Fluidized-bed incineration of paper pellets

Abstract

Co-combustion of paper pellets and propane gas has been investigated in inert fluidized-beds of silica and alumina particles in the temperature range 1055–1289 K. Forty-eight combustion runs have been conducted to establish the influence of such operating parameters as the fuel feed rate, bed temperature, superficial fluidizing gas velocity, and excess air values on carbon combustion and thermal combustion efficiencies. These combustion efficiencies have been computed on the basis of mass and energy balance relations and, in addition, require the knowledge of air and fuel feed rates together with their flue gas compositions. The quality of the bed fluidization is characterized on the basis of pressure-drop fluctuation history records which are employed to compute several statistical functions, such as standard deviation, probability density function, skewness, kurtosis, autocorrelation function, and power spectral density function. The optimum conditions for incineration have been identified, and carbon monoxide emission from the incinerator is always found to be well within the limit set by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.