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UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

Utilisation of Bagasse
Zengani Chabinga, James Gascoine, Holly Keir, Roddy Mackay, Innes MacLennan, Ross Murphy

Abstract
Worldwide sugarcane processing levels are already high, but with companies and governments looking for more new and innovative technologies to ease environmental constraints this usage is set to rise. With this growth, the amounts of the fibrous by-product bagasse produced will also amplify. This project looks into the utilisation of this by product and aims to investigate the production of activated carbon, pulp for paper production and cogeneration technologies further.

Section: Abstract Author (s):Roddy Mackay

Executive Summary
The global use and manufacture of biofuels has been, and still is, growing rapidly. In the current economic and environmental climates the need for a cheap, green alternative to diminishing fossil fuel reserves has been well documented. Over a billion tonnes of sugarcane were produced globally last year. Bagasse is a fibrous by-product from sugarcane crushing and has many possible uses, some of which have been investigated throughout this report to determine the best way to make use of this highly useful by-product. Initially a broader view was taken over all of the possible uses of the bagasse, to give a fair idea of the options available to anyone producing large amounts of bagasse from a sugarcane process. The scale of the design for each of the chosen processes was taken from the amount of bagasse produced at a conventional sugar mill. Cogeneration systems were identified as one of the most profitable options for further processing. These are systems where the bagasse is used to produce two or more types of energy, mainly heat and power, hence the name cogeneration. Two direct combustion processes as well as a gasification process were investigated, through looking into material and energy balances over the systems. A basic environmental and economic analysis was carried out over the cogeneration systems to give an idea of the merits and drawbacks of these options. Another of the most popular uses of bagasse is as a raw material for the production of activated carbon in its granular form. The main method for this process involves the pyrolysis of the bagasse to produce a char, which is then activated through excessive heating. Two activated carbon process options were evaluated, one being batch and the other being in continuous operation. As with the cogeneration systems a basic economic and environmental analysis was carried out, a decision on which of these options would prove to be the most favourable was then taken. Paper pulp production is another viable option and is very popular in many countries. In order to produce the paper pulp the bagasse must undergo several chemical purification stages, such as depithing, filtration and bleaching to achieve pulp of a satisfactory standard to make paper. Only one pulp production process was considered to give a rough idea of the basic workings of the process and the scope for any adoption of this scheme. The best option for the use of the bagasse was determined after evaluating all the process, economic and environmental aspects of each option. It was found that economically a continuous activated carbon process would produce the greatest revenue. Energy wise a gasification process has the potential to generate huge amounts of energy.

Section: Executive Summary Authors: Roddy MacKay

Table of Contents
1. Bagasse Uses ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 2 3 Pulp and Paper Production ........................................................................................................... 1 Eating Utensils............................................................................................................................... 2 Furfural.......................................................................................................................................... 2 Xylitol ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Plastics........................................................................................................................................... 3 Animal Feed .................................................................................................................................. 3 Enzyme production ....................................................................................................................... 4 Ethanol Production ....................................................................................................................... 4 Cleaning up of oil spills.................................................................................................................. 5 Bio-oil ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Cogeneration................................................................................................................................. 5

Bagasse Availability ............................................................................................................................... 7 Cogeneration....................................................................................................................................... 10 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 10 Definition .................................................................................................................................... 10 Why Cogeneration? .................................................................................................................... 11 Current technologies for biomass cogeneration ........................................................................ 12 Steam turbine systems........................................................................................................ 12 Steam engine systems......................................................................................................... 13 Internal combustion engine systems (reciprocating engines) ............................................ 13 Micro turbines..................................................................................................................... 13 Combined Cycle systems..................................................................................................... 14 Stirling engines .................................................................................................................... 14 Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) .............................................................................................. 15

3.4.1 3.4.2 3.4.3 3.4.4 3.4.5 3.4.6 3.4.7 3.5 4

Biomass conversion technologies ............................................................................................... 16

Activated carbon ................................................................................................................................. 18 4.1 4.2 4.3 Uses ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Types ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Raw Materials ............................................................................................................................. 19

4.4 4.5 4.6 5

Preparation ................................................................................................................................. 20 Physical Activation ...................................................................................................................... 21 Chemical Activation .................................................................................................................... 21

Mechanisms for Conversion of Bagasse to Activated Carbon ............................................................ 23 5.1 5.2 Physical........................................................................................................................................ 23 Chemical...................................................................................................................................... 24

6 7

Basis of Design .................................................................................................................................... 26 Process schemes for bagasse cogeneration ....................................................................................... 27 7.1 Direct combustion....................................................................................................................... 27 Boiler System ...................................................................................................................... 27 Back Pressure Steam Turbine Description .......................................................................... 30 Condensing Extraction Steam Turbine (CEST) System ........................................................ 33

7.1.1 7.1.2 7.1.3 7.2

Gasification ................................................................................................................................. 36 Problems ............................................................................................................................. 36 Process ................................................................................................................................ 36 Material and Energy Balance .............................................................................................. 42

7.2.1 7.2.2 7.2.3 7.3

Gas Turbine ................................................................................................................................. 46 Theory ................................................................................................................................. 46 Efficiency: Inlet Cooling ....................................................................................................... 47 Efficiency: Regeneration Effect ........................................................................................... 51 Inter-cooling and Reheat .................................................................................................... 51 Steam Injection ................................................................................................................... 52

7.3.1 7.3.2 7.3.3 7.3.4 7.3.5 7.4 7.5

Steam Turbine ............................................................................................................................. 53 Heat Recovery Steam Generators............................................................................................... 54 Economizer.......................................................................................................................... 55 Evaporator........................................................................................................................... 56 Superheater ........................................................................................................................ 56 Layout of HRSGs ................................................................................................................. 56 Supplementary and Auxiliary Fired Boilers ......................................................................... 57 Safety .................................................................................................................................. 57

7.5.1 7.5.2 7.5.3 7.5.4 7.5.5 7.5.6 7.6

Combined Cycle .......................................................................................................................... 58 Theory ................................................................................................................................. 58

7.6.1

7.7

Configuration .............................................................................................................................. 59 Single and Mulit-Shaft ......................................................................................................... 59

7.7.1 7.8 7.9

Tri-Generation............................................................................................................................. 61 Integrated Biomass Gasification Combined Cycle ...................................................................... 62 Process ................................................................................................................................ 62

7.9.1 8

Activated Carbon Processes ................................................................................................................ 64 8.1 8.2 Steam activated continuous process .......................................................................................... 64 Batch process for Activated Carbon............................................................................................ 68

Paper Pulp Production ........................................................................................................................ 69 9.1 9.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 69 Process Scheme .......................................................................................................................... 69 Environmental Issues ...................................................................................................................... 72 Activated Carbon ........................................................................................................................ 72 Cogeneration............................................................................................................................... 72 Greenhouse Gas Emissions ................................................................................................. 72 Cogeneration and the CDM ................................................................................................ 72 Combustion versus composting .......................................................................................... 73 Fuel Efficiency ..................................................................................................................... 73 Gasification ......................................................................................................................... 74

10 10.1 10.2

10.2.1 10.2.2 10.2.3 10.2.4 10.2.5 10.3 11 11.1

Pulp and Paper ............................................................................................................................ 74 Economics ....................................................................................................................................... 75 Activated Carbon ........................................................................................................................ 75 Activated carbon continuous process material costs ......................................................... 75

11.1.1 11.2

Cogeneration............................................................................................................................... 77 Overview ............................................................................................................................. 78 Government Policies ........................................................................................................... 80 Steam Requirement ............................................................................................................ 81 Bagasse Importing ............................................................................................................... 81 Economic Process Analysis.................................................................................................. 81 Steam .................................................................................................................................. 81 Power .................................................................................................................................. 82 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 82

11.2.1 11.2.2 11.2.3 11.2.4 11.2.5 11.2.6 11.2.7 11.2.8

11.3 12

Pulp ............................................................................................................................................. 83 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 85

A. Cogeneration Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 86 A.1 Cogeneration Boiler System ............................................................................................................. 86 A.1.1 Material and Energy Balance ..................................................................................................... 86 A.2 Back Pressure Steam Turbine Calculations ....................................................................................... 92 A.3 CEST Material and Energy Balance ................................................................................................... 95 A.3.1 Condenser and Pump Energy Balance ....................................................................................... 98 A.3.2 Direct Combustion Economics ................................................................................................... 99 A.5 Gasification Cogeneration .............................................................................................................. 105 A.5.1 Energy Required to Dry Bagasse .............................................................................................. 105 A.5.2 Combustion of Methane .......................................................................................................... 105 A.5.5 Gasification of Char.................................................................................................................. 106 A.5.6 Gasification of Carbon Monoxide ............................................................................................ 107 A.5.7 Total Mass of Hydrogen Produced .......................................................................................... 108 A.5.8 Energy Produced from Combustion of Methane..................................................................... 108 A.5.9 Maximum Energy Content of Syngas....................................................................................... 109 A.5.9 Average Energy Content of Syngas .......................................................................................... 109 A.5.10 Net Gain In Electricity ............................................................................................................ 110 B. Activated Carbon Appendix .................................................................................................................. 112 B.1 Material Balances ........................................................................................................................... 112 B.1.1 Continuous Activated Carbon Process ..................................................................................... 112 B.1.2 Batch Activated Carbon Process .............................................................................................. 118 B.2 Energy Balances .............................................................................................................................. 122 B.2.1 Continuous activated carbon process...................................................................................... 122 B.3 Economics for Activated carbon continuous process ..................................................................... 132 C. Pulp Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 135 C.1 Material Balance for Pulp and Paper Production ........................................................................... 135 C.2 Energy balances for Pulp and Paper Production ............................................................................ 139 C.3 Paper Pulp Economics ..................................................................................................................... 145 D. Minutes ................................................................................................................................................. 157

1. Bagasse Uses
Bagasse is a fibrous residue left after the crushing and extraction of juice from the sugar cane. It contains approximately 50% cellulose, 25% hemicelluloses and 25% lignin although it can vary due to various different factors such as the soil conditions, climate conditions during harvesting of the sugar cane even the way in which the sugar cane is harvested can affect the composition (1) (2). It is a byproduct of the sugar industry and has potential to be converted to other products (2). The production of bagasse is most common in tropical countries, in India alone approximately 3.5 million tones of dry bagasse are produced per year. It is also popular to produce bagasse in Asia, Africa, Cuba, Brazil, Peru and the Dominican Republic (3). As bagasse is a byproduct from sugar processing as well as being readily available it inevitably makes it a cheap resource. The sugar industries have recognized the potential of the by product from sugar cane and the under pinning aim of this report is to assess how this potential can be best utilized. Firstly we survey the uses of bagasse and review how bagasse can be chemically converted into other products such as Furfural. Further on in the report we will assess the alternative ways in which energy may be recovered from bagasse, one of which is through cogeneration which is further discussed later in the report. Then the current technology for cogeneration from biomass is discussed. Subsequently we compare and contrast various raw materials used to produce activated carbon, and go into further detail on the production of activated carbon from bagasse later in the report. Some of the wide uses for bagasse include; raw material for the paper and pulp production, production of eating utensils, formation of furfural and xylitol, plastics, animal feed, enzyme production, ethanol production, cleaning product as well as bio-oil. These uses are described below to highlight the extensive potential that bagasse has a raw material. 1.1 Pulp and Paper Production

Bagasse can be used as the fibrous raw material for the production of paper. The bagasse formed from sugar mills contains around 20% pith, which is not desired in the pulp and paper manufacturing industry, thus it must be removed by the depithing process. The pith is chemically similar to cellulose, however it does not have a fibrous structure (3). During the process epidermal cells and a large percentage of the silica is also removed, the efficiency of this is dependent of the cell composition of the bagasse. Without depithing the pulp produced would be slow draining and result in slow paper machine operation (3). Once the depithing is completed the bagasse is then pulped. The pulping of the bagasse can be carried out by both chemical and mechanical mechanisms (4). The technology for the pulping of bagasse is dependent on the end product desired. The most common technology used for high grade paper is Kraft and soda pulping processes (3). The resulting bagasse pulp bleached or non bleached can be used in a Section: Bagasse Uses Author(s): Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

2 variety of grades of paper from writing paper to wrapping paper (3). Due to bagasse pulps short fiber length it is usually requires the addition of longer chemical pulps, however there are grades of paper which contain 100% bagasse pulp which are of a high quality (3). The largest production of paper from bagasse is in Latin America where they produce approximately 500,000 tons of paper per year. Bagasse is an alternative to wood pulp, thus beneficial to those countries with limited wood supplies (3). However as bagasse can be used as a cheap available fuel source, the sugar industry generally burns the bagasse as fuel for boilers, which results in considerable carbon emissions (5). 1.2 Eating Utensils

Bagasse is a raw material for the production of cups, bowl and plates. Taiwan manufacture these from 70% bleached Kraft bagasse pulp and 30% non bleached Kraft paper. These eating utensils have the advantage of being biodegradable therefore they are environmentally friendly. 1.3 Furfural

Furfural is a colourless chemical solvent and when in the presence of light it turns a brownish colour. The production of furfural from bagasse is viable as it contains about 30% pentosans. The process involves the acid hydrolysis of bagasse with HCl, H2SO4 or acetic acid. This process results in the xylan producing xylose which then generates furfural by the loss of three molecules of water. The reaction is shown below in (6):

This method produces a 9-10% yield of furfural (6) but can reach a yield of 20% when producing from dry bagasse (1). It seems like a simple process however it involves several unit operations: a reactor, stripping column, separator, dewatering column and a condenser. The raw material enters the top of the reactor and the steam enters at the bottom and rises up counter currently at 1.5bar thus allowing the vapor phase to move to the condenser and then to the stripping column. This results in an effluent, which is lignin rich being contained at the bottom of the reactor. The stripping column splits the mixture into furfural and the vaporous by product which exits the column. The furfural which is in a water- vapor state is separated in the separator to form two layers, one which is rich in furfural and the other which is poor in furfural so is recycled back to the stripping column to be reprocessed. The resulting rich furfural layer is further concentrated into the final product furfural (1). Whether the production of furfural is viable economic is dependent upon the process parameters, the revival of solvents and the detailed steps. Furfural is being produced worldwide; South Africa is the biggest producer, producing 10,000 tons per year, 45% of that being from the feed stock bagasse. Section: Bagasse Uses Author(s): Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

3 1.4 Xylitol

As stated in section 1.3, bagasse contains approximately 30% pentosans. Xylitol is the pentahydric alcohol derived from xylose which is a pentose. Through acid digestion of bagasse about 13% is extracted as xylose. The mechanism for this process is shown below (6):

The 1st step from Xylan to D-Xylose is hydrolysis (molecule split by the reaction with water) and the 2nd step from D-Xylose to Xylitol is hydrogenation (treat with hydrogen). Xylitol occurs naturally in some popular fruits and vegetables for example: Xylitol (mg) Bananas 21 Carrots 87 Onion 89 Spinach 107 Eggplant 180 Strawberries 362 Table 1: mg of Xylitol/100g (6) Xylitol is not only a functional sweetener it can also be used for the treatment of diabetics (7). 1.5 Plastics

The most important component in bagasse for the production of plastics is the lignin. However the use of bagasse as a raw material for the production of plastic produces dark coloured plastic which can be seen as unattractive, therefore not likely to be successful within the competitive market (6). The production of bioplastics, involves the pretreatment of bagasse in dilute acid solution, thus releasing sugars and other hydrolysates. The next step involves utilisation of these hydrolysates by the use of an aerobic bacterium to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) (8). 1.6 Animal Feed

The most common product of bagasse is protein enriched animal feed (single cell protein). Bagasse can be used in animal feed either the only component or mixed with molasses, vitamins, medical treatment to create a feed which is specific to an animal or that animals need (1) (8). Traditionally animal feed was fed to the animals in bulk however as it has several associated disadvantages, such as loss due to contamination and the wind, it is now more commonly given in pellet form.

Section: Bagasse Uses Author(s): Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

4 However animal feed is extremely costly to store, yet sold for a low value. Therefore the commercial utilisation of bagasse for animal feed is fairly limited. 1.7 Enzyme production

Bagasse is used for the production of several important industrial enzymes. One example is cellulase which is made from fungi and bacteria. Amylase is another enzyme which can be produced from bagasse it is used to break up starch into sugar. Lipase is another example of an enzyme which can be produced from bagasse, it catalyses the hydrolysis of ester chemical bonds. 1.8 Ethanol Production

Bagasse can be used as a feedstock for the production of ethanol as it is both cheap and readily available. 300 liters of ethanol can be produced from one ton of bagasse, depending on the physical parameters of the process such as the quality of the feed supplied and the overall efficiency of the process (9). When ethanol is produced from only sugarcane, between 6000 and 7000 liters are produced for every hectare of sugarcane, but when bagasse is utilized for ethanol production along with sugarcane, there is the potential to more than double the output of ethanol to between 12000 and 15000 litres per hectare (9). Another reason why it is a popular feedstock for the bioconversion to ethanol is that it contains high quantities of carbohydrates and of lignin (8). In lignocellulosic materials like bagasse, the polysaccharide cellulose is present in the highest quantity. The cellulose can be hydrolysed to sugars in the presence of an acid catalyst or cellulolytic enzymes. Using enzymes instead of an acid catalyst is the preferred option as it produces better yields than when acid catalysts are used. As well as this due to biotechnology, enzyme manufacturers have greatly reduced the price of enzymes. The presence of lignin in bagasse makes it difficult for the cellulolytic enzymes to reach the cellulose, therefore the lignin must be decomposed before using white rot fungi, which decomposes the lingnin networks without losing to many polysaccharides (10). Hydrolyzing the cellulose is much harder than hydrolysing other polysaccharides. Due to the slow reaction rate, the complexity of the interfacial heterogeneous hydrolysis and the lack of a good reactor system for the reaction, the hydrolysis of cellulose is more difficult than that of other polysaccharides (10). The hydrolysis step also requires large amounts of cellulase enzymes for saccharification which is seen as a negative for the production of ethanol from bagasse. Once the sugars have been produced they are then fermented to produce ethanol. For the successful conversion of bagasse to ethanol, microorganisms must be present to ferment the glucose and xylose. The production of ethanol from bagasse is not economically viable at present, however a lot of research is being carried out to determine a more economical route.

