Bagasse Dryer Role in the Energy Recovery of Water Tube Boilers

The sugar and ethanol industry, which uses sugarcane as raw material, utilizes the by-product, bagasse, as fuel. The bagasse is fed with a moisture content of 50% (w.b). Dryers are not being used in the way it is proposed here. This article proposes the introduction of bagasse dryers connected to the energy recovery system of the boilers operating with the exhaust gases. The combination of the dryer with other thermal energy recovery devices, such as an air heater and economizer, is considered. The performance improvement is evaluated. Costs are also taken into account. Finally, an optimized solution for the boiler energy recovery system is proposed.27458759

Sugar cane bagasse drying - a review

Sugar cane bagasse is the only fuel used in the sugar-alcohol industry in Brazil, the world's leading sugar cane producer. The sugar-alcohol industry produces cogenerated electrical energy for its own consumption and the surplus is sold to the market. Improving the use of bagasse in furnaces is currently an important industrial strategy. The topic has aroused great interest due to an increase in the cogeneration level in recent years. This work reviews the state of the art of sugar cane bagasse drying.1081291381

Model-free kinetics applied to sugarcane bagasse combustion

Vyazovkin's model-free kinetic algorithms were applied to determine conversion, isoconversion and apparent activation energy to both dehydration and combustion of sugarcane bagasse. Three different steps were detected with apparent activation energies of 76.1 +/- 1.7, 333.3 +/- 15.0 and 220.1 +/- 4.0 kJ/mol in the conversion range of 2-5%, 15-60% and 70-90%, respectively. The first step is associated with the endothermic process of drying and release of water. The others correspond to the combustion (and carbonization) of organic matter (mainly cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and the combustion of the products of pyrolysis. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.448211111