Development of a small-scale reactor for upgraded biofuel pellets

Alok Dhaundiyal, Gabor Bercesi, Divine Atsu and Laszlo Toth

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 170, issue C, 1197-1214

Abstract: The comprehensive investigation of a pyrolysis reactor has been conducted on the basis of thermal engineering design. The gas dynamics, thermodynamic, and psychrometric behaviour of the producer gas have been thoroughly assessed. The pilot-scale reactor has been programmed to operate at the temperature 973 K in the absence of an inert medium. The concentric casing of the heating filament has been used as an external source of energy. The experimental task is divided into two parts: upgradation of biomass and the decomposition of pellets in a developed small-scale pyrolysis unit for the possible gas, char, and pyrolysis oil generation. The fuel upgradation is performed via quasi-static torrefaction of pine pellets using Joule heating in the presence of nitrogen gas. The volumetric gas of nitrogen flowing across the improvised furnace is 0.70 L·min−1. The obtained results are compared with the wood pellets. The unsaturated producer gas has been found to vary accordingly to the following gas equation pv0.25=C and pv−0.69=C for the processed pine pellets and wood pellets, respectively. A relative increase of 21.00% has been seen while running the reactor with the processed pine pellets. The percentage yield of the pyrolytic oil for the processed pine and wood pellets is 10.48% and 30.00% respectively. The flame temperature and adiabatic flame temperature of the producer gas (processed pine) is lowered by 8.10% and 17.00% respectively. The energy yield of processed pinechar is found to be 122.58% higher than that of wood char.

Keywords: Torrefaction; Gas generation; Thermal; Gas dynamics; Psychrometry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:170:y:2021:i:c:p:1197-1214

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.02.057

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