Section: Bagasse Uses Author(s): Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

5 1.9 Cleaning up of oil spills

Since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, companies have been looking for new ways to increase the cleanup efforts such as using compost, mushrooms and hair and peat moss are all new ways that have been researched for using in oil spills (11). Bagasse is a very effective material for cleaning up oil spills in water; carbonized pith bagasse has a high sorption capacity for oils floating on water (12). There are many reasons why using carbonized pith bagasse as a method for cleaning up oil spills is useful such as; it can absorb up to 19.04g of heavy oil per gram of bagasse due to its very high sorption capacity, its fast rate of the sorption of oil as well as having a selective sorption of oils which have spilled in the water (12). To absorb the oil, bagasse fibres are spread across the surface of the water where oil has been spilled, the bagasse fibres then come together and create a mat like structure which doesnt sink in the water (13). Bagasse effectiveness as an absorbent is excellent; it holds the oil and doesnt let the water displace it. Professor Gary Breitenbeck from Louisianna State University created a process where bagasse and ammonia are forced together to produce nitrogen compounds that are used to convert the hydrocarbons trapped in the bagasse to humic material. Professor Breitenbeck says, With ammoniated bagasse, 98 percent of spilled oil will be gone within 90 days. (13) 1.10 Bio-oil The pyrolysis of bagasse produces bio-oil. As bagasse initially has a water content of approximately 50 wt% thus the bagasse must be dried prior to this step, the bagasse is generally dried by sunlight, and it is dried to below 10% wt. The next step is crushing of the bagasse which is carried out using a crushing machine to reduce the particle sizes to around 0.5-1mm (14). Then the pyrolysis can commence, the bagasse enters the reactor at a temperature of approximately 500oc and nitrogen gas passes up from the bottom to the top of the reactor, thus eliminating air therefore the pyrolysis reaction occurs under anaerobic conditions. The gas mixture is then passed through two condensers and the resulting oil will be collected below, and the excess gas which is not condensable will be collected by a gas bag. The resulting product composition is generally 65-72% oil, 15-20% solid char (which will remain in processes) and 12-18% the gases which do not condense (15). The oil formed is a dark brown colour, and can be used as an alternative to heavy fuel oil, light fuel oil or natural gas (14) 1.11 Cogeneration Biomass is a great renewable alternative to fossil fuels as a source of energy. When it is burned in large quantities it produces large amounts of energy. Bagasse used to be burned as a method of disposing of solid waste, but as coal, oil and gas prices rose, it was realized that bagasse has the potential to be an efficient biofuel. Bagasse is now commonly used as a fuel for the cogeneration of steam and electricity (16). The sugar industries have recognized the potential of bagasses gasification into energy although it is known for having low conversion efficiency. A lot of sugar industries are not only producing electricity for the use in their own factories but they also have excess energy so are exporting it, as can be seen in Table 2. Electrical energy exported by sugar factories. Section: Bagasse Uses Author(s): Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

Year Electricity export from bagasse (GWh) kWh/t cane 1993 70,5 13,0 1994 76,6 15,9 1995 84,1 16,3 1996 119,0 22,6 1997 124,6 21,5 Table 2. Electrical energy exported by sugar factories (17) The benefit of gasification over burning is that it is an environmentally cleaner method. The process of gasification of bagasse firstly involves the raw material (bagasse) entering a gasifier where the bagasse is partially combusted then gasified. Thus resulting in a mixture of gases; methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen forming. The mixture of gases then needs cleaned and cooled before being stored or flown to a gas turbine plant to produce electricity by burning the gas mixture in a gas cycle power plant. The energy and efficiency can increase dramatically with use of a gas turbine combined with a cycle steam turbine (18) . Most factories would avoid storing the bagasse as this would result in the decrease of its energy content.

Section: Bagasse Uses Author(s): Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

2 Bagasse Availability
Bagasse is the fibre that is left over after all the juice has been removed from sugarcane stalks. As sugarcane is generally only grown in warm tropical countries, the main countries that use bagasse are these hot tropical ones. These countries can be seen in Figure 1 which shows the main sugarcane producing countries in the world (19):

Figure 1-Top sugarcane producing countries As Brazil is the worlds leader in sugarcane production and is known for its efficiency in sugarcane production industry it will be discussed in more detail. As such a large volume of the worlds sugarcane is produced in Brazil, as a country it could have the ability to utilise the bagasse which is left over when crushing sugarcane to produce more energy. For sugarcane factories this could lead to massive energy savings and reduce the operating costs of the plant dramatically. Cogeneration is already being greatly utilised by Brazilian sugar cane and ethanol mills, with all of them being energy self sufficient due to their practical use of the bagasse by product. It can be seen from Figure 2 that sugarcane production has increased greatly almost every year since the 1970s, obviously this increase in sugarcane production leads to an increase in bagasse production.

Section: Bagasse Availability Authors: Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

Figure 2 - Brazilian sugarcane production If a bagasse utilisation plant was to be built it would be advisable to build in Brazil as the availability of bagasse is extremely high and due to the deregulation of the sugarcane industry the outlook for the utilisation of bagasse is tremendously promising. The deregulation of the sugarcane industry in Brazil has promoted the modernization of ports within Brazil, which in turn reduces the transport costs of bagasse. According to UNICA it has been estimated that by 2017 if all the bagasse in Brazil was used to its full potential, there would be an excess of 10000MW which could then be sold (20). The government in Brazil are promoting cogeneration within the country as they have recently opted into COP-15, a UN initiative of which the objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Cogeneration would help to meet the targets which were set by COP-15 (20). For this project the potential of the market for bagasse utilisation and its availability within Brazil has been recognised and for this reason it has been advised to build the plant in Brazil, as not only would the bagasse plant be self sufficient, but money could be made through the sale of electricity to the grid. Until recently, due to insufficient incentives to supply energy to the electricity grid because of very low or in some cases no buyback rate, up to 66% of all of bagasse produced went to waste (21). A combination of an activated carbon and cogeneration plant or a pulp production and cogeneration plant could optimise the economic potential. As can be seen from Figure 1 above, a large majority of the countries that grow sugarcane are very poor and under developed, therefore if bagasse was to be used for cogeneration within these countries, a large amount of the countries electricity could be derived from bagasse. This would not only help these countries economically but would also propel them forward socially as well. Increasing bagasse utilisation would in turn reduce the use of fossil fuels and therefore reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. This would help these poorer countries to meet the targets that are set by the Kyoto protocol and give a monetary value to the reduction of these greenhouse gas emissions. It may be quite surprising to hear that Brazil is the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse Section: Bagasse Availability Authors: Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

9 gases in the world; this is partly due to deforestation which is responsible for almost half of the total emissions because half of the energy obtained in the country is from renewable resources. Deforestation occurs as the timber is used for paper production, however if the bagasse from sugar cane production was used more efficiently then this can be pulped and thus converted to paper which would result in a slow down of deforestation.

Section: Bagasse Availability Authors: Holly Keir and Innes MacLennan

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Cogeneration

3.1 Introduction
In this chapter of the report an overview of the various cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) technologies using biomass is given. The proposed technologies and process schemes for conversion of sugarcane bagasse are then covered in more detail, supported by material and energy balances given in the appendices.

3.2 Definition
Cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power (CHP), can be defined as: The simultaneous generation of two useful forms of energy (such as power and heat) from the same plant using one single primary energy source (22) Cogeneration technology can provide: (23) Distributed generation of electrical and/ or mechanical power. Waste-heat recovery for heating, cooling, or process applications. Seamless system integration for a variety of technologies, thermal applications, and fuel types into existing building infrastructure.

Cogeneration is already a widely used method and is thought of as the single biggest solution to the Kyoto targets (24). Countries such as Denmark and Latvia already produce great amount of energy through cogeneration. The main potential advantages of cogeneration are listed in table 3:
Table 3-Main advantages of cogeneration (22)

Main Advantage Cogeneration leads to fuel savings in the range 25-30% when compared to separate generation of electricity and heat. Cogeneration usually means decentralised power generation

Result Reduction in fuel costs Reduction on import of fuel Environmental benefits (i.e. CO2 mitigation and emission reduction) Further fuel savings due to reduced grid losses (5-10% reduction) Increased power supply security Local fuel utilisation

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

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3.3 Why Cogeneration?


With the large increases in oil prices since the 1970s the need to save energy in the UK, and indeed in most other countries is a recent phenomenon. Strong incentives in the form of high oil prices and low availability have increased the need for energy generation. By reducing energy consumption and increasing levels of insulation, energy savings can be achieved on an individual basis, however this may not be enough on its own. Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP), whether applied to industry or district heating, can save energy. (25) All power plants emit large amounts of waste heat during electricity production. This can be cooled in cooling towers or by other means and released into the atmosphere. However cogeneration processes use this waste heat to generate both electricity and useful heat. This is different from combined cycle where only electricity is produced. The viability of cogeneration depends on the base load of operation (i.e the on-site, or near site, demand of electricity and thermal energy).An ideal cogeneration situation exists when there is equality between power and thermal demands (26). The viability can be greatly increased where opportunities for trigeneration exist. Here the heat from a cogeneration plant can be used as the primary energy source for a cooling system by means of an absorption chiller. The overall efficiency is reduced when heat must be transported over long distances. This requires heavily insulated pipes which are expensive and inefficient. In contrast electricity can be transported through wires over a much longer distance for the same energy loss. Biomass is a great renewable alternative to fossil fuels as a source of energy; when it is burned in large quantities it produces large amounts of energy in the form of electricity and/or heat. In this project the biomass of choice is sugar cane bagasse. Bagasse used to be burned as a method of disposing of solid waste, but as coal, oil and gas prices rose, it was realized that bagasse has the potential to be an efficient biofuel. Currently the concept of cogeneration using bagasse is a very popular technology in the sugar industry; this is down to the fact that using bagasse for cogeneration purposes will increase the income of many sugar processing companies. This is of course down to the fact that any excess energy generated, in the instance of an operating sugar plant bagasse will be used to power the plant, or even the total energy generated through the cogeneration of bagasse can be sold back to the grid. The increase in electricity being exported by sugar manufacturers over a period of 4 years is shown in Table 4.

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

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Table 4-. Electrical energy exported by sugar factories (17)

Year 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

Electricity export from bagasse (GWh) 70,5 76,6 84,1 119,0 124,6

kWh/t cane 13,0 15,9 16,3 22,6 21,5

3.4 Current technologies for biomass cogeneration


Various CHP systems are available for use with a wide range of biomass fuels, and a brief description of these is given in this section. 3.4.1 Steam turbine systems

The steam turbine system or Rankine cycle, named after Scottish engineer William Rankine is still widely used in cogenerating plants. Within the Rankine cycle there are two typical steam turbine concepts: Back-pressure steam tubine Extraction-condensing steam turbine

Figure 3: Back-pressure steam turbine (22)

In the back-pressure system all of the steam expanded in the turbine goes on to be used in heating applications. Extraction turbines have openings in their casings so that only a portion of the steam is being expanded and then sent to the process to be used for heating.

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

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Figure 4: Extraction-condensing system (22)

3.4.2

Steam engine systems

Like the steam turbine system, these are based on the Rankine cycle. In this system, the steam turbine is replaced by the steam engine as an expander (22) 3.4.3 Internal combustion engine systems (reciprocating engines)

ICE systems are typically used in the marine and transport sectors. Possible fuels are fuel oil, diesel, petrol and gaseous fuels, gas engines (for LPG, biogas, etc.) are often modified versions of liquid fuelled engines (22).

Figure 5: Internal combustion engine (ICE) (22)

3.4.4

Micro turbines

The micro turbine system has just been recently introduced to the market and as the name suggests the technology is ideally suited to small scale cogeneration. Figure 6 demonstrates the workings of a typical micro turbine CHP system.

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

14

Figure 6: Micro turbine (22)

3.4.5

Combined Cycle systems

The basic combined cycle system (CCS) comprises of a gas turbine process and steam systems; the hot exhaust gas from the gas turbine is utilised in a heat recovery steam generator, which produces superheated steam for the steam turbine process (22).

Figure 7: Combined cycle (22)

Commonly used fuels for the CCS include fuel oil, diesel and gaseous fuels. 3.4.6 Stirling engines

Stirling engine systems are externally heated and therefore the primary energy source could be almost any fuel via an external combustion system including biomass (bagasse, woodchips, etc.)

Figure 8: Stirling engine (22)

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

15 3.4.7 Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)

The organic Rankine cycles uses an organic fluid (e.g. toluene) as the working medium instead of water allowing the use of lower temperature heat sources. ORCs have mainly been developed and used in geothermal power generation systems, but are also now available for the small-scale cogeneration sector (22).

Figure 9: Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) (22)

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

16

3.5 Biomass conversion technologies


Within each of the systems described above a conversion technology is required to extract the chemical (potential) energy of the raw biomass. The principal conversion technologies for heat and power generation can be divided into two main categories, direct-combustion and gasification. Table 5 provides a summary of common biomass conversion technologies used in CHP systems.
Table 5: Summary of Biomass Conversion Technologies

Biomass Conversion Technology Stoker grate, underfire stoker boilers Fluidised bed boiler Cofiring pulverised coal boilers Cofiring stoker, fluidised bed boilers Fixed bed gasifier

Common Fuel Types Sawdust, end cuts, chips, shavings, sander dust Wood residue, peat, wide variety of fuels Sawdust, bark, shavings, sander dust Sawdust, bark, shavings, hog fuel Chipped wood, rice hulls, shells, sewage sludge Most wood and agricultural residues

Feed Size

Moisture Content

Capacity Range

0.25-2 in.

10-50%

4 to 300 MW (many in the 20 to 50 MW range) Up to 300 MW (many in the 20 to 25 MW range) Up to 1000 MW

< 2 in.

< 60%

< 0.25 in.

< 25%

< 2 in.

10-50%

Up to 300 MW

0.25-4 in.

< 20%

Up to 50 MW

Fluidised bed gasifier


(27)

0.25-2 in.

15-30%

Up to 25 MW

In direct-combustion biomass is burned for steam which is then expanded in a turbine driven power generator. The process of Cofiring involves substituting a biofuel for a proportion of fossil fuel (usually coal) in an existing power plant boiler system. Cofiring can be used without large amounts of major modifications to the existing plant equipment, and is therefore far less expensive than building a new biomass plant compared to the coal it replaces biomass reduces SO2, NOx, CO2, and other air emissions (27). Gasification is the process in which biomass is heated in relatively small amounts of air, oxygen or steam. This results in the partial combustion of the biomass. The resulting product depends on the gasification process used. Gasification in air results in low calorific gas that can be used in gas turbines, Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

17 while gasification with pure oxygen produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This mixture is called syn-gas and can be used as a fuel or as a base chemical for the production of synthetic petrochemicals. If steam is used in the gasification process syn-gas with high hydrogen content is produced. This type of process is more commonly referred to as reforming.

Section: Cogeneration Authors: Ross Murphy and Roddy Mackay

18

Activated carbon

After the detailed analysis of the potential for the cogeneration process, we now turn to another major potential use for bagasse, the manufacture of activated carbon. The analysis of the manufacture of activated carbons will look into the possibilities of having continuous or batch operation, the energy and material requirements for the different modes and environmental factors. Activated carbon, also known as activated charcoal or activated coal, is a common term used for carbon that has been processed to make it extremely porous causing the carbon to have a very large surface area (28). It is distinguished from elemental carbon by the removal of all non-carbon impurities and by the oxidation of the carbon surface (29). The large surface area makes the carbon very useful for adsorption and chemical reactions1. Activated carbon can have a surface area of 500m2/g (30). There is a wide variety of activated carbon products available which can exhibit very different characteristics depending upon the raw material and techniques used in their production (31). For example the pore volume limits the size of the molecules that can be adsorbed while the surface area limits the amount of material that can be adsorbed.

4.1 Uses
Activated carbon has many uses. Its most common use is the removal of pollutants from air and water streams such as: Spill cleanup Groundwater remediation Drinking water filtration Air purification Activated carbon can also be used to treat poisoning and overdoses of drugs following oral ingestion. The poison binds to the activated carbon which hence prevents its absorption by the gastrointestinal tract. Activated carbon has become the main treatment for many types of poisonings and other decontamination methods. However, activated carbon is not effective in treatment when dealing with long term accumulation of toxins, such as the use of toxic herbicides and smoking.

4.2 Types
There are three main different types of activated carbon: Powdered Activated Carbon Granular Activated Carbon Extruded Activated Carbon Depending on the nature of the raw material and size of the particles (activated, granular and extruded) and the production process, activated carbons will have different absorption capacities.

Section: Activated Carbon Authors: Zengani Chabinga and James Gascoine

19 Powdered activated carbons are less than 1mm in size with an average diameter between 0.15 and 0.25mm. This causes powdered activated carbon to have a large surface to volume ratio with a small diffusion distance. Granular activated carbon has a larger particle size than powdered activated carbon and hence will have a smaller surface area. They are commonly used in the adsorption of gases and vapors which have a faster rate of diffusion. They are used in water treatment, deodorization and separation of components of flow system. Extruded activated carbons are cylindrical or extruded shaped activated carbon with diameters from 0.8 to 0.45mm. They are commonly used in gas phase applications due to their low pressure drop, high mechanical strength and low dust content.

4.3 Raw Materials


Activated carbon is usually produced from carbonaceous [3] material such as nutshells, wood and most commonly coal/charcoal. Any material with large enough carbon content can be used as a raw material in the activated carbon manufacture. Other desirable qualities include the cheapness of the material and the material having a low composition of inorganics. In much older production methods, materials such as wood, peat and waste from vegetable origin were favoured for use (32). This was because activated carbons of good quality could be obtained from these materials. In the modern day however, attention has been turned to natural coal as a raw material because of its cheapness and availability. Other sources of activated carbon include lignin and waste from the oil industries. Some of the factors that need to be considered when choosing the type of raw material for production include whether or not a high enough quality of activated carbon can be produced from the material being considered, the percentage content of inorganics - the lower the better, the availability and cost of the raw material, ease and length of storage and how easy is it is to process the material. The major materials considered for production include wood, coal, lignite, coconut shell and peat. (32) It is important that the inorganic percentage in the materials is low. For materials that are sourced from vegetable or fossil origin, it is recommended that this percentage should not be more than 3%; this keeps the ash content of the final product to a minimum as it is possible for this to increase after the activation process. The different materials produce activated carbon with specific characteristics; for instance wood and lignin which have relatively low densities and high volatile content result in activated carbon with large pore volume but with a low density, the large pore volumes makes them more suitable for applications involving liquids and not vapours. Coconut shells with higher densities and high volatile contents result in the manufacture of much harder carbons with large micro pore volumes well suited for vapour applications.

