Design of a Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustor for Lignin- Rich Residue Derived From Second-Generation Bioethanol Production Plant

Abstract

The present paper reports on the design of a pilot circulating fluidized bed combustor (CFB) for the conversion of lignin-rich residue derived from a second-generation bioethanol production plant. The designed combustor aims to improve the combustion efficiency of the lignin-rich residue, therefore increasing the heat recovery to partially cover the biorefinery’s heat consumption.Among the existing technologies, the fluidized bed combustion shows several advantages, in particular the fuel flexibility and the higher combustion efficiency mainly due to the presence of an inert material that uniforms the temperature and enhance the reactants mixing. The CFB differs from the bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) for the higher velocity of the oxidizer in the reactor, resulting in a better gas-solid mixing and higher burning rate (Basu 2015). Hence, by providing enhanced fuel conversion rate is and reduced reaction time, the characteristics of this apparatus meet the requirements for a more efficient combustion of the lignin-rich residue.The CFB combustor is mainly composed by a vertical combustion chamber (riser), a solid gas-particle separator (cyclone) and a solid particles recirculation system (recirculation valve or loop seal valve). The design process followed some consequential steps. The first step involved the theoretical 1D modeling of thereactor. Considering the project constraints of maximum plant capacity (5 kg h-1) and the consequentmaximum thermal power, the geometry was chosen correlating some literature data to obtain a riser diameter of DN100 and a riser height of 3500 mm. Besides, energy and mass balances were carried out to obtain air mass flowrate data, which has an impact on the hydrodynamic study of the fluidized bed. After the geometry selection and the stoichiometric calculation, a mono-dimensional empirical model was implemented to estimate the physical behavior of the bed particles (Basu 2015), (Kunii & Levenspiel 1991). The main output of the model is the voidage fraction profile along the riser. Further important outcomes of the model are the pressure drop along the riser and the solid recirculating rate. The latter is the main input parameter for the design of the cyclone and the loop seal valve. The second step was focused on the realization of the Piping and Instrumentation Diagram selecting the measurement instruments (thermocouples, pressure transducers and flowmeters) and the ancillary equipment (blower pumps, valves and pipes). In the third step, a three- dimensional CAD model was drawn for the design of the mechanical parts including the choice of the materials and the layout. The last step involved the project of the control logic and the hardware for the data acquisition system.The results of combustion tests on the circulating fluidized bed prototype will be used to gain insights into the combustion process of the lignin-rich residue, in the perspective of an industrial scale up to increase the efficiency of the energy recovery.