Abstract
A Crumbler® rotary shear system was recently developed to process fuel-grade woodchips into feedstocks having more uniform particle sizes for improved flowability and higher thermochemical output yield than a traditional hammer mill. It represents a significant innovation in the state of the art of biomass comminution equipment. However, the milling unit has experienced significant abrasive wear of the feeding teeth and cutters when processing hard and dusty feedstocks, such as logging residue and corn stover. Here, we present initial simulation results from a finite-element stress analysis of the rotary shear, which is used to investigate the dynamics of interaction between the cutters and woodchips. This is the first step for optimizing the cutter design to improve the system lifetime and processing efficiency, thus reducing downtime and improving overall productivity.
Highlights
Variability in the size and shape of fuel-grade woodchips is a major source of inconsistent feed rate, flow plug, and poor flow into bioconversion reactors
The stress results of the woodchip and cutter interaction were collected to verify the contact pressures at the interface during the simulation time span of 0.2 ms
Without cutters displayed in these figures, contact regions 2 and 3 are pointed out in Figure 9A to indicate the woodchip’s location in this system
Summary
Variability in the size and shape of fuel-grade woodchips is a major source of inconsistent feed rate, flow plug, and poor flow into bioconversion reactors. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Solid Biofuel Standard 17,225-9 “Graded hog fuel and woodchips for industrial use” allows a percentage of chips up to 150 mm length in each liter of the sample (International Organizatio, 2020). Allowable, such chips trigger bridging and jams in feed-handling systems. The solution is to replace the traditional hammer or knife mills with rotary shear mills, which can reduce the size and shape variability such that yields of desired chemicals are maximized and feeding issues are minimized
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