Section: Activated Carbon Authors: Zengani Chabinga and James Gascoine

20 The table below shows the different raw materials and the types including uses of the activated carbons obtained from them. (32)
Table 6: Activated Carbon Raw Materials (32)

Raw Material Soft wood

Carbon %

Volatiles %

Density (Kg/L) 0.4 - 0.5

Ash %

40 - 45

55 - 60

0.3 -1.1

Texture of activated carbon Soft, large pore volume Soft, large pore volume Soft, large pore volume Hard, large micro pore volume Hard, small pore volume Medium hard, medium micro pore volume Medium hard, medium pore volume Hard, large pore volume Hard, large pore volume

Hard wood

40 - 42

55 - 60

0.55 - 0.8

0.3 -1.2

Lignin

35 - 40

58 - 60

0.3 - 0.4

Nutshells

40 - 45

55 - 60

1.4

0.5 -0.6

Application of activated carbon Aqueous phase adsorption Aqueous phase adsorption Aqueous phase adsorption Vapour phase adsorption Waste water treatment Liquid and vapour phase adsorption

Lignite Soft core

55 - 70 65 - 80

25 - 40 20 - 30

1.00 - 1.35 1.25 - 1.50

5-6 2 - 12

Petroleum coke

70 - 85

25 - 20

1.35

0.5 -0.7

Waste water treatment

Semi hard coal Hard coal

70 - 75 85 - 95

10 - 15 5 - 10

1.45 1.5 -1.8

5 - 15 2 - 15

Gas vapour adsorption Gas vapour adsorption

4.4 Preparation
Activated carbon is prepared by the carbonisation [1] and activation [2] of organic substances. Carbonisation is the process of converting organic substances into carbon or carbon containing residue. This is done by pyrolysis or destructive distillation. During carbonisation, a solid residue (charcoal) and volatile gases are produced. Pores between the graphite crystals are formed during this process. The carbonisation process takes place at temperatures below 800C. After the volatile components are Section: Activated Carbon Authors: Zengani Chabinga and James Gascoine

21 removed, the carbon atoms arrange into irregular sheets of aromatic rings. Yield is affected by rates of heating, the final temperature of the heating and the type of raw material. Low rates of heating result in minimal volatilization and high yields of char owing increased drying and better stabilisation of the polymeric components. Generally there are two steps that greatly influence the nature of the final product; the softening step, where the material softens and temperature control is vital and the second step where the char hardens and shrinks this affects the porosity of the material. (32) Activation occurs immediately after carbonisation. The activation process can be physical or chemical. The intermediate product is removed and the graphite crystals become exposed to the activating agent. This increases the number and dimensions of the pores during activation. Activation is an oxidation reaction where steam, carbon dioxide and air act as oxidising agents in physical activation. With chemical activation, the activating agents act as oxidising and dehydrating agents and the processes of carbonisation and activation occur simultaneously.

4.5 Physical Activation


With physical activation, carbonisation and activation processes do not occur simultaneously but rather carbonisation is followed by activation. The activation part is usually carried out at temperatures of between 800 and 1100C using oxidizing gasses like carbon dioxide, steam or air. The most common set up involves the burning of coke oven or natural gas, thereby supplying the heat needed and the activating agent. This method therefore has proved to be a very economical route. In the most general sense, the oxygen component of the activating agent burns out the more reactive parts of the carbon arrangement as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. This is the burning of the disorganised carbon which opens up blocked pores of the active carbon. The usage of carbon dioxide produces wider pores than the use of steam. With steam, activation is carried out at high temperatures of 800-1000C in the presence of steam. Initially gasification [4] of the carbonized material with steam occurs. The gasification process is endothermic so in order to maintain the temperature, the CO2 and H2 produced must be burned. This type of activation exhibits a fine pore structure, ideal for the adsorption of compounds from both the liquid and vapor phase (33).

4.6 Chemical Activation


This process is often suited to raw materials sourced from wood. Via this process, the raw material is first impregnated with an activating agent. The activating agent is a concentrated solution and the impregnation process involves mixing the raw material with the solution. Phosphoric acid, zinc chloride and sulphuric acid are some of the widely applied activating agents. With the chemical activation process, the carbonisation and activation occur at the same time. The aim of impregnation is to degrade the cellulosic material. After degradation, the organic material is extruded and thermo chemically decomposed between temperatures of 400 and 600C in the absence of air. This is then followed by the cooling of the decomposed material which is then washed to remove Section: Activated Carbon Authors: Zengani Chabinga and James Gascoine

22 the activating agent. Removal of volatile components is done by thermal treatment allowing drying of the raw material and this in turn results in charring and conversion into aromatic compounds of the carbon and therefore the creation of porous structure. Through the dehydration of the starting material, activating agents stop the formation of tar and greatly increase the carbon yield. This activation process is often carried out at temperatures between 400 and 800C. Compared to physical activation, these temperatures are lower and this allows a better formation of the structure of activated carbon. The pore size distribution is majorly determined by the impregnation, with higher degrees of impregnation corresponding to larger pore diameters. (32)

Section: Activated Carbon Authors: Zengani Chabinga and James Gascoine

23

Mechanisms for Conversion of Bagasse to Activated Carbon


5.1 Physical

Carbonisation Carbonisation precedes activation when physical activation is used. It involves the bagasse raw material being pyrolized in an atmosphere that lacks oxygen. This takes place at temperatures just below 800C. The rate of heating and the temperature used both affect the yield. During carbonisation two general conditions are observed to exist, the first being when the material being heated softens at this stage the temperature control is very important. In the other stage the material hardens and shrinks; a step that has major influences on the porosity of the final product. Some studies that have been carried out by some workers to describe the processes that take place during carbonisation indicate that dehydration of the raw material occurs up to temperatures of 170C. The dehydration is then followed by the material degrading above the temperature of 170C producing such compounds as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and acetic acid. At higher temperatures of 270280C, the exothermal decomposition starts to happen, a process which releases methanol and tar. The carbonisation process was observed to be complete at around 400-600C, the yield being 80% carbon content (34). Activation Activated carbons that have high adsorption capacities can only be produced by the activation process occurring in such terms that the activating agents react with carbon. The reaction has two phases; the first being when the unarranged carbon is burned off, the best of cases being when this amount burnt off is less than 10% of the carbon material. This burning results in the unblocking of pores. In the second phase, carbons that make up the ordered aromatic structure burn, resulting in active sites being formed, increase in the surface area and widening of pores. Physical activation often takes place between temperatures of 800C and 1100C in an atmosphere occupied by the oxidising agents being used. These can be steam, carbon dioxide, air and any mixture of these gases. Often the heat is produced by combustion of coke, sometimes natural gas is used, thereby through the reactions also providing the activating agents. The oxygen that is present on the activating agents burns the unarranged carbon, producing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The extent of the gasification is reliant on the gas used and the temperature of the activation process. Different rates of burning are also experienced in different parts of the surface. The equations below show the gasification reaction of the carbon with the use of steam in [1] and with carbon dioxide in equation [2].

Section: Mechanisms for Conversion of Bagasse to Activated Carbon Author(s): Zengani Chabinga

24 Reaction [1] is followed by the water gas formation reaction, in which the carbon surface acts as a catalyst. The reaction is shown below;

Reactions [1] and [2] are both endothermic, and thus heating is necessary to drive the processes. Accurate temperature control is very important to maintain the product quality. The use of steam is followed by reaction [3] which is exothermic, therefore less energy is required than that needed when using only carbon dioxide. However, the hydrogen produced in reaction [1] reduces the rate of the reaction because the hydrogen is adsorbed on the active sites of the carbon and this in turn reduces the rate of the activation process. Activation using carbon dioxide is also inhibited by carbon monoxide; however this problem is often overcome by the use of an iron catalyst. In this situation the mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produces better micro porous structures of the activated carbon. Industrially the most common method is to use a flue gas and steam mixture so as to achieve a combination of activation from steam and from carbon dioxide. Activation with oxygen gas is also possible. The reactions are represented by the equations below.

These reactions however are very exothermic and control becomes a problem. This leads to non uniform products and loss of carbon mass. Activation with oxygen is almost never used.

5.2 Chemical
This method employs the use of concentrated solutions as activating agents. The most common activating agents are phosphoric acid, zinc chloride and sulphuric acid. Other agents that are also used include potassium sulphate, potassium thiocyanate hydroxide and carbonates of alkali metals. (32) The raw material, bagasse in this case, is first infused with the activating agents which results in the breaking down of the material. The material that has been impregnated with the activating agent is then extruded and then thermo chemically decomposed in a kiln. The pyrolysis temperatures are between 400 600C in inert conditions. Nitrogen gas can be used to create inert conditions. The product is then cooled and passed through a washing process to remove the activating agent. During the pyrolysis the activating agents dehydrate the bagasse raw material, resulting in charring and formation of aromatic structures of carbon and bring about the porous structure of the carbon. For this reason carbonisation and activation are said to occur simultaneously when this method is used. The temperatures used during chemical activation are lower than those of physical activation. With zinc chloride as the activating agent, the optimum temperature is between 600 - 700 C. The lower temperatures allow for better developed porous structures than physical activation. The degree to Section: Mechanisms for Conversion of Bagasse to Activated Carbon Author(s): Zengani Chabinga

25 which the material is impregnated and the temperature used in the heating play a huge role in the in the characteristics of the activated carbon. (32)

Section: Mechanisms for Conversion of Bagasse to Activated Carbon Author(s): Zengani Chabinga

26

Basis of Design

The composition, consistency and heating value of raw bagasse vary depending on climate, soil-type, harvesting method, amount of cane washing and efficiency of milling process (35). There are various types of milling process but physical composition varies very little; the moisture content of bagasse has significantly greater influence on its combustion characteristics than any other physical parameter (36). According to literature 130kg, dry weight, of bagasse can be obtained for every tonne of sugar cane processed (37). The US EPA suggests the moisture content of bagasse varies between 45 and 55 % by weight (35) and many literature sources settle on a value of 50% moisture. Therefore for this project it is assumed that 260kg of bagasse (50% moisture) can be recovered from each tonne of sugarcane processed. This value agrees with various literature sources which suggest that the weight of bagasse (50% moisture) obtained per tonne cane lies in the range of 260-300kg. The project will assume that 2,000,000 tonnes of sugarcane per year are to be processed in conjunction with values obtained for a typical Queensland sugar mill (38). According to this value approximately 520,000 tonnes of bagasse (50% moisture) will be available for use each year. For material and energy balance calculations throughout the project it is necessary to have a heating value for the bagasse, which is the amount of heat produced when 1 kg undergoes complete combustion. This value has been taken at 7738 kJ/kg and was found from experimental testing of more than 1000 bagasse samples, on a wet basis as they were received, using a calorimeter.

Section: Basis of Design Author(s): All

27

Process schemes for bagasse cogeneration

The main aim of this chapter on cogeneration is ultimately to produce three separate process schemes constructed specifically for CHP generation using sugar cane bagasse as fuel. The direct combustion of bagasse to produce steam for use in two separate steam turbine systems will be examined. One system will use a back-pressure steam turbine (BPST) and the other a condensing extraction steam turbine (CEST), as shown in Figure 3: Back-pressure steam turbine and Figure 4: Extraction-condensing system respectively. Finally, gasification of bagasse for use in a combined cycle system as shown in Figure 7 will be examined. Material and energy balances as well as the major advantages and disadvantages, including economic and environmental considerations, will be detailed for each process.

7.1 Direct combustion


7.1.1 Boiler System

The boiler system used for direct combustion of the bagasse and superheating of the steam produced will be the same for both the BPST and CEST cycles. The main equipment consideration in this case is the furnace to be used for combustion. The major furnace types suitable for bagasse burning are described below. Spreader stokers Spreader stoker furnaces using a travelling grate currently seem to be the most popular stoker application with industrial scale boilers, this is due to their relative simplicity, low maintenance, and ability to respond to load variations (39). Spreader stokers use a combination of suspension burning and grate burning. Air injection, underthrow, and overthrow devices are used to propel individual fuel particles into the furnace where they are burned in suspension. Larger particles fall to the grate where they are burned in a thin, fast burning fuel bed. The primary combustion air is supplied from beneath the grate, while a portion of the total combustion air is admitted through ports above the grate as overfire air, completing the combustion process. Fluidised Bed Boilers There are three main types of fluidised bed boilers: Atmospheric classic Fluidised Bed Combustion system (AFBC) Atmospheric circulating (fast) Fluidised Bed Combustion system (CFBC) Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion system (PFBC)

Fluidised bed combustion technology has emerged as a viable alternative when burning biomass, which can be difficult or impractical to burn using conventional methods (27). As the velocity of a gas flowing through a bed of particles is increased, the bed becomes fluidised at some value for velocity and bubbles form as in a boiling liquid. At higher velocities the bubbles Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy Mackay and Ross Murphy

28 disappear; and the solids are rapidly blown out of the bed and must be recycled to maintain a stable system. Combustion processes require time, temperature and turbulence and in fluidised bed combustion (FBC), turbulence is promoted by fluidisation. Improved mixing generates evenly distributed heat at lower temperatures. Residence time is many times greater than conventional grate systems. Thus an FBC system releases heat more efficiently at lower temperatures. Since limestone is used as a particle bed, control of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in the combustion chamber are achieved without any additional control equipment. This is one of the major advantages over conventional boilers. Alternative Boilers 1. Cook/horseshoe furnace 2. Ward furnace 3. Step grate furnace There are many reasons why horseshoe furnaces are not as widely used now as they previously were before various advances in technology occurred. The bagasse is gravity-fed through chutes and piles onto a refractory hearth (35). Burning takes place on the earth and is fuelled by air entering through ports (35)in the furnace walls. Some such furnaces have the ability to remove waste, in the form of ash, during its operation. These furnaces require a greater excess air requirement than a spreader stoker system, the combustion is not complete and results in a large amount of carbon waste, in the form of ash. The main disadvantage from an economical point of view is that the cleaning time may take up to 30 minutes resulting in loss of production for that time as well as start up and shut down costs.

Figure 10: Step Grate Stoker (40)

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy Mackay and Ross Murphy

29 A diagram of a step grate furnace is shown above (40). These furnaces have the advantage that they can produce combustion sequences that mean that a wide variety of fuels can be burned. As the fuel moves down the grate the furnace will first dry it before it is then combusted and burnt out. The ability to tune various parameters associated with such a furnace is what results in the ability to burn various fuels. More modern examples of these furnaces have a ceramic arch/plate over the grate to reflect the heat and ultimately achieve the combustion of higher moisture containing fuels. The complexity of the design of these furnaces is one of the main disadvantages as it results in higher capital costs (40). In a timeline of furnace developments, in between the early horseshoe furnace and the step - grate furnace was the Ward furnace. It embodied some principals of operation of the other two previously discussed furnaces. It was initially horseshoe shaped but was later adapted and could then be manufactured in any shape. However as technology advanced these furnaces fell into misuse due to the higher efficiencies of newer models. This Design For this design a spreader stoker boiler system is chosen as a widely used and efficient conversion technology. Within the boiler system the spreader stoker furnace is included with a boiler producing steam and a superheater to provide the steam conditions required by the steam turbines. An economiser is included in the boiler system to preheat the boiler feed water using hot flue gases from the furnace. Figure 12 shows the proposed make up of the boiler system to be used by both direct combustion processes in this project.

Figure 11: Direct combustion boiler system

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy Mackay and Ross Murphy

30 7.1.2 Back Pressure Steam Turbine Description Introduction

7.1.2.1

This is the simplest of the cogeneration options. It involves the boiler system that is illustrated above and a back pressure turbine. The turbines sole purpose is to use the steam produced to generate electricity, the outlet steam can then be used to heat up other process streams in the plant that the cogeneration system will be working in conjunction with. There are two main types of turbines, impulse and reaction turbines. The differences between the two lie in the way the steam comes into contact with the rotor blades and how these blades turn. Basic thermodynamic equations are used to consider how much power the turbine can produce from the inlet conditions and specified exhaust conditions. A schematic diagram showing the back pressure turbine system is shown below:

Figure 12 - Back Pressure Steam Turbine Process Scheme (19)

7.1.2.2

Process Description

Steam is produced at 480oC and 61bar from the boiler system described earlier. The steam then passes on to the back pressure steam turbine. This steam then does work on the turbine to produce power. The amount of power produced can be determined through assuming the turbine is ideal and the process is isentropic. Then using an efficiency factor the actual power generated can be determined. The initial entropy was found using the temperature entropy diagram show below, using the input pressure and temperature coming from the boiler. The table below shows the thermodynamic properties of the inlet steam.
Table 7 - Inlet Steam Properties

Inlet Temperature Inlet Pressure Mass Flowrate Steam Entropy Specific Enthalpy of Inlet Temperature Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy Mackay

480oC 61 bar 130 tonnes/hour 7 kJ/ K 2785.05 kJ/kg

31

Figure 13 - Temperature - Entropy Diagram

The specific enthalpy of the steam can be found using steam tables and the overall enthalpy can be calculated multiplying this number by the mass flowrate. Using the constant entropy assumption and the specified outlet pressure of the steam the outlet temperature can be found, which is then used to find the specific enthalpy and since there is no mass lost throughout the process the overall enthalpy of the outlet steam. The work done by the steam in this isentropic process can be found through subtracting the outlet enthalpy from the inlet enthalpy. As previously mentioned the process will not be truly isentropic. Efficiencies of turbines will vary depending on the operating conditions chosen for the process as well as the type of turbine in use. For this design an efficiency of 48.5% was chosen (41) as this is an efficiency that is commonly achieved using modern turbines. Multiplying the ideal work by this efficiency factor will give the actual work done by the steam on the turbine. The ideal and actual works done are shown in the table below.
Table 8 - Work done by Steam on Turbine

Ideal Work Done by Steam Actual Work Done by Steam

9,370,400 kJ 4,544,644 kJ

As the actual work done by the steam is now known the actual enthalpy of the outlet steam can be determined and through using the mass flowrate of steam as well as steam tables the actual outlet temperature of the outlet stream. The actual conditions of the steam leaving the turbine are shown in the table below.
Table 9 - Turbine Outlet Flow Properties

Steam Temperature Steam Pressure Steam Mass Flowrate

148.9oC 2.32 bar 130 tonnes/hour

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy Mackay

32 The actual work done by the steam is not all converted to power as the generator also will not operate at 100% efficiency. A commonly quoted efficiency of 80% has been chosen to work out the power output of the steam turbine. The power output of the turbine is shown in the table below.
Table 10 - Steam Turbine Power Output

Steam Turbine Power Output

1.009 MW

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy Mackay

33

7.1.3

Condensing Extraction Steam Turbine (CEST) System Introduction

7.1.3.1

The other type of steam turbine to be considered in this process is the condensing extraction steam turbine. In the CEST steam is extracted from the turbine at some intermediate (between exhaust and inlet) pressure, and this steam can be used to meet the adjoining processs steam requirements. The remaining steam is further expanded to low pressure (usually well below atmospheric) in the turbine and then condensed. The ability to extract steam at intermediate pressure is one of the major advantages of the CEST system when compared with the BPST. Another significant advantage of the CEST is its versatility; these turbines are able to alternate between extracting and full condensing modes of operation. In the case of a sugar mill this means that in the months where sugarcane is not being processed, the off-season, the CEST can be used to generate a steady supply of electrical power only, using bagasse stored during the harvest or other alternative fuels. Figure 15 describes the Rankine cycle with CEST installed which is to be examined in this project.

