On Peat Production Capacity in Verkhoyansky District, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic

Abstract

The article analyzes the possible substitution of long-range coal with peat fuel in boilerhouses of Batagai settlement, the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, and technical and ecological problems that arise. Potential in-situ resources for permafrost production of moulded solid fuel with peat are examined. The study introduces two options of peat fuel production for boilerhouses: peat milling and sod peat moulding. Experimental work on sod peat drying shows that sod peat can be cut and dried to the conditioned moisture content in northern Yakutia but it is inexpedient both technologically and ecologically. A flowsheet of sod peat hydromechanised production from lacustrine peat is presented. According to it peat mass is scarified, diluted with lake water, sucked in by a pump dredge, and then pumped through a sludge line onto the lakeside where it is dehydrated in geotubes to have moulding moisture. Dehydrated geotubes are cut and peat mass is loaded into a peat spreader which stir and shape it into cylindrical peat sods, then spread it on a drying field. Further the process follows the conventional technology of harrowing, ridging, and covering dried peat.