposite sides of the sidewall, wherein the first pair of support plates reduces a cross-sectional flow area of the flow passage in a first single direction of convergence, and a second pair of support plates arranged on opposite sides of the side wall, wherein the second pair of support plates reduces a cross-sectional flow are of the flow passage in a second single direction of convergence, wherein the second single direction is angularly offset to the first single direction, and the second pair of support plates is at a different elevation of the vessel than the first pair of support plates.

Abstract: A prehydrolysis of wood chips or other lignocellulosic material in a vessel having a gaseous portion and a liquid portion. The vessel includes at least one stress relieving piece that inhibits overcompression of the lignocellulosic material. The vessel operates in a continuous process. A slurry of lignocellulosic material and liquid is removed from the bottom of the vessel.