Figure 14: CEST system (19)

7.1.3.2

Process Description

As with the BPST, steam is produced by the boiler at high pressure (61 bar, 480C) and it is assumed that this steam passes to the CEST with no loss of energy by transfer to the surroundings. The energy balance calculations assume that the turbine is isentropic with an isentropic efficiency of 85%. For simplicity the extraction conditions for the process steam are taken as 2.32 Bar and 125C as values found for a typical sugar factory; however a wide range of extraction conditions can be considered depending on the type of process the cogeneration plant is working alongside. The exhaust steam conditions are taken as 0.074bar and 40C. The steam is expanded to pressure well below atmospheric to maximise the amount of power extracted in the turbine. To calculate the power generation a simple thermodynamic analysis of the cycle described by Figure 15 is carried out using enthalpy and entropy values taken from steam tables. Finally it is assumed that the work done in the CEST is converted to electricity by a generator with Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

34 an efficiency of 90%. The PFD for the cogeneration system is shown in Figure 16 including pumps and economiser.

Figure 15: Cogeneration PFD

The stream tables for the cogeneration system are shown in Tables 11 and 12.

Table 11: Streams 1

Stream Mass Flowrate (tonnes/hr) Temperature (C) Pressure (bar) Specific Enthalpy (kJ/kg)

1 65 20 N/A N/A

2 243.36 20 N/A N/A

3 136.5 480 61 3371.8

4 308.36 597 N/A N/A

5 83.74 125 2.32 2721.0

6 52.76 40 0.074 2308.9

7 1800 10 1.013 42.0

Table 12: Streams 2

Stream Mass Flowrate (tonnes/hr) Temperature (C) Pressure (bar) Specific Enthalpy

8 1800 25 1.013 104.8

9 52.76 40 N/A 167.8

10 52.76 40 1.013 N/A

11 83.74 70 1.013 N/A

12 136.5 58.4 1.013 N/A

13 135.5 90 1.013 N/A

14 308.36 553 N/A N/A

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

35 The power generated and value of electricity produced for the CEST process are calculated in Appendix A.3 and are summarised in Table 13.
Table 13: Power Generation

30.7

40.3

97479

162199

24773281

The estimated total capital costs for this process scheme are summarised in Table 14.
Table 14: Equipment Costs

Equipment Type Furnace Boiler Pump 1 Pump 2 CEST

Equipment Cost () 2822793 1337047 9537 12057 14834356

The costs shown above are then used to calculate a total capital cost (equipment + installation) for the process of 30012961 as shown in Appendix A.3.2. These capital costs however do not take into account the superheater, condenser and economiser required by the process and so are only an initial estimate before sizing these items. It should also be noted that the power required to operate Pump 2 has not been deducted from the electricity generated by the process; on doing this the value of electricity for the cycle would reduce slightly.

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

36

7.2 Gasification
Gasification is the process in which biomass is heated in relatively small amounts of air, oxygen or steam. This results in the partial combustion of the biomass. The resulting product depends on the gasification process used. Gasification in air results in low calorific gas that can be used in gas turbines, while gasification with pure oxygen produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This mixture is called syn-gas and can be used as a fuel or as a base chemical for the production of synthetic petrochemicals. If steam is used in the gasification process syn-gas with high hydrogen content is produced. This type of process is more commonly referred to as reforming. 7.2.1 Problems

Although the bulk of the biomass converted into gas consists of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen, there will also be small amounts of hydrocarbons in the gas. Some of these hydrocarbons will condensate or polymerize as the gas cools after leaving the gasifier. These deposited hydrocarbons are known as tar and can result in the failure of the engine. 7.2.2 Process

Before gasification can occur the biomass must 1st undergo pyrolysis. During pyrolysis, the biomass is heated to temperatures of around 430oC in the absence of air. This process releases volatile products as well as producing char. The products of pyrolysis are heated to temperatures of 600oC

Figure 16: Typical Biomass Gasification System (42)

7.2.2.1

Drying

Biomass has a moisture content ranging from 5 to 55%. Before entering the gasification stage, the biomass must 1st be dried in temperatures of around 150oC. The water removed is converted to steam which can be used in other processes.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

37 7.2.2.2 Gasification

During gasification the bagasse undergoes four main processes 1. Drying - Occurs at temperatures of 200-400oC 2. Pyrolysis - Occurs at temperatures of 400-600oC 3. Combustion - Occurs at temperatures of 600-950oC 4. Reduction (gasification) - Occurs at temperatures of 950-1300oC During Pyrolysis, the bagasse heats up, causing the decomposition of the organic material in the absence of air. This decomposition releases volatile gases and char. The combustion process occurs as the volatile gases and some of the char react with the oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and small amounts of carbon monoxide. This is represented by the below equation. During partial oxidation, the oxygen in the process (pure or in the form of air) is the source of heat for the reaction so is hence called direct gasification. During pyrolytic gasification no oxygen is added to the system, so a source of heat has to be added externally. This process is called indirect gasification. Direct Gasification Directly heated gasification systems emerged from coal gasification technologies. They have the disadvantage of requiring high purity oxygen, which increases costs. There are three main types of direct gasifiers: 1. Fixed bed 2. Entrained bed 3. Fluidized bed. The fixed bed gasifiers are the simplest types of gasifiers and were the 1st to operate on coal and municipal solid waste gasification processes. A fixed bed gasifer consists of a solid bed of particles through which the gasifiying media and gas move either up or down. Two types of fixed bed gasifiers exist: updraft and downdraft. In an updraft the feed is fed from the top and falls to the bottom while the oxidant and gases flow upwards, counter current to the feed. This results in high amounts of tar being produced. As such these types of gasifiers are normally used in thermal applications (43). In a downdraft process, the feed is fed from the top while the oxygen is fed from the side, above the grates and fall downwards being withdrawn at the bottom of the reactor. The residue produced from the gasifier may be either dry ash or slag. Slagging gasifiers melt the residue into molten slag. These require much higher temperatures. Dry ash gasifiers must keep the temperature below 1000-1300oC to prevent ash fusion.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

38

Figure 17: Updraft and Downdraft Gasifiers (Forestry Department )

Two-Stage Gasifier In contrast to the single stage gasifier, where gasification and combustion occur in the same chamber, these zones are separated into two stages. The gasifier features an updraft pyrolysis stage followed by a second stage of downdraft gasification and combustion. This results in lower tar production and higher energy efficiency. (44)

Figure 18: Two Stage Gasifier

Entrained bed gasifiers are characterised by very high temperatures, so that a molten slag residue is formed. Oxygen and steam are blown into the gasifier and entrain the feed. This allows for fast reaction times, which in turn gives the entrained bed gasifier a high throughput rate. The main aim of these gasifiers is to gasify the feed rapidly (in seconds) which is very different to fixed bed reactors which can have a residence time of over an hour. In addition to high throughput rates, entrained gasifiers have many other advantages such as complete carbon conversion rates and elimination of tars and oils from the product gas. However these gasifiers require the feedstock to have a particle size of 100600microns, which requires large capital and energy costs in order to pulverize the feedstock. Due to the potential hazards of ash, slug has become the preferred residue from gasification systems. For this reason entrained gasifiers have become the preferred choice. Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

39

Fluidized bed gasifiers are generally the most appropriate for biomass utilisation. They are able to accept feeds of different size and density in addition to having low tar/oil production and good solid mixing. Crushed feedstock is fed through the side of the reactor and is mixed and suspended by air or oxygen, blown from the bottom. Sand or other inert material can be used in the bed to transfer heat. While in a fixed bed gasifier there are different reaction zones, however in a fluidized bed it cannot exist. Fluidized bed gasifiers have an operating temperature of 900-1000oC. Indirect Gasification Indirect gasifiers are heated from external sources with an operating temperature of around 600-900oC so the problem of ash fusion is eradicated. In addition, the product gas formed is of medium value energy; therefore the need for expensive oxygen is avoided. These types of gasifiers are generally used for steam gasification and can be divided into char gasifiers and gas gasifiers. The core of the biomass gasification system is the Lurgi Circulaing Fluidized Bed (CFB) gasifier (see figure 17). The CFB unit is able to achieve maximum heat and mass transfer between the gas and solids by keeping the velocity between the gas and solids (differential velocity) at its maximum. This allows the CFB to have the smallest diameter of all the fluidized bed. The high velocities (5-8m/s) mean that all the solids are entrained and discharged from the reactor, while any solids separated from the cyclone are returned to the reactor via the steal pot. The fuel fed into the CFB must have a particle size below 25-50mm and be free of iron and metal components. The CFB gasifier has the advantage of a high carbon conversion rate and low hydrocarbon content in the gas. This is particularly important if the gas is to be cleaned further down the process. (45)

Figure 19: Lurgi CFB Gasifier

The basic idea of the gasifier is to divide the fluidized bed into two zones 1. Gasification zone 2. Combustion zone

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

40 The fuel is fed into the gasification zone where it is gasified with steam. The bed material, together with charcoal circulates to the combustion zone, where due to the fluidized air, the charcoal is partially burned. The exothermic reaction in the combustion zone provides the energy for the endothermic gasification process. The flue gas is removed without coming into contact with the product gas. Therefore it is possible to get high grade product gas without the use of pure oxygen. This process is generally carried out with two fluidized beds connected with an internally circulating fluidized bed. Indirect gasification has the advantage of high quality of product syn-gas in addition to the highest throughputs and yields of any other gasifier. However this comes at the cost of greater capital and maintenance costs.

7.2.2.3

Scrubbing

A major challenge to industrial gasification, is designing a syngas cleaning system to remove any pollutants to a level that meets emission standards. Each application is unique and depends on the type of gasifier and feedstock used. Tar formation in the gasification process is one of the major challenges for syngas cleaning. Thermal Cracking The syngas passes out of the gasifier and through a thermal destruction process operating at high temperature. This greatly simplifies the gas cleaning process however it also reduces the energy content of the syngas. (46) After the tar has been removed the flue gas is passed through a quencher which cools the flue gas too around 100oC. This allows for large particles to be collected through a filter Filters Main types; Baghouse or fabric filters Electrostatic precipitators Baghouse Filter Baghouses fabric filters are commonly used to filter gas produced from fossil fuel fired boilers. The gas produced from the boiler is passed through a filter bag, which collected the ash on the surface of the bag as shown in figure 19. They have become one of the most efficient and cost effective filters available, able to achieve ash removal efficiencies of more than 99%. This type of filter is relatively simple, consisting of 6 main components; filter media, filer cleaners, fans, collection hoppers, discharge devices and an outer shelter. These types of filters use filtration to separate dust from particles. Fans pass the gas through the filter media which consist of fabric bags. The fabric bags allow the gas to pass through but trap any ash on its surface. Particles can be collected on the inside or outside of the Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

41 filter bags depending on the individual baghouse design. The four most common bag house cleaners are; shaking, reverse air, pulse jets and sonic mechanisms. Collection hoppers temporarily store the collected ash that is removed from the filter bags. (47) A simple baghouse filter can reduce the soot content from 300-800 mg/Nm3 to around 10-20 mg/Nm3

Figure 20: Shaker Mechanism Baghouse Filter (48)

Electrostatic Precipitators Electrostatic precipitators remove particles from gas using the force from an induced electrostatic charge. In contrast to wet scrubbers, which apply energy directly to the gas, electrostatic precipitators only apply energy to the particles being removed, making it very efficient in its consumption of energy. (49) The electrostatic precipitators work by forcing particles in the gas to pass through a corona, a region in which gaseous ions flow, giving them an electrical charge. This allows the particles to be collected on plates and then removed to a hopper. There are several types of electrostatic precipitators These are the most commonly used types of electrostatic precipitators, being used in a wide variety of industrial applications. In a plate wire electrostatic precipitators, gas flows between parallel plates of sheet metal and high voltage electrodes. This type of setup allows for many flow lanes to operate in parallel, meaning it is well suited for handling large volumes of gas. Dust can also settle on the discharge electrode wires and so must be periodically removed.

Figure 21: Plate wire precipitator (50)

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

42 7.2.3 Material and Energy Balance Drying

7.2.3.1

The moisture content to of the baggase entering the dryer was taken to be 50wt% and it is expected to enter the prolysis stage with a moisture content of 0wt%. The baggase enters the dryer at a temperature of 20oC and leaves at 120oC. If a basis of 1 tonne of baggase with a 50wt% moisture content is taken then in order to evaporate all 500kg of water 1,185,000kJ of energy is required. (51) (51) Basis: 1 Tonne baggase (50wt% moisture content)

7.2.3.2

Gasification

In this design a two stage, silvagas gasification process was chosen. This was to reduce the amount of tar being produced and so lower the costs of gas cleaning. The final composition of the syngas was assumed to be hydrogen and carbon dioxide only with 100% of the char and carbon monoixde being converted however it is likley to contain hydrogen sulphide, tar and other impurities and so must therefore be cleaned before it can be burnt A basis of 1,000kg of bagasse was taken. The composition of bagasse is shown in Table 15: Bagasse Composition.
Table 15: Bagasse Composition

Component Cellulose Hemo Lignin Ash

Mass (kg) 550 250 240 10

During pyrolysis the bagasse is broken down into many components such as C2H2, C02 C6H6, tar and many others as shown in Table 16: Pyrolysis Yields at 1000oC. The % conversion of bagasse to pyrolysis products was taken to be 100%. Some of the products shown in the table are produced but in negligible quantities.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

43
Table 16: Pyrolysis Yields at 1000 C
o

Product Gas yield - H2 - CH4 - C2H2 - C2H6 - C6H6 - CO2 - CO Tar yield Char yield (52)

% Yield Mass (kg) 87.5% 875 48.0% 480 3.0% 30 NA NA NA NA 0.1% 1 0.4% 4 48.5% 485 0.3% 3 4.1% 41

The composition of Char is shown in Table 17: Composition of Char. This is a rough estimate of the composition and it is likely to contain many impurities such as sulphur, nitrogen etc.
Table 17: Composition of Char

Component - Carbon - Oxygen - Hydrogen (52)

(%mole) Mass (kg) 0.583333 24.87 0.333333 12.30 0.083333 3.55

After pyrolysis the gas passes to the combustion chamber where the methane gas is burnt to produce carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. As there was little information on the yields of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced we have assumed that 90% of the methane gas is burnt to produce carbon dioxide and the remaining 10% is burnt to produce CO. The mass of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced is shown in Table 18: Combustion Yield
Table 18: Combustion Yield

Product CO2 CO H2O

Mass % Yield Moles (kg) 90 1.6875 74.25 10 0.1875 5.25 100 3.5625 64.125

In order to simply the reactions that occur in the combustion zone I have assumed that 90% of the methane gas is burnt to produce CO2 and 10% is burnt to produce CO only. The char is converted to CO in the gasification stage while the other components remain unchanged and are removed in the

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

44 scrubbing process. Other volatile gas products and some char also react with the oxygen, however as this is very little I have decided to leave this out In order to produce these quantities of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide 114kg is required per tonne of bagasse. The char produced during pyrolysis produced during pyrolysis is converted to carbon monoxide and hydrogen during the gasification stage. The mass of the products are shown Table 19: Gasification of Char. These calculations are based on 100% conversion of the carbon to carbon monoxide, however as this reaction is reversible the yield of hydrogen will be far lower in reality Other volatile gas products and some char also react with the oxygen, however as the quantities involved are very small, in order to simplify the equations these have been left out.
Table 19: Gasification of Char

Product CO H2

% Yield Mass (kg) % Volume 100 58.03 46.424 100 4.145 46.11704

Table 20: Gasification of Carbon Monoxide

Product CO2 H2

Mass % Yield Moles (kg) 100 19.581429 861.5829 100 19.581429 39.16286

This requires 37.31kg of steam for the gasification of char and 352kg for the gasification of carbon monoxide. The final composition of syngas per tonne of bagasse based on all reaction being 100% complete is shown in table Table 21: Syngas Composition
Table 21: Syngas Composition

Hydrogen (kg) CO (kg) CO2 (kg) 523.3079 0 939.8329 However it is important to note that as the final gasification of carbon monoxide is reversible, there will be more carbon monoxide produced and less hydrogen. However if we assume that all the carbon monoxide is converted to hydrogen then the final syngas would have a maximum calorific value of 11.6 MJ/m3 (141MJ/kg). (53) However as the syngas will contain more carbon monoxide it is more likely that the syngas will have a calorific value of around 4.4MJ/m3. (54) Using the maximum calorific value of 141MJ/kg then for each tonne of bagasse used we would produce a syngas with a heating value of 74250MJ. If bagasse with a 50% moisture content has a calorific moisture content of 8760kJ/kg then we can produce an extra 133MJ of energy through gasification. Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

45 7.2.3.3 Energy Balance over Gasifier

The energy produced from the combustion of methane (around 160MJ) is used to drive the gasification and pyrolysis reactions. This means that the only energy required is for the drying of the baggase. The maximum energy content is when there is only hydrogen. For every tonne fed to the gasifier the maximum possible energy content of the syngas would be 20.5kW. However the more likely heating value of the syngas is 4.4MJ/Nm3. This means that the for every tonne fed to the gasifier it would be likely to produced a gas with a energy content of 7.8kW. 7.2.3.4 Scrubbing

A hydrogen sulphide content of 1.8wt% (55) was taken as this is the maximum amount which would be expected. A tar and ash content of 0.5wt% 800mg/Nm3 respectively was taken as again this is the maximum amount to be expected. All of these impurities are cleaned to produce a syngas with negligible impurities. Other impurities would also be expected however the type and quantity ranges dramatically and so it is very difficult to calculate the material balance if these impurities are acknowledged.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

46

7.3 Gas Turbine


In a gas turbine cogeneration system, the bagasse (fuel) is burnt in the combustion chamber, heating the compressed air. This causes the air to expand in the gas turbine, driving a generator. The exhaust gas is passed to a heat recovery boiler to make the process steam and process heat. Waste heat recovery boiler. Gas turbines operate under the Brayton cycle model. The Brayton engine consists of three parts: compressor, combustor (compressor) and turbine (expander). In its ideal form the Brayton cycle consists of two isobaric processes and two isentropic processes (compressor and expander) (26). Error! Reference source not found. shows the process for producing electricity in a gas turbine cogeneration system.

