Equipment protecting enclosures

摘要

Biomass (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) is processed to produce useful intermediates and products, such as energy, fuels, foods or materials. For example, systems and methods are described that can be used to treat feedstock materials, such as cellulosic and/or lignocellulosic materials, in a vault in which the equipment is protected from radiation and hazardous gases by equipment enclosures. The equipment enclosures may be purged with gas.

主权项

1. A method of protecting material processing equipment, the method comprising;
conveying a biomass material under an electron beam on a conveyor; and enclosing motor components in an equipment enclosure that does not surround the conveyor and that is opaque to ionizing radiation; and purging the enclosure with a gas selected from the group consisting of oxygen reduced air, nitrogen, argon, helium, carbon dioxide, and mixtures thereof.