Assessment of sensible heat storage and fuel utilization efficiency enhancement in rubber sheet drying

Abstract

A sensible heat storage unit was tested in the conventional method of rubber drying. The heat storage unit gradually releases the heat to the rubber sheet smoke room. This retains temperature in the range (40–60°C) for prolonging storage in the smoke room. Therefore, the frequent supply of wood to the furnace is trimmed down. Effects of the heat storage brick stack height on heat storage characteristics and applications for rubber sheet drying were investigated. The experiments were conducted at three heat storage heights, 50, 100, and 150cm. For all cases, the temperature of the brick stack was found to increase sharply during the initial period and remained constant for a period of time before slowly declining. This is a result of the heat storage system that maintains the high temperature by slightly releasing the generated heat. Thermal efficiencies of heat storage system varied between 33 and 28% for the heights of 50 to 150cm. The drying time of the rubber sheets using 100cm heat storage was 78h, while the thermal efficiency of the drying system was 6.71%. The frequency of wood addition was reduced from about five to six times per day to one time or less per day.