Figure 22: Turbine Process (56)

7.3.1

Theory

Assuming no change in kinetic and potential energy, the first law of thermodynamics for an Air-Standard Brayton Cycle is shown in

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

47

Figure 23: The Air-Standard Brayton Cycle (57)

7.3.2

Efficiency: Inlet Cooling

From Figure 24: Cooling and Power we can see that in order for the gas turbine to be as efficient as possible the inlet air must be as cold as possible. By decreasing the inlet air temperature by even just a few degrees the power output can be substantially increased. This is because cooled air is denser, giving the turbine a higher mass flow rate which results in increased turbine output and efficiency. (58)

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

48

Figure 24: Cooling and Power Efficiency (59)

7.3.2.1

Evaporation

- Conventional evaporative coolers or direct water fogging In evaporative cooling, water is sprayed over the media blocks, which are made of fibrous corrugated material. As air flows through these media blocks it evaporates the water, cooling the air. These coolers are normally used in hot climates with low humidity areas where they can lower the inlet gas by about 18oC if the ambient temperature is around (32oC). They have low capital, installation and operating costs making them very popular.

7.3.2.2

Refrigerated Inlet Cooling Systems

- Utilizing absorption or mechanical refrigeration Refrigeration systems are more effective than evaporative systems, lowering the temperature by about 25-30oC. Condenser The condenser is used to condense the refrigerant vapours. Inside the condenser, cooling water flows through tubes and the hot refrigerant vapour fills the surrounding space. As heat is transferred from the refrigerant vapour to the water, refrigerant condenses on the tube surfaces. The condensed liquid refrigerant is collected in the bottom of the condenser before travelling to the expansion device. Expansion Device From the condenser, the liquid refrigerant flows through an expansion device. This is used to keep the difference in pressure between the high pressure condenser and low pressure evaporator. This difference in pressure causes some of the refrigerant to boil off as it passes through, cooling the remaining refrigerant to the desired evaporator temperature. Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

49

Evaporator The cooled mixture of liquid and vapour refrigerant flows to the evaporator where it is used to cool the circulating cooling water or inlet air. The evaporator contains a bundle of tubes that carries the cooling water. At the low pressure of the evaporator, the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the cooling water and evaporates. The evaporation of the refrigerant causes the pressure of the evaporator to increase so the evaporated refrigerant must be removed. The evaporated refrigerant is passed to the compressor and the system repeats itself. Absorber In the absorber, the refrigerant vapour is absorbed by a solution (most commonly lithium bromide). As the refrigerant vapour is absorbed, it condenses from a vapour to a liquid, realising heat acquired in the evaporator. The absorption process creates a lower pressure inside the absorption chamber, causing a continuous flow of refrigerant vapour from the evaporator. The heat produced from the absorption reaction and condensation of the refrigerates in transferred to the cooling water Generator Once the refrigerant has been condensed the refrigerant must be separated from the absorption solution. To do this, steam is used to heat the solution so that the refrigerant boils off, leaving just the absorption solution. The absorption solution is returned to the absorber while the vapour passes to the condenser

7.3.2.3

Mechanical Refrigeration

In mechanical refrigeration, the refrigerant vapour is compressed before passing through a condenser. The condensed vapour is then expanded in an expansion valve which produces a cooling effect due to the pressure drop that reduces the pressure of the refrigerant to that of the evaporator. Here either the expansion chamber can be used to cool cooling water which is circulated to the gas turbine inlet, where it is used to cool the inlet vapour or it can be used to chill the incoming air directly without the use of cooling water (direct expansion). Mechanical refrigeration has a high capital, installation and operating costs as well as high power consumption and poor part load performance. If direct expansion is used then special alarm systems would have to be installed to detect any loss of refrigerant into the combustion air system.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

50

Figure 25: Mechanical Refrigeration

7.3.2.4

Absorption Cooling

Absorption cooling systems can use heat instead of mechanical energy to provide the coolant. Here the compressor is replaced with a generator and an absorber. In this process refrigerant vapour from the evaporator is absorbed by a solution causing it to cool. This solution is then pumped to the generator where the refrigerant re-vaporises using a waste steam heat source. The refrigerant depleted solution then returns to the absorber while the refrigerant continues to the condenser where it heats water at a lower temperature than the refrigerant, causing the refrigerant to condense into a liquid. This is then passed to the expansion valve where the liquid refrigerant expands, producing the cooling effect in the same way as in mechanical cooling. The refrigerant then continues to the evaporator where it is evaporated using steam The most common solution used is a water/lithium bromide solution where the lithium bromide acts as the absorber and water as the coolant. These systems can cool the inlet air to 10oC however they have a low coefficient of performance (0.7 to 0.9) and have a higher cost than evaporative cooling systems. These systems are used where there is a hot humid climate where they are more effective due to the very high humidity. The coefficient of performance can be increased to 1.15 using a double effect unit.

Figure 26: Absorption Cooling Systems

Single Effect

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

51 In a single effect absorption chiller, all condensing heat cools and condenses in the condenser. From there it is released to the cooling water. A double effect absorber has a higher heat efficiency of condensation and divides the generator into a high temperature and low temperature generator. Figure 27 and Figure 28 show the layout of single and double effect absorption chillers.

Figure 27: Single Effect Absorption Chiller

In a single effect absorption chiller, the heat released during the chemical process of absorbing refrigerant vapour into the liquid stream, which is rich in absorbent, is released into the environment. In a multiple effect absorption chiller some of the energy is used as the driving force to generate more refrigerant vapour. The more vapour generated per unit of heat or fuel input, the greater the cooling capacity and the higher the overall operating efficiency.

Figure 28: Double Effect Absorption Chiller

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

52 A double effect chiller uses two generators paired with a single condenser, absorber and evaporator. It requires a higher temperature heat input to operate and therefore they are limited in the type of electrical generation equipment they can be paired with when used in a CHP system Absorption chillers are best employed when there is free or low cost of heat available as they have electrical load limitation that is expensive to overcome. Therefore they are ideally suited for combined heat and power systems. (60) Combination of Evaporation and Refrigerated Inlet Systems The use of evaporative cooler to assist the chiller system to attain lower temperatures of the inlet air Thermal Energy Storage Systems These are intermittent use systems where the cold is produced off-peak and then used to chill the inlet air during the hot hours of the day Efficiency: Regeneration Effect -

7.3.3

In a gas turbine cycle, the turbine exit temperature is higher than that of the air leaving the compressor. By using the hot turbine gases to preheat the air between the compressor and the combustion chamber the fuel requirements needed for the combustion chamber can be reduced.

Figure 29: Gas Turbine with Regeneration (61)

7.3.4

Inter-cooling and Reheat

The total work done by the gas turbine cycle ( ) can be increased by either decreasing the compressor work or increasing the turbine work. By using multiple stages of compressors the temperature can be cooled between each stage (inter-cooling). This reduces the power on the compressor and hence reduces the total work input.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

53

Figure 30: Gas Turbine with Inter-cooling (61)

7.3.5

Steam Injection

Steam injection has become the answer to many of the present day concerns with pollution and achieving higher efficiency. The steam injected into the system reduces the peak combustion temperature of the fuel. This reduces the nitrous oxide (NOx) emission by up to 70% in addition to increasing the power output from the turbine, see Figure 31. (62) Steam used in this process is generated by the turbine exhaust gas. Water at 1 bar and 27oC enters the regenerator where it is brought to 4 bar above the compressor discharge and the same temperature as the compressor discharge (26).

Figure 31: Power Increase from Steam Injection (63)

Corrosion problems are a major problem in such systems, however by keeping the steam injection flow below 5% of the compressor flow this problem can be minimised.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

54

7.4 Steam Turbine


A steam turbine is a type of heat engine in which the energy of the steam is transformed into kinetic energy by expansion through nozzles which in turn is converted into work. From a thermodynamic point of view, steam turbines occupy a very attractive position. They are able to translate a large fraction of heat energy into mechanical work by the expansion of the steam inside a turbine. Steam turbines are divided up into a heat source, boiler or steam generator and a turbine cycle. The turbine cycle consists of a turbine, generator, condenser pumps and feedwater heaters while the turbine itself consists of a stationary set of blades (nozzles) and a moving set of adjacent blades (rotor blades), see Figure 32. When steam enters the turbine it is passed over the nozzles before striking the rotor blades, forcing the blades to move. The nozzles accelerate the steam to a higher velocity by allowing the steam to expand to a lower pressure, creating a pressure drop. Successive combinations of nozzles and rotor blades, called a stage, allow the turbine to reach greater speed and torque but at the loss of steam pressure. (64) Steam turbines are divided into condensing, no-condensing (back pressure), re-heat and extraction turbines.

Nozzles

Rotor Blades

Figure 32: Blades and Nozzles Invalid source specified.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

55

7.5 Heat Recovery Steam Generators


The main difference between a combined cycle and cogeneration plant is that in a cogeneration plant the steam generated can be used for both power production and for process, while in a combined cycle the steam can only be used in power production. Whether the plant is a combined cycle or cogeneration plant a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) is a critically important system. The HRSG is an energy recovery heat exchanger, producing steam from a hot gas stream which can be used to drive a steam turbine. In most plants the HRSG uses the exhaust gas (flue gas) from the gas turbine or reciprocating engine as the energy source for the production of high-pressure, high-temperature steam. This steam is then fed into a steam generator which produces electricity. This arrangement is much more efficient than a gas or steam turbine alone.

Figure 33: Heat Recovery Steam Generator (65)

A HRSG is essentially a counter flow heat exchanger as shown in Figure 34: Heat Recovery, with the flue gas flowing from the superheater to economizer while the steam used to power the steam turbine flows from the economizer to the superheater. The flue gas is used to heat the steam to temperature that are stuitable for use in a steam turbine. Most HRSG units consist of three major components: the superheater, evaporator and economizer tubes as shown in Figure 33. (66)These are arranged from the gas inlet to gas outlet to maximize the heat recovery from the flue gas. Other components include reheaters, preheaters and integral de-aerators. In a HRSG the overall heat transfer rate is lower than that in a fired boiler due to the lower flue gas temperatures and the reduced effect of radiation. In order to increase the rate of heat transfer, the Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

56 surface area on the outside of the tubes is increased by finning. To maximise heat recovery, the final flue gas temperature should be as low as possible while remaining above the dew point. The production of high pressure, high temperature steam allows for maximum steam turbine efficiency. However the temperature of the evaporator section increases with pressure which therefore increases the temperature at which heat transfer occurs, limiting the amount of heat recovery. The use of multipressure systems negates this effect. The high pressure evaporator and economizer ensures high pressure steam delivery while the low pressure side allows for maximum heat exctraction form the flue gas. The efficiency can be further imporved by adding more pressure levels but increased costs generaly limit the this to three.

Figure 34: Heat Recovery (67)

7.5.1

Economizer

The economizer is used to preheat the water entering the HRSG using the hot flue gas leaving the tower. Economizers improve the thermal efficiency of a system by recovering heat from the flue gas exhausted from the steam boiler, minimizing the amount of heat lost. Conventional economizers are constructed from relatively inexpensive materials such as low alloy carbon steels. They operate with the flue gas side temperature above the acid due point1 to protect them from corrosion, caused by acidic flue gas condensate. They can also be operated blow the acid due point to give a greater heat recovery, however this also gives a lower payback as more expensive materials are needed. A compromise is to operate below the acid due point but with cheaper, less corrosive-resistant material, accepting an accelerated rate of corrosion and periodically replacing the damaged heat transfer surfaces when needed.

The acid due point temperature is the temperature at which the acid vapour pressure equals the acid vapour saturation pressure

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

57 Condensing economizers operate blow the flue gas water due point, with operating temperatures in the range of 43oC to 60oC. The operating temperature ranges from 43oC to 60oC, depending on the amount of hydrogen and water in the fuel, the mount of excess combustion air used and the humidity of the air. These economizers recover sensible heat as well as vapour latent heat from the hot flue gas. They are constructed from inexpensive, corrosive resistant materials, usually from 304 stainless steel. (68)

7.5.2

Evaporator

The evaporator is used to vaporise water in order to produce saturated steam, recovering up to 60% of the energy contained within the flue gas. (69) Each evaporator contains a steam drum as shown in Figure X. The steam drums are used to ensure proper steam purity by removing condensed water and dissolved impurities before sending the steam to the superheater. Any water removed is returned to the evaporator. They are also designed to allow for surges during start up and operating transients.

Figure 35: Evaporator with Steam Drum (70)

7.5.3

Superheater

Superheaters are used to raise the steam temperature from saturation conditions to the desired final temperature which, in some cases, can be as high as 1000oC. Its main purpose is to produce dry steam from saturated steam. Superheaters are placed as close to the flue gas inlet as possible so to maximise on the energy recovered. 7.5.4 Layout of HRSGs

HRSG units can be classified as Horizontal HRSG - Exhaust gases flows horizontally over vertical tubes Vertical HRSG - Exhaust gas flows vertically over horizontal tubes Once through steam generator - No defined economizer, evaporator or superheater sections - No steam drums (71) Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

58 7.5.5 Supplementary and Auxiliary Fired Boilers

As the flue gas contains sufficient oxygen (15 wt%) to support further combustion, additional burners may be positioned in the exhaust stream to allow for supplementary firing. Fired HRSGs are able to increase the flue gas temperature which in turn increases steam production. Normal flue gas temperature is approximately 600oC, however this can be raised to 815oC in a fired HRSG. This increase in temperature from 600 to 850oC increase steam production by 50%. Temperatures of 1100 are possible to reach but require refractory lining2 to be fitted and above this temperature water cooled walls are required. (72) 7.5.6 Safety

The gas may have high dust content and the dust chemistry will influence the build up of deposits on tube surfaces. Cleaning mechanisms (e.g. sloot blowers) maybe required and allowance for the reduction in heat transfer due to dust deposits must be made. In order to minimise the gas turbine backpressure the flue gas must be at a low pressure while it may be high in process integrated applications. If the process exhaust gas temperatures are higher than the flue gas, refractory lining or water cooled walls will be required. If the flue gas is corrosive then water cooled walls would be more advantageous over refractory lining, where the corrosive gas would corrode the lining. (73)

Material that does not deform or become damaged by high temperatures

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

59

7.6 Combined Cycle


While we have discussed cogeneration one of the main plant layouts is the combined cycle. In general the exhaust hot gases from the gas turbine are used to produce steam which in turn powers a steam turbine. Both the steam and gas turbines are used in the production of electricity while any waste steam is returned to the heat recovery steam generator and either used in a process or enters a re-boiler and returned to the steam turbine. The main type of combined cycle uses a condensing steam generator to provide the maximum amount of electricity possible however a back pressure turbine can also be used with the exhaust steam being used for low pressure processes. Extraction steam turbines can also be used with the steam extracted at certain points along the steam turbine. This steam can then be used in a process where higher pressure steam is required. Figure shows the general layout of a combined cycle operation. However the natural gas and volatile fuels required to maintain and operate a combined cycle are expensive when compared to coal. (74) The most efficient power generation cycles use unfired heat recovery steam generators with pre-engineered components. These unfired steam cycles are also the lowest in cost. Fired heat recovery steam generators are only used for specific applications. (75)

Figure 36: Cogeneration

7.6.1

Theory

The principle design of a combined cycle is to convert heat into mechanical energy using an assembly of engines. The exhaust of one heat engine is used as the heat source for another, thus increasing the overall efficiency of the system. A common combination is the Brayton cycle and Rankine cycle. Here the heat produced from the Brayton cycle is used to produce steam, which in turn is used in the Rankine cycle. This increases the efficiency from blow 50% to theoretically 95%. From Error! Reference source not found. We can see that in order to achieve high efficiency, the difference in temperature between the input and output stream should be as high as possible. By using the Rankine and Braytin cycles this difference in temperature can be achieved. Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

60

7.7 Configuration
7.7.1 Single and Mulit-Shaft There are two main types of combined cycle plants Single shaft Multi shaft

Figure 37: Single Shaft Configuration Invalid source specified.

A single shaft system consists of one gas turbine, one steam turbine, one generator and one heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The gas and steam turbine are both connected to the same generator, in tandem on a single shaft as shown in Figure 37 Single shaft systems are easier to operate and have a much lower start up costs than multi shaft however they are much less flexible. The flexibility however, can be overcome by using a steam turbine which can be disconnected using a synchro-selfshifting clutch. Multi shaft systems have more than one gas turbine generators and HRSGs as shown in Figure 38.These cost about 5% more than single shaft systems. Multi shaft systems are most commonly used when there has been a gas turbine installed prior to the steam turbine and it is desired to operate the gas turbine independently of the steam system. However the single shaft configuration excels in the base load and mid range power generation applications and has become the preferred configuration. (76)

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61
Figure 38: Multi Shaft Plant Layout (77)

7.7.1.1

Single and Multi-Pressure

In addition to single shaft and multi shaft there is also single pressure and multi pressure reheat and non-reheat systems. In a multi pressure reheat systems, two turbines work in series. The 1st turbine accepts vapour from the boiler at a high pressure. After the vapour has passed through the 1st turbine, it re-enters the boiler and is reheated before passing through a 2nd, lower pressure turbine. This prevents the vapour condensing during expansion (which can damage the turbine blades by cavitation) and improves the efficiency of the cycle. (78)

Figure 39: Multi Pressure Reheat (79)

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62

7.8 Tri-Generation
Trigeneration is the simultaneous production of electricity, heat and cooling from single heat source achieving efficiencies of over 90%. It is defined as the extraction of electrical power and heat from fuel where a percentage of heat byproduct is used for cooling. Heating and cooling output may operate concurrently or be interchanged based on the needs of the system. (80)Waste heat which is insufficient in energy to power an electrical generator is recycled to be used as heating or cooling of living a space. These systems are useful when heating and cooling needs change for example during winter and summer. (81) Electricit y Heat
Figure 40: Tri-Generation

Fuel

Tri-Generation

Cooler

Coolant

Heat

Absorption Coolers Absorption chillers use heat instead of mechanical energy to provide cooling. A thermal compressor consists of an absorber, a generator, a pump, and a throttling device, and replaces the mechanical vapour compressor. In the chiller, refrigerant vapour from the evaporator is absorbed by a solution mixture in the absorber. This solution is then pumped to the generator where the refrigerant re-vaporizes using a waste steam heat sourse. The refrigerant depleted solution then returns to the absorber via a throttling device. Absorption chillers provide an economic and environmental alternative to conventional refrigeration. The hot water from the cooling circuit of the cogeneration plant serves as drive energy for the absorption chillier. The exhaust gas from the gas engine can also be used as an energy source fir steam generator, which can then be utilized as an energy source for a highly efficient, sing le or double effect steam chiller (See Absorption Cooling for more information on coolers).

Figure 41: Tri Generation (82)

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

63

7.9 Integrated Biomass Gasification Combined Cycle


Integrated biomass gasification combined cycle (IBGCC) systems are much cleaner and efficient than traditional fired systems. In a IBGCC system, biomass (in our case bagasse) is converted into a gaseous fuel, which when cleaned is comparable to natural gas. The gas is burned in a gas turbine to generate electricity. Exhaust heat from the gas turbine enters a heat recovery steam generator where it is used to produce steam for use in a steam turbine. This result is the two generators (gas and steam) being used to produce electricity. By using a IBGCC system efficiencies of over 75% can be accomplished, compared with 25-50% for other power generation plants. (83)

Figure 42: Layout of a IBGCC System

7.9.1

Process

For every tonne of bagasse fed to the gasifier, 523kg of hydrogen is produced containing approximately 4.4MJ/m3 of energy. According to our basis of design of 32.5 tonnes of bagasse fed to the gasifier we would be producing 243kW of energy every hour. Assuming the price of electricity is 7p/kWh then the gasification plant would make 1,700/h (84). However as a typical gasifier reactor can only process 3 tonnes of bagasse per hour around 11 gasifiers will be required. The syngas is fed to a scrubber where it is cleaned until it contains less than 1% of impurities. The scrubbing process involves cracking (thermal or catalytic) to remove tar. Filters remove any dust Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

64 contained in the syngas before it is passed to a condenser/absorber to remove any acidic impurities such as HCl or SO2. The final part of the cleaning process is the removal of small particles which have not yet been filtered. This is done by a venturi scrubber which increases the particle size to allow for better particle filtration. After the gas is cleaned the syngas is fed to the combustion chamber of the gas turbine where it is burn to produced electricity. The exhaust flume gas is passed through a heat recover steam generator, heating up water to be used for the steam turbine.

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

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Activated Carbon Processes

There are two different methods to which activated carbon can be produced from bagasse, these are physical and chemical activation and the process is described in more detail in section 4. Physical activation has the advantage of producing clean activated carbons which means they are free from any mineral impurities unlike in chemical activation. Physical activation method also produces a harder yield of granular activated carbon than that which would be produced by chemical activation. Furthermore the activated carbon produced from physical activation is microporous which is extremely useful as an absorbent as well as for gaseous effluent applications (85). However there are several disadvantages to physical activation, during pyrolysis the formation of both tar and hydrocarbons lower the yield of activated carbon. Another disadvantage is that in comparison to chemical activation the temperatures used in activation are extremely high and a longer residence time is required (85). Chemical activation with phosphoric acid has the advantage of producing a yield of approximately 40%, at a lower temperature and residence time than that of physical activation. This method also produces a higher surface area of 1800-2200 m2/g compared to that of physical activation which produces a surface area of 1100 m2/g. However through using the chemical activation method impurities are formed, these impurities can include zinc and phosphorus depending on the chemical agent used for the procedure. The impurities can cause irregularities in the surface area properties of carbon (85). In this instance we decided to investigate the process of physical activation in more detail.

8.1 Steam activated continuous process


The unit operations include milling, pelletizing, pyrolysis/activation, acid and water washes, drying, sieving followed by the collecting of the final product; granular activated carbon. It is assumed that of bagasse with moisture content below 13% is the feedstock for this

process, which agrees with the basis of design detailed in section Error! Reference source not found.. The bagasse is fed to a milling operation where it is milled to a particle size of 0.6 to 0.425mm. Those particles which are greater than 0.6mm are recycled back to the mill to be reprocessed. The milled material with the correct particle size is then fed into a pellitizer in a ratio of 2:1 with molasses. The molasses are pre-heated prior to binding as it allows for a more successful binding to take place.

Section: Activated Carbon Processes Authors: Holly Keir, Zengani Chabinga and Innes MacLennan

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Figure 43 - Activated carbon Rotary Kiln

Once the bagasse and molasses have bound together the pellets are fed into the rotary kiln. The rotary kiln is where pyrolysis and activation take place by subjecting the molasses and bagasse pellets to high temperatures. For this process, it has been decided that pyrolysis and activation are to be carried out using two kilns which are connected to one another to achieve a continuous system. Inside the rotary kiln the pellets are subject to inert conditions with a set temperature of 700oC for one hour. Leaving the pellets in the rotary kiln for one hour at this temperature allows for pyrolysis to occur. The process of pyrolysis creates off-gases which are suitable for recycling or combustion, the main gas that is emitted in the burning of the pellets is carbon dioxide, so being able to recycle this would not only improve the process economically, but would also benefit the environment. After the pyrolysis step the char produced then goes through an activation step, which involves the char being heated to 850OC for 45-60 minutes in the presence of steam. Now the activated carbon is now effectivelyactivated it is required to be cooled to below 100oC in a rotary cooler. Water is fed into the cooler to help this cooling process. If designing this process in detail, the water that is used to cool this step could be used in the wash tanks, this would help to keep the utilities cost down. Once cooled the granular activated carbon is then put through an acid washing step. The activated carbon is fed into a large wash tank and using 0.1M hydrochloric acid is washed, thus ensuring all ash is removed that may have formed in the previous steps. Once the acid washing step is complete, the activated carbon is then subject to a water washing which is carried out to neutralise the acid until the process stream has a pH of between 5 and 6. The acid and water wash tanks work alternatively, as the acid wash is being carried out in one tank, the other tank is being filled with water to treat the activated carbon. When the water washing commences, the acid washer is drained and then re-filled, so to allow for a continuous process. Control valves must be in place to allow the flow to be directed to the appropriate wash tanks. After the acid and water washing step has completed, the activated carbon is fed into a rotary dryer where it Is dried for up to two hours at a temperature of 60oC, the drying step then removes the excess water that has been absorbed by the activated carbon during washing. Now that the activated carbon has been dried it is now sieved to collect the particles that are not of the correct size. The ideal size of activated carbon particles is 0.425-2mm, so any particles which fall out with this specified size range are removed; the removed powdered carbon by-product can then be bagged and sold on for other uses. During this sieving step it has been assumed that 5% of the carbon matter is lost. Once all the particles that arent of the correct size are removed the final Section: Activated Carbon Processes Authors: Holly Keir, Zengani Chabinga and Innes MacLennan

67 product can be collected. The amount of activated carbon that has been produced through this continuous steam activation process is carbon is then bagged and stored, ready for sale. Detailed material and energy balance calculations can be found in appendix 1. , which gives a yield of 19.38%. The activated

Section: Activated Carbon Processes Authors: Holly Keir, Zengani Chabinga and Innes MacLennan

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84

1 B1 4

5A 2 B36 B35 3 B6 7

5 6

B10 9

B29

10

B14

B11 12 B30 21A 14 12A

11

15 B12

16 B38 24 B28 22 B27 20 B26 18

B31

17

19

21B

Section: PFD Continuous Process Authors: Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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8.2 Batch process for Activated Carbon


It is possible to make activated carbon in a batch process, but its only really been done on laboratory scale before. For this process it has been attempted to scale it up to industrial scale to see if it is feasible. The physical activation step takes place in two main stages, firstly the pyrolysis stage where the bagasse is subject to an inert atmosphere at high temperatures, followed by activation at very high temperatures. The quality of activated produced can depend on the quality of raw materials used, the unit operations and the conditions under which it is subject to (34). The first step within the process is to dry the bagasse to remove moisture, this is done by heating the bagasse to a temperature of 110oC; it is then crushed for 15 minutes to reduce the particle size to 420m. The crushed bagasse is then combined with refined sugar and the mixture is then compacted into pellets using a hydraulic press with a piston and die inserted inside with 110kN force applied. The pellets generated are then inserted into a wire mesh basket which sits inside the reactor where pyrolysis is carried out at an inert atmosphere. Nitrogen gas is then fed in at the bottom of the reactor, which creates the inert atmosphere which is required. After pyrolysis step is complete char is produced along with gases, these gases exit the reactor and are cooled to 25oC; the gas in the reactor is then vented off after being cleaned by a filter system. The char then undergoes partial gasification with steam. As in pyrolysis, gases are produced during gasification which undergoes the same process as that of the gas from pyrolysis. The resulting activated carbon is then cooled using nitrogen gas, the final temperature of the activated carbon leaving the batch process is 15oC. Using batch processing to process the same amount of bagasse as the continuous process, i.e. 260000 tonnes per year is unfeasible because it requires the use of too many batches, 188079 batches per year or the use of very large reactors which would increase the capital costs. . Along with the large capital costs associated with the batch process, labours costs will also be marginally higher than those with continuous processing. In addition to the large number of batches, of which in a single batch pyrolysis and activation take approximately 5.5 hours, the downtime processing also renders the process impractical for this scale of production. There is also always a delay before the raw material (bagasse and molasses) is processed and the output is obtained. The process however might be feasible for a much smaller scale of production, on a smaller sugar factory for instance. Given that bagasse production will be seasonal, using batch for smaller processing is the more attractive option. Out with the seasonal time of the bagasse, the flexibility of the batch processing might enable factories to use it for other processes or renting out equipment to other processors.

Section: Batch Processes for Activated Carbon Authors: Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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Paper Pulp Production

9.1 Introduction
The production of pulp for paper manufacturing is another one of the popular uses of sugarcane bagasse. The biggest example of paper being manufactured using bagasse is a government owned corporation in India known as TNPL (Tamilnadu Newsprint and Papers Limited), where roughly 1 million tonnes of bagasse are consumed each year. In this section we will look into some of the advantages of using bagasse to produce paper rather than other materials as well as considering a potential process scheme for such production in the form of material and energy balances. Basic environmental and economic aspects of the process will also be discussed.

9.2 Process Scheme


The basic block flow diagram for the process scheme is shown below.

The bagasse feed to the system is 50% moisture by weight. It is fed at a rate of 65000 kg/hr. The first process involves the depithing of the bagasse in order to eventually produce pulp of a satisfactory standard and also to avoid wastage of any chemicals (86). For the purpose of this study it was assumed that the amount of pith is equal to 35.21% of the dry solids and its composition is also 50% (87). The main objective of a depither is to remove the maximum amount of pith while maintaining the quality of the fibre, thus enhancing the quality of the pulp produced (88). For this procedure three vertical depithers were used as there capacity is approximately 13 bone dry metric tonnes per hour so we require three to accommodate our 32.5 bone dry metric tonnes per hour load (87)These depithers have axial flow and have approximately 18 rows of hammers to remove the pith effectively as well as opening the fibre bundles to allow for successful cooking later on in the process. The depither consists of an assembly of hammers which rotates within a perforated cylinder screen by a multi piece shaft connected into the central shaft. The bagasse enters the depither at the top of the cylinder screen and is then processed by the hammers as the bagasse moves down the cylinder; the pith is removed through the small clearances in the cylinder, then the fibre is removed (88). A diagram of a depither is shown in

Section: Paper Pulp Production Authors: Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

71 Figure 44: Typical Depither. The pith removed is usually burned as a fuel while the fibre continues onto the next stage of the process (88).

Figure 44: Typical Depither (89)

The depithed bagasse is then passed on to wet bulk storage. Here water is added to the bagasse in order to change the moisture content to 80%. This is done to control the microbiological action within the pile and to ultimately achieve better quality paper. The depithed bagasse is then passed on to wet bulk storage. Here water is added to the bagasse in order to change the moisture content to 80%. This is done to control the microbiological action within the pile and to ultimately achieve better quality paper. Water is pumped to the top of the bagasse pile using an elevated flume or pipe, the bagasse fibres become saturated at 80% moisture and the excess water drains back to a collection basin and is recirculated to the top of the pile. Vertical drainage through the pile is desired in order to provide high compaction and stability in storage. In the storage process there are typically three wet storage piles, one supplying bagasse to the wet depithing stage, another being built, and a third pile containing aging feedstock before pulping. At least three months of wet storage is required to remove most of the solubles, reduce variation in composition and to provide a more consistent feedstock with less ash supplied to the process. Wet bulk storage is advantageous as it requires 10x less storage area and has no bailing cost when compared with dry bale storage. Wet storage is also a more stable, safer method of storage-the risk of the bagasse burning by spontaneous combustion is eliminated. Storage piles typically range in size up to 200 meters x 300 meters with height 20 to 40 meters. The result of this type of wet storage is bagasse that is extremely well preserved while 70% to 80% of the bagasse solubles are removed after 90 days or more storage (87). The bagasse then undergoes further depithing as a wet pile as described above. 70% of the remaining pith is removed in this operation and the bagasse is now ready to enter the cooking process at 15oC. The cooking process operated at 175oC for 60 minutes (87). The cooking process occurs in a continuous digester and most commonly a tube digester when utilizing bagasse. The advantage of the continuous Section: Paper Pulp Production Authors: Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

72 digester over the rotary or globe batch units is that it operates at a low pressure as well allowing a lower chemical input. Another benefit of using a continuous digester is that it adapts to fluctuations in the feed without affecting the quality of the pulp produced (90). This process is where the bagasse pulp is produced. Sodium sulphite and sodium carbonate are added to the cooker, in amounts that are equal to 14% and 4% of the dry solids remaining respectively (87). In this process it is assumed that a 75% conversion of bone dry depithed bagasse to pulp is achieved. Leaving the cooker is the produced pulp and everything else is in the form of black liquor also produced in the digester. Before the filtration stage the pulp and black liquor temperature is cooled from 175oC to 15oC to allow for more efficient filtration (87). The next stage in the process filters the stream to separate the pulp from the black liquor. In the calculations it was assumed that a 95% separation of the pulp occurred, meaning that the stream leaving the filtering process would contain 95% pulp and 5% black liquor. The remaining black liquor needs to be removed before the pulp can be bleached. This is done in the cleaning process where 2 tonnes of steam are used for every tonne of pulp at a temperature of 181oC at 10 bar (87) .The cleaning process uses centrifugal and vibratory cleaners to remove the impurities, however due to the good quality of the bagasse the screening loses are very low. The result is a stream that is completely pulp and is passed on to the bleaching stage. Due to the residual lignin content of the pulp, the pulp has a low brightness thus needs to be bleached. Although using sulphite in the cooking step results in a lighter pulp compared with that of a sulphate or soda pulp. When the pulp is being bleached chemicals are added along with steam counter currently for a retention time of 18minutes. The steam passes through the vessel and is used to raise the temperature to 56 oC as can be seen in the energy balances shown in X. The amounted of steam added is calculated as 0.5 tons per ton of pulp. The chemicals added are hydrogen peroxide (1.5% of dry solids added), sodium hydroxide (3% of dry solids) and sodium silicate (3% of dry solids). During the bleaching stage the pH of the pulp is approximately 11. It is assumed that the pulp contains 9% solids. This results in approximately 20 tonnes/hr of pulp being produced ready for paper production with a brightness of 61.

Section: Paper Pulp Production Authors: Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

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10 Environmental Issues
The environmental aspects for utilisation of bagasse to produce activated carbon, cogeneration and pulp are discussed in the next section. Due to the recent climate changes, the impacts processes have on the environment are an issue that is getting more global attention therefore the section below is in place to highlight these.

10.1 Activated Carbon


Although as a final product activated carbon can be used to help protect the planet, in the cleaning of oil spills and the control of air pollution, the process of making activated carbon from bagasse still has some negative effects towards the environment. Green house gases are emitted throughout the life cycle of activated carbon, from the production to the transport and application. One of the steps in the process which causes the most emissions is the pyrolysis and activation steps, where the bagasse is heated up to temperatures greater than 800oC. A large amount of gases are emitted in this stage, with the majority of these being CO2 and CO, which are obviously very harmful towards the environment as they are greenhouse gases. Another source of emissions in the continuous process is when the acid and water solution is discharged, for this to be discharged to a river, the acid and water solution would need to undergo treatment so that it conforms with the regulations of discharging into rivers.

10.2 Cogeneration
The use of sugarcane bagasse for combined heat and power (CHP) generation provides a possible opportunity for energy generators to reduce dependence on traditional fossil fuels, while reducing costs and environmental impacts. This section of the report aims to identify in particular the major environmental advantages and disadvantages of bagasse use in cogeneration systems. 10.2.1 Greenhouse Gas Emissions In sugar cane producing countries such as Brazil, India and China the potential for cogeneration using bagasse is profound, however in many cases this potential is not fulfilled (21). Energy produced from bagasse is totally renewable and significantly reduces the environmental impacts associated with the mining and extraction of fossil fuels as well as the costs involved in these processes. When bagasse is used by sugar factories growing their own sugarcane in close proximity, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions involved in long distance transport of fossil fuels are also eradicated. 10.2.2 Cogeneration and the CDM In addition to the above environmental benefits, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) applied as part of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol offers a monetary value to reductions in CO2 emissions, and this could Section: Enviromental Issues Author(s):, Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

74 therefore by another significant driver for the installation of bagasse based cogeneration plants. The reduction of emissions over fossil fuel is estimated to be around 0.55 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of bagasse used, and if these reductions constitute additionality (the reduction exceeds those emissions that would occur in the absence of the activity) they could be used to gain Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits as part of the CDM (91). 10.2.3 Combustion versus composting Before realising its potential for use in CHP generation, bagasse was treated simply as a waste to be disposed of at some cost to the producer; the chosen method of removal was simply by composting. This presents another environmental advantage of bagasse combustion for cogeneration; the burning of bagasse emits less GHG than composting (21). Combustion and composting of bagasse both release CO2, however composting also releases methane (91). If the methane released by composting is not collected by any means, as is typical, the GHG effect is increased; the global warming potential of methane is 56 times greater than that of CO2 over a period of 20 years (92). 10.2.4 Fuel Efficiency High fuel efficiency is another significant advantage of cogeneration in general. By definition cogeneration recovers heat energy while producing power, compared with conventional combustion processes which waste this heat. The increase in fuel efficiency of a cogeneration plant over separate power and heat generating plants can be demonstrated simply in terms of total generation efficiency. For separate heat and power generation:

Figure 45: Separate heat and power (93)

Where the total efficiency, , is then given by (93):

And for the cogeneration plant:

Section: Enviromental Issues Author(s):, Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

75

Figure 46: Cogeneration plant (93)

Where is given by (93):

10.2.5 Gasification If the gassifier is operated at high temepratures, toxic metals (including cadmium and mercury), acidic gasses (such as hydrochloric acid) and ozone forming nitrogen oxides are produced. In addition to this, dioxins (one of the main components used in agent orange) and furans are created during the cooling process after gasification. These poisons are very harmful even at low levels and even modern pollutant control devices do not remove these chemicals effectively. One of the main problems with the mercury and dioxin produced are that they are persistent and bio-accumulative, i.e they will not breakdown in the environment and build up along the food chain. In addition to these pollutants large quantities of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are produced, contributing to global warming. The ash, which contains toxins and heavy metals, collected after gasification must be disposed of. This is normally done through removing the ash to landfill sited where they ultimately find their way to ground and surface water, contaminating the water supplies. (94)

10.3 Pulp and Paper


The first and most obvious advantage of using bagasse, which itself is a by-product of the sugarcane ethanol process, is that it avoids any further deforestation, for example the TNPL mill saves at least 160 km2 of forest land from depletion every year (95). In the current times when environmental concerns are considered as much as economic aspects of any process this makes the use of this feedstock very favourable. On the same vein, it is thought that the use of bagasse as a feedstock will result in a production of fewer greenhouse gases. This is based on the fact that the paper production mill will work along side the sugarcane plant where the bagasse is initially being produced. The result of this is that the fuel used to transport the sugarcane, will be all of the fuel required for transport and will result in the production of both fuel ethanol and paper. If another raw material is to be used to produce high quality paper it will need to be sourced and transported to the mill which will not only double the cost of transport but also the emissions from transporting the material. Bagasse is also very easily pulped this means that the bleaching process will require a smaller input of chemicals than other feedstocks which also results in it being a more viable option both environmentally and economically. In terms of energy recovery, the by-products of this process can be combusted to produce power to run the paper mill. Section: Enviromental Issues Author(s):, Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

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11 Economics
11.1 Activated Carbon
For the purpose of this project, when calculating the economics of the processes considered, the things that have been taken into account are the raw material costs, the price that the product can be sold for, a basic estimate of the capital cost of the equipment and the amount of energy that needs to be supplied to the process. 11.1.1 Activated carbon continuous process material costs During the process of producing activated carbon the raw materials required are; bagasse, molasses and 01.M hydrochloric acid. It has been assumed that the activated carbon plant is working alongside a sugarcane production plant, therefore the bagasse and molasses supplied have been assumed to be used at no charge. For the purposes of this calculation the cost of raw materials will be calculated when the costs of bagasse and molasses are negligible and then calculated when they have to be bought in from an independent supplier and the costs will be compared. The calculations for the price of raw materials are shown in the part B of the appendix. The costs of the raw materials can be seen in Table 22: Raw material costs (/tonne).
Table 22: Raw material costs (/tonne)

Raw Materials Activated carbon Bagasse Molasses Hydrochloric acid

Price (/tonne) 3051.9 24.73 211 121.54

From Table 22: Raw material costs (/tonne) the price of all the raw materials required for the process are calculated. The results are shown in Table 23: Raw material costs (/year).
Table 23: Raw material costs (/year)

Raw Materials Activated carbon Bagasse Molasses Hydrochloric acid

Price (/year) 153779304.8 57670567.8 21944000 79001000

Section: Economics -Activated Carbon Author(s):, Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

77 Using these values the total amount of money spent on raw materials per year and the amount of money that is made from the sale of activated carbon can be found.

The economic potential can then be calculated using the equation;

Therefore if this process plant is not working alongside a sugarcane plant the process will make a loss of 4836263/year. However if the process plant is operating alongside a sugarcane factory and bagasse and molasses are supplied with no charge the plant will make a profit of 74778304.8/year. There are certain costs that arent included in this calculation so it is only an approximation. It is clear that if the activated carbon plant was not working alongside the sugarcane plant then it would not be economical. Although a profit is made when working alongside the sugarcane plant there are certain variables that may result in a change income; the cost of hydrochloric acid and the value that activated carbon is sold for, operating costs may increase, labour costs may increase etc. The estimated capital costs for the activated carbon plant is 57,670,567.8 this is only an approximation, but gives an idea of the pay back time of the activated carbon plant. When analysing the other costs within the plant one of the major things that has to be considered is the operating costs of the rotary kilns, they require a lot of energy to be supplied to heat up the kilns to temperatures in excess of 800oC. For this process it has been calculated from Appendix B.2 that the amount of energy that must be supplied to the whole process is 8610400kJ/hr. Obviously supplying this amount of energy will be quite costly.

Section: Economics -Activated Carbon Author(s):, Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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11.2 Cogeneration
The aim of this section is to provide an overview of the economic benefits of bagasse cogeneration, and to provide through basic calculations an indication of the economic viability of each of the three cogeneration cycles examined in this report. Typically the largest sugarcane producers are also some of the worlds poorest countries, with little or no access to electricity and high unemployment rates in many areas. If efficient bagasse cogeneration technology can be applied successfully in these regions then there is large potential to stimulate both economic and social development. When focusing solely on the sugar industry, the long-term economic viability of many sugar mills has diminished in recent years, caused mainly by extremely competitive domestic and global sugar markets (21). Therefore the generation of surplus electricity which can be sold to the grid can contribute significantly to the future economic viability of these mills. In addition to this, in countries such as Brazil peak power can often be up to ten times more expensive than off-peak power, and since the milling season often coincides with peak demand for power, the sugar mills can benefit from the increased value of electricity to be sold (21). In Brazil where there is a large sector for the production of Ethanol from sugarcane as an alternative fuel, greater process efficiency through cogeneration can also drive the substitution of bio-ethanol for fossil fuel, at a time when international oil prices are high. In order to estimate the potential energy gains from cogeneration in the sugar industry, a flat coefficient (as used by the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Brazil in 2008) can be used: 1 tonne of bagasse (50% moisture)= 0.213 tonne of crude oil (91). Taking the total of bagasse production globally as 424.186 million tonnes (91), the sugarcane sector can potentially generate the same amount of electricity as from burning 90.35 million tonnes = 662.4 million barrels of crude oil. Using current prices for the price of crude oil and bagasse of $117.37 a barrel (96) and $40.21 per tonne (97) respectively, the difference in cost for electricity generation is calculated as $61 billion worldwide. Similar values can be calculated for individual producer countries to indicate the money saved by reduced dependence on fossil fuels. Apart from direct benefits to the sugarcane processing industry, there are a number of general advantages of bagasse cogeneration which include (21), (91): Increased fuel efficiency; Increased diversity, and hence security of electricity being supplied to the national grid; More widespread electricity supply, particularly to rural areas; Possibility of increased electricity supply during the dry season when hydroelectric plants are stretched; Lower expenses on fossil fuel imports in the case of net-importing countries and higher earnings in the case of net-exporters; Location at the point of energy demand, leading to minimal transmission and distribution (T&D) costs.

Section: Cogeneration- Economics Author(s): Ross Murphy and Roddy MacKay

79

Using modern installed high pressure and high temperature boilers (HPHT), as shown in this project, compared with old operations operating at around 20 Bar and 300C (21) can vastly increase the energy efficiency and therefore economic benefits of burning bagasse for heat and power. Table 1 compares the power that can be achieved from cogeneration by both old and new installations.
Table 24: Comparison of Low- with High-Temperature and Pressure Boilers (1)

Low T and P High T and P Power Generation (kWh/TC) 20-30 90-160 Net Power from Bagasse 60 370-510 (kWh/tonne) Heat Rate, processing 21000 6000-8000 (kcal/kWh) In the case of a sugar mill with cogeneration plant installed, the amount of surplus electricity sold to the grid is maximised by reducing the amount of steam required by the sugar cane milling process, installing more energy efficient equipment, and in some cases converting mills from steam-driven to electricitydriven operations. For the sugar industry as a whole, the integration of efficient cogeneration technologies will almost certainly be essential for the long-term growth and survival of the sugar industries in many cane producing countries (21).
Table 25:Comparison of Low- with High-Temperature and Pressure Boilers (1)

Sugarcane production (tonnes / yr) Brazil India China Thailand Pakistan Mexico Colombia Australia Cuba USA Philippines Other TOTAL TOTAL (excl. China, Aust., USA, Other) 386,232,000 290,000,000 93,900,000 74,071,952 52,055,800 45,126,500 36,600,000 36,012,000 34,700,000 31,178,130 25,835,000 244,581,738 1,350,293,120 944,621

Potential for electricity production (GWh / yr) 38,623 29,000 9,390 7,407 5,206 4,513 3,660 3,601 3,470 3,118 2,584 24,458 135,029 94,462

Bagasse potential as a percentage of electricity demand 11.50 5.83 0.72 8.15 8.36 2.42 9.19 1.95 25.93 0.09 6.16 0.32 0.97 7.45

11.2.1 Overview In cogeneration processes both heat and power are produced, hence the name Combined Heat and Power systems (CHP systems). Both heat and power are valuable commodities making cogeneration

Section: Cogeneration- Economics Author(s): Ross Murphy and Roddy MacKay

80 systems very favourable economically. A basic economic analysis has been carried out over the proposed cogeneration systems to evaluate which of the three has the greatest economic potential. Cogeneration can be carried out in several ways. Mainly using steam turbines, gas turbines or a combined cycle. Each of these has there own merits and drawbacks economically. For instance, steam turbines are the least efficient of the three options, as a result of this they result in higher operating and maintenance costs than for other options. Steam turbines also have the added drawback that they are associated with higher capital costs. Whereas gas turbine processes involve a much simpler design and construction process which leads to them requiring a smaller initial investment, making them a more attractive option than a steam turbine option. If large scale cogeneration is required a combined cycle plant may be the best option, these systems have the greatest efficiencies and hence the lowest operating and maintenance costs of the three options discussed here. However a combined cycle system only becomes an economically favourable option when the scale of the process is large enough, for small requirements combined cycle systems are very uneconomic.

Section: Cogeneration- Economics Author(s): Ross Murphy and Roddy MacKay

81 11.2.2 Government Policies 11.2.2.1 Brazil In many countries cogeneration is widely adopted and government policies to encourage cogeneration vary from country to country. Brazil is the global leader in sugarcane and hence bagasse production and is therefore the country with the greatest potential for effective cogeneration systems. The Brazilian government created the Programme for Incentive of Alternative Electric Energy Sources (PROINFA) in April 2002. The first phase of PROINFA aimed to take 3.3 GW of renewable energy from independent producers and sell it back to the state owned power company, Eletrobras, for up to 15 years. This first stage was completed and 20% of the 3.3 GW came from biomass cogeneration systems. After this initial period the second phase of PROINFA states that 10% of annual electricity requirement will be provided by independent producers. Energy produced through biomass cogeneration can be sold at between $30 and $60 per MWh. The funding of this system comes from the Energy Development Account, which is paid into by the consumer who pays raised rates for their energy consumption. Additional financing is also available from the Brazilian National Development Bank, 70% of the capital costs can be claimed for. This does not include any imported goods or the purchase of any land. No interest is charged on this finance during the construction phase and when interest starts to be charged it is at the national average interest rate (98). 11.2.2.2 India The country with the second greatest sugarcane production is India. There are several government incentives for small scale cogeneration systems. There is a five year tax holiday where there is a 30% exemption from income tax, add to this that renewable energy devices have exemptions from central sales tax, central excise duty and in some states general sales tax and small scale cogeneration becomes a very favourable option. Small scale cogeneration projects also have a 20% lower duty on imported equipment. Finally there is an accelerated depreciation system where 100% depreciation of some cogeneration equipment can be claimed for after the first year. It is government applied incentives and initiatives that provide the opportunity for expansion of the amount of small scale cogeneration systems. The main tool used by governments to make renewable energy processed more widely adopted is known as a feed-in tariff. 11.2.2.3 Feed in Tariff The principal behind this is that anyone generating electricity through a renewable/green method has a set price they will be able to sell their electricity at and hence a set return on the initial investment they have made. This policy removes any doubt a producer may have on the price they will get for their electricity and any uncertainty an investor may have on the potential money to be made from such projects. A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is required to set up any feed-in tariff. Some of the main aspects of any PPA are the statement of the commercial operation date( 9the date when the electricity supply must begin), conditions for termination of the agreement by either party and the contact price.

Section: Cogeneration- Economics Author(s): Roddy MacKay

82 11.2.3 Steam Requirement The steam produced in a cogeneration process also has its own large economic potential. The steam required by any given sugar mill is in the range of 500 to 700 kg of steam per tonne of sugarcane processed. When you consider that a rough steam cost is 7 per tonne and typical sugar mills will produce greater than one million tonnes the cost of the steam requirement for any individual mill is very large. Although the steam produced in these systems is rarely or never directly sold on, the saving that comes from its production is great and is a very important parameter to consider when carrying out an economical analysis of any cogeneration process. 11.2.4 Bagasse Importing It was considered that bagasse could be bought independently and a cogeneration facility could operate stand alone. However this would lead to the quality of the bagasse deteriorating as it has to be stored and transported. Also the transport and storage costs could be very high and would result in any benefits brought around through the cogeneration process being lessened. 11.2.5 Economic Process Analysis As it has previously been stated, it has been assumed that the cogeneration facility is operating in conjunction with a sugarcane mill that processes 2 million tonnes of sugarcane per year and that 520,000 tonnes per year of bagasse are produced throughout this process. It has also been assumed that the process operates for 8000 hours per year. It must be taken into account that these figures may vary depending on the location of the plant and its efficiency. 11.2.6 Steam The steam requirement of the process has been taken at 500kg of steam for every tonne of sugarcane that is processed. Therefore the cost of steam per year for this mill is given by multiplying this with the cost per tonne of steam and the amount of sugarcane processed per year. The steam cost is shown below.
Table 26 - Annual Steam Cost

Annual Steam Cost

7,000,000

The least efficient of the proposed cogeneration options generates 130 tonnes/hour of steam at roughly 150oC, which is enough to fulfil the steam requirement of the mill for the entire year. However some of the steam required for the sugarcane plant may be needed at higher temperatures for specific heat requirements therefore it is not reasonable to assume that the operation of a cogeneration plant will completely eradicate the mills steam costs but it will greatly reduce them.

Section: Cogeneration- Economics Author(s): Roddy MacKay

83 11.2.7 Power The power requirement of a sugar mill will not be constant throughout the year. This is down to the fact that sugarcane is a seasonal crop and is only milled for part of the year. Therefore the power requirement of the plant during the milling season will be much greater in comparison to the portion of the year when the sugarcane crop is not being harvested. The power requirements have been taken from a Thai sugar mill (99). The power requirement during the milling season was taken as 2.5 MW and during the off-season it was taken as 0.3 MW. The least efficient of the proposed cogeneration systems will produce 1.009 MW. This is more than enough to cover the energy requirement of the mill during the off season. During this season the energy could be stored for later use or sold back to the grid to increase the revenue. When the sugarcane is being harvested the cogeneration system will be able to account for roughly half of the mills energy requirement and will induce a large saving. 11.2.8 Summary Carrying out a cogeneration process in conjunction with a sugar mill is a very feasible economical option. Large capital costs are a possible drawback but due to many government incentives and the potential for long term saving on heat and power requirements the adoption of such a process is very economically favourable. To sum up the economical benefits of CHP systems, they can raise the efficiency of sugar mills as well as reducing the fuel consumption and bringing down energy costs. Although as previously mentioned the capital costs are high the installation time for these processes is much shorter than that of conventional power plants meaning a return on the capital investment can be made sooner than for a conventional power plant.

Section: Cogeneration- Economics Author(s): Roddy MacKay

84

11.3 Pulp
The aim of this section is to provide an overview of the economic benefits of producing pulp to be used to make paper from bagasse and to provide through basic calculations an indication of the economic viability of this process. For the purpose of this project, when calculating the economics of the processes considered, the things that have been taken into account are the raw material costs, the price that the product can be sold for, a basic estimate of the capital cost of the equipment and the amount of energy that needs to be supplied to the process. 11.3.1.1 Paper pulp raw material costs During the process of producing paper pulp the raw materials required are; bagasse, Sodium sulphite, Sodium carbonate, Hydrogen peroxide, Sodium hydroxide and Sodium silicate. It has been assumed that the paper pulp production plant is working alongside a sugarcane production plant; therefore the bagasse that is supplied has been assumed to be supplied at no charge. For the purposes of this calculation the cost of raw materials will be calculated when the cost of bagasse is negligible and then calculated when they have to be bought in from an independent supplier and the costs will be compared. The calculations for the price of raw materials are shown in the Appendix C.3. The costs of the raw materials can be seen in Table 22: Raw material costs (/tonne).
Table 27: Raw material costs (/tonne)

Raw Materials Paper pulp Bagasse Sodium sulphite Sodium carbonate Hydrogen peroxide Sodium hydroxide Sodium silicate

Price (/tonne) 530.85 24.73 954.36 286.31 811.21 95.44 478.74

From Table 22: Raw material costs (/tonne) the price of all the raw materials required for the process are calculated. The results are shown in Table 23: Raw material costs (/year).
Table 28: Raw material costs (/year)

Raw Materials Paper pulp Bagasse Sodium sulphite Sodium carbonate Section: Economics -Pulp Author(s): Innes MacLennan

Price (/year) 87738930.47 57670567.8 29246856 2506879.385

85 Hydrogen peroxide Sodium hydroxide Sodium silicate 179763.7 42306.64 212215.87

Using these values the total amount of money spent on raw materials per year and the amount of money that is made from the sale of paper pulp can be found.

The economic potential can then be calculated using the equation;

Therefore if this process plant is not working alongside a sugarcane plant the process will make a loss of 2119658.93/year. However if the process plant is operating alongside a sugarcane factory and bagasse and molasses are supplied with no charge the plant will make a profit of 55550908.87/year. There are certain costs that arent included in this calculation so it is only an approximation. It was calculated that a rough capital cost for a pulp process plant would be .

It is clear that if the paper pulp plant was not working alongside the sugarcane plant then it would not be economical. Although a profit is made when working alongside the sugarcane plant there are certain variables that may result in a change in income, these are; the cost of raw materials and the value that paper pulp is sold for, operating costs may increase, labour costs may increase etc. When analysing the other costs within the plant some of the major things that has to be considered is the operating costs of the cooking stage where the bagasse pulp is produced by heating to 175oC for approximately 60 minutes. Obviously this requires a lot of energy to supply this amount of heat for this period of time. Also during the cleaning stage where steam is passed over the pulp to remove the remainder of the black liquor, 2 tonnes of steam need to be used for every tonne of paper pulp. The steam must be at a temperature of 181oC, therefore the energy that must be supplied for this is high. For this process it has been calculated from appendix C. Pulp Appendix that the amount of energy that must be supplied to the whole process is 9406033.325kJ/hr, supplying this amount of energy will be costly.

Section: Economics -Pulp Author(s): Innes MacLennan

86

12 Conclusion
Through the evaluation of the economic and environmental aspects of the several proposed process options spanning cogeneration, activated carbon and paper pulp production schemes the most favourable option could be determined. For each of cogeneration, activated carbon and paper pulp production the rough economic and energy calculations carried out are summarised in the tables below;
Table 29: Summary

Process BPST CEST Gasification Activated Carbon Pulp

Energy Generated (MW) 1.0 30.7 (40.3) 243.8

Capital Costs ()

Revenue (/year) 360000

30012961 57670567 401139890 53845399 74778305 55550909

The table above illustrates the main parameters to be considered if making a choice on which of the aforementioned processes to adopt. It can clearly be seen that an activated carbon process will produce the most revenue, whereas a gasification cogeneration process will produce excessive amounts of energy which may be more favourable depending on the requirements of the group producing the bagasse

Section: Conclusion Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

87

A. Cogeneration Appendix
A.1 Cogeneration Boiler System
A.1.1 Material and Energy Balance The net calorific value (NCV) of bagasse fuel can be estimated using the equation (Hugot, 1986):

Where: (Tully Sugar Limited)

Therefore:

However the NCV of bagasse varies widely with changing location, growing and processing conditions etc, and since an absolute value for NCV can only be calculated experimentally by testing a real sample of bagasse, the NCV used for this project is assumed to be 7738 kJ/kg as a value calculated by averaging a large number of bagasse samples:

In order to obtain complete combustion of the bagasse fuel so that all of the carbon content of the fuel is oxidised to CO2 it is necessary to provide a certain amount of air in excess of what is theoretically necessary. The weight of air required for complete combustion of the bagasse can be estimated using the equation (Hugot, 1986):

Where:

Therefore:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

88 The weight of the individual flue gases can also be calculated after calculating the total weight of flue gases produced per kg of bagasse burnt (100):

Then: a) Nitorgen:

b) Oxygen:

c) Water:

d) Carbon dioxide:

e) Total:

The slight discrepancy between the total value and case for simplicity.

is due to the ash content which is neglected in this

At 50 % moisture and with 30% excess air (m=1.3) the combustion temperature for the bagasse furnace is taken as 1,120C (100). The mean specific heat capacity (M.S.H) of the combustion gases is estimated using the following formulae:

Where:

Therefore:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

89 To estimate the actual amount of heat from bagasse combustion transferred to the steam we first estimate the heat losses in the flue gases. To do this we require to choose a suitable temperature for the flue gases leaving the combustion chamber. For modern installations a flue gas temperature of less than 200C should be easily achieved, however the lower economic limit is considered to be 150C (100). Therefore a flue gas temperature of 175C is assumed as the average value between these two limits.

Where:

Therefore:

The quantity of steam obtained per unit weight of bagasse can now be estimated:

Where:

Therefore:

The overall efficiency of the boiler on NCV can then be calculated:

The amount of steam produced per kg of bagasse burnt can then be calculated:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

90 Where:

And

Therefore:

And:

In the boiler system the saturated steam leaving the boiler drum requires superheating by way of the hot combustion gases, the design of the superheater system is not covered in this project, however some basic energy balances are carried out over the superheater. The boiler pressure of 61 Bar is used to calculate the heat transmitted by the superheater:

Where:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

91 Therefore:

The outlet temperature of gases from the superheater can then be calculated using the equation below:

Where:

Therefore:

It is then assumed that these gases pass on to the economizer unit without any change in temperature. If make-up water is assumed to be available from somewhere in the adjoining process at 70C and the condenser water is at 40C then temperature of the water entering the economizer can be calculated:

The energy balance over the economizer can then be carried out:

Where:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

92

Therefore:

The outlet temperature of the economizer gases can then be calculated:

Where:

Therefore:

In theory these hot gases could then be used in an air heater or both increase the efficiency of the cogeneration operation. The air preheater would reduce the amount of energy wasted in reaching combustion temperature in the furnace by increasing the temperature of the furnace feed air.

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

93

A.2 Back Pressure Steam Turbine Calculations


The steam coming to the turbine from the boiler has a mass flow of 130 tonnes/hour and is at 60 bar and 480oC. This means that the entropy of the stream going into the turbine can be found from examining a temperature-entropy diagram as shown below:

The above diagram is not very clear but the blue lines represent the pressure of the stream. The y-axis represents temperature. Then using the temperature and pressure quoted above the entropy can be found to be:

The specific enthalpy, and hence the total enthalpy, of steam at these conditions was found to be (101):

Where Mf is equal to the mass flowrate of the steam feed, which is 130 tonnes/hour.

The exhaust requirements of the steam have been set at:

It is known that the entropy is conserved throughout the process therefore: Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy MacKay

94

The specific enthalpy and hence the total enthalpy of the stream leaving the turbine can then be calculated using the same method as above assuming that the flow into the turbine is equal to the flow out of the turbine:

Both of these total enthalpies can be used to calculate the ideal work done by the steam on the turbine, as it is the steam doing work on the turbine the value of the work will be negative. All of these values are per hour.

This level of work will never really be achieved as the turbine will not operate at 100% efficiency. The efficiencies of different turbines will vary depending on operating conditions and the actual turbine chosen. The value used for these calculations is 48.5% (102). The actual work done on the turbine is given by:

From this the actual enthalpy of the outgoing stream can be calculated. The work done by the steam on the turbine is known, subtracting this from the enthalpy of the incoming stream will give the actual enthalpy of the outgoing stream.

Using the enthalpy, flowrate and operating pressure the actual temperature of the outlet stream can be calculated.

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy MacKay

95

Using steam tables the actual outlet temperature of the steam is found to be 148.9oC.

The ideal power that could be generated by the turbine is equal to the ideal work done by the steam on the turbine. However as with the steam turbine this ideal power will never be achieved as the generator will not operate at 100% efficiency, and the work done by the steam on the turbine is also not 100% efficient. The actual power generated will be equal to the actual work done multiplied by the mechanical efficiency of the generator. A reasonable mechanical efficiency of 80% was chosen to give the ideal power generated by this direct combustion process.

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Roddy MacKay

96

A.3 CEST Material and Energy Balance


For this analysis of the CEST we assume an isentropic turbine with isentropic or turbine efficiency of 85%:

The inlet conditions of the CEST are assumed to be the same outlet conditions of the boiler system. We will call the inlet steam conditions state 1 and they are listed below:

For a perfectly isentropic turbine the entropy of the steam remains constant throughout the expansion process. Therefore:

Where Since:

is the theoretical entropy of the outlet steam from the turbine.

And for the first extraction of steam at conditions required by a typical sugar factory (125C, 2.32 Bar):

And since The outlet steam must be two phase and we require the steam quality from:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

97 Therefore:

We can then calculate the enthalpy of the outlet steam

Where:

Therefore:

The ideal work carried out by the CEST is given by:

Where is the mass flow of steam at the first steam outlet. For an efficient sugar factory where the mass of steam to process 1 tonne of sugar cane is 335kg:

And for the actual work:

The mass flow of steam that is fully expanded to the exhaust pressure of 0.074 Bar is given by:

Where:

The inlet steam conditions to the turbine are as before. At the low pressure exhaust outlet (40C, 0.074 Bar):

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

98

Therefore:

And we require the quality:

Therefore

Therefore the total work done b the turbine during the cane processing period is given by:

For the application of the CEST system in a sugar mill as described above, after the sugarcane processing period is over the turbine can be run without the first extraction to generate maximum power:

The actual enthalpy of steam leaving the turbine can also be calculated:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

99

A.3.1 Condenser and Pump Energy Balance At the outlet of the condenser we have saturated water at 0.074 Bar (0.0074 MPa) therefore we can determine the enthalpy at the condenser outlet:

At steady state an energy balance around the condenser can be written:

And:

This is assuming no heat is lost to the surroundings. Therefore the energy transferred to the cooling water in the condenser is 31.4 MW and we can calculate the mass flow of cooling water required by fixing inlet and outlet conditions. Cooling water is assumed to be available at 10C and environmental standards restrict the outlet temperature to 25C.

Therefore:

Therfore:

In order to approximate the work done by the pump in returning the condensate to the inlet water stream we can assume that at the outlet of the pump or stage 4 of the Rankine cycle the pressure is fixed by the boiler pressure, 61 Bar:

And assuming the pump is perfectly isentropic:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

100 For the pump then:

And to estimate h4 we can use the specific molar volume of the saturated liquid:

In practice similar to the turbine the pump will not be perfectly isentropic. For a centrifugal pump processing several hundred gallons of water per minute, similar to the pump used here, a typical efficiency value is taken as 65% (103):

Where:

Therefore:

And the actual work done by the pump is given by:

The net power of the Rankine cycle during the cane processing period can then be calculated:

A.3.2 Direct Combustion Economics Revenues If the cogeneration plant is to operate 8000 hours per year while the cane processing season lasts only 21 weeks (3528 hours) (38), then the turbine can be run in full condensing mode for 4472 hours per year. If the electricity generator is assumed to be 90% efficient, i.e. 90% of work done in the turbine is converted to electricity then the total electricity generated by the process can be calculated: During the sugar cane processing season:

For the remaining 4472 hours per year:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

101 In order to calculate the value of the electricity generated a Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) for solid biomass in South Africa (a significant sugar cane producer) was obtained (104).

This value is in South African Rand, and can be converted to British pounds by a suitable exchange rate (105).

The total value of electricity generated in the year can then be estimated:

Capital Costs The capital costs for CEST cogeneration system will be estimated by calculating major equipment costs and their associated installation costs. The first major piece of equipment is the furnace as part of the boiler system. Using the method described in Table 6.6 (106) the equipment cost can be calculated. For a box furnace where the duty is calculated by:

The equipment cost is then calculated (106):

Where:

Therefore:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

102

This cost is from 2007 and is therefore scale up to find the 2011 value using the Marshall and Swift cost index.

This is then converted from U.S dollars to British pounds using a suitable exchange rate (107).

The same method is then used for the water boiler and pumps. For a field erected boiler (106):

Therefore:

And:

And for UK currency:

For Pump number 1, assumed to be a single stage centrifugal pump (106):

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

103

Where:

Therefore:

And:

And for UK currency:

For Pump number 2, assumed to be a single stage centrifugal pump (106):

Where:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

104

Therefore:

And:

And for UK currency:

For the CEST the equipment cost could not be estimated using the same method described above since the turbine power capacity used in this process was outside the size parameter range specified for a condensing turbine (106). Therefore the installation cost of the steam turbine is calculated by assuming an average price of $600/kW (108). In full condensing mode the steam turbine generates 40.3W of power. Therefore the installation cost of the CEST can be calculated:

This cost is not scaled up since no information is given on the year of the cost estimation. The cost can then be converted to British pounds:

When accounting for the installation costs of the whole system using the Lang method, the value for the steam turbine will be omitted since installation costs are included in its value already. In addition the condenser and economiser will not included in the capital costs for this design since they required sizing for cost estimation, and time constraints did not allow for this. The total capital costs of the process are then estimated using the Lang method to account installation costs. The Lang factor (F) is taken as 3.63 for a mixed solids-fluids plant (106): Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

105

The installation cost of the CEST is then added to this to give the total capital cost for the cogeneration plant:

Section: Cogeneration Author(s): Ross Murphy

106

A.5 Gasification Cogeneration


A.5.1 Energy Required to Dry Bagasse Objectives To determine the energy required to dry 1 tonne of bagasse from 50% moisture to 0% moisture. Once this has been determined the energy to dry 65 tonnes can be found Method Assuming 1 tonne of bagasse with 50% moisture content is fed to the dryer. The bagasse is assumed to be dried until it contains 0% moisture. Once the energy required to dry 1 tonne is found then the energy required to dry all 65 tonnes can be found. Data Specific heat capacity of water, Latent heat of vaporisation, Temperature of bagasse entering dryer, Tin = 20oC Temperature of bagasse leaving dryer, Tout = 120oC

(109) (109)

Basis: 1 Tonne baggase (50wt% moisture content)

Energy required to dry 65 tonnes bagasse

A.5.2 Combustion of Methane Objectives To determine the mass of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced from the combustion of methane. Method From Table 16 it can be seen that 30kg (1.875moles) of methane gas (CH4) is produced from every tonne of bagasse that undergoes pyrolysis. 90% of this is burnt to produce CO2 while the remaining 10% is burn to produce CO. Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

107

Data RAM CO2 = 48 RAM CO = 28 A.5.3 Production of Carbon Dioxide From the equation above it can be seen that for every mole of methane burnt 1 mole of carbon dioxide and 2 moles of water are produced.

A.5.4 Production of Carbon Monoxide From equation above it can be seen that for every mole of methane burnt 1 mole of carbon dioxide and 2 moles of water are produced.

A.5.5 Gasification of Char Objectives To determine the mass of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced from the gasification of char. Method From the pyrolysis reaction 0.39 moles of char are produced of which 58.3% is carbon. All the carbon is assumed to react with steam to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen as shown in the equation below

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

108 It can be seen from this equation that for every mole of carbon that reacts with steam 1 mole of carbon monoxide and 1 mole of hydrogen is produced Data RAM C = 12 RAM CO = 28 RAM H2 =2 Mass of Carbon Gasified

Moles of Carbon Gasified

Mass of CO Produced

Mass of H2 Produced

A.5.6 Gasification of Carbon Monoxide The carbon monoxide produced from pyrolysis, the combustion of methane and the gasification of char then undergoes a gasification reaction to produce methane and carbon dioxide as shown in the following equation.

Data

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

109

A.5.7 Total Mass of Hydrogen Produced Objectives To determine the total mass of hydrogen produced from the gasification of bagasse. Method The mass of hydrogen produced from pyrolysis, gasification of char and gasification of carbon monoxide is added together to determine the total mass produced Data Mass of Hydrogen Produced from Pyrolysis, Mp = 480kg Mass of Hydrogen Produced from Gasification of Char MCh = 4.145kg Mass of Hydrogen Produced from Gasification of CO, MCO = 39.16kg Total Mass of Hydrogen Produced (MHT)

A.5.8 Energy Produced from Combustion of Methane Objectives To determine the quantity of energy produced when the methane is burnt Data Heat of Combustion of Methane, Hc = 5.3MJ/kg Total Mass of Methane Burnt, MCH4 =30kg Energy Produced From the Combustion of Methane (QCH4)

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

110 A.5.9 Maximum Energy Content of Syngas Objectives To determine the maximum energy content of the syngas produced. Method The maximum energy of the syngas is calculated from assuming that the syngas contains hydrogen only which would give the highest possible calorific value. Data Mass of hydrogen, mH = 523kg Calorific value of syngas, Cmax = 11.6MJ/Nm3 Density of hydrogen, H = 0.082kg/m3 Volume of Hydrogen, VH

A.5.9 Average Energy Content of Syngas Objectives To determine the most likely energy content of the syngas produced assuming that the syngas contains a mix of both carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Method The syngas is likely to contain hydrogen and carbon monoxide and so the calorific value of the gas would be lower. To calculate the energy produced the calorific value is taken to be 4.4MJ/Nm3. Data Mass of dry bagasse in basis of design, mbad = 32.5 Mass of hydrogen, mH = 523kg Calorific value of syngas, Cmax = 4.4MJ/Nm3 Density of hydrogen, H = 0.082kg/m3

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

111 Volume of Hydrogen, VH

Energy Produced, QAv

Energy Produced from dry 65 tonnes bagasse, Q

A.5.10 Net Gain In Electricity Objectives To determine the net gain in electricity Method Assuming the combustion of methane provides enough heat to power both the gasification and pyrolysis process then only the drying process would require external energy. Therefore the net gain in energy is there difference between the energy produced in the form of syngas and the energy consumed through drying Data Energy Produced, QAv = 28 GJ Energy Consumed, Qdry = 1.185 GJ

Therefore for every 65 tonnes fed to the gasifier, the process would generate

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

112

Profit Objectives To determine how much the gasification process would generate Method The profit is calculated based on the cost of electricity cost 7p/kWh.

Profit for 1 tonne of bagasse fed, P1

Profit for 65 tonne of bagasse fed, Ptotal

Section: Gasification Author(s): James Gascoine

113

B. Activated Carbon Appendix


B.1 Material Balances
B.1.1 Continuous Activated Carbon Process Firstly a material balance over the bagasse storage tank and the mill where the bagasse is crushed is carried out; any bagasse particles that are not of the correct size are recycled in stream 2.

Stream 1 From the basis of design, 32500kg/hr of bagasse with moisture content below 13% is used as the feedstock

Stream 2 The bagasse is milled to a size of 0.425 0.6mm in the mill. The particles that are not within this size range are recycled back to the storage tank. It has been assumed that there is a 20% loss of material during milling

Stream 3 The milled material with the correct particle size is then fed into a pellet mill.

Now the material balance is carried out over the molasses tank and the pellet mill. The molasses and bagasse are combined in the pellet mill.

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Stream 4 To the bagasse in the pellet mill, molasses are added in a ration of 2:1. The molasses are preheated to allow for successful binding.

Stream 5 Once the pellets have formed in the mill, hey are fed to a rotary kiln where they are firstly subjected to inert conditions at a temperature of 700oC for an hour to allow pyrolysis to occour. Once the pyrolysis step is complete, the activation step can begin. The char is now heated to 850oC for 45-60 minutes.

A balance over the rotary kiln is now done, where the bagasse is pyrolysed then activated with gases given off in stream 5a.

Stream 5a It has been assumed that in stream 6 there is a 20% yield of what enters the kiln, therefore the remaining 80% leaving the rotary kiln will be a lot of gases, with the majority of this being carbon dioxide.

Stream 6 It has been assumed that after the pyrolysis and activation step, there is a 20% yield of product. This stream is fed into a cooler where the activated carbon is cooled to 85oC.

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Now the material balance is carried out over the rotary cooler, where water is used to cool the activated carbon.

Stream 7 This stream is the cooling water that is fed into the rotary cooler Mass of stream is calculated through energy balances in B.2 Energy Balances. It was found that the mass of water required to cool the activated carbon to 85oC.

Stream 8 Leaving the rotary cooler in stream 8 is just the water that was used in the cooler, which is the same as what entered the cooler.

Stream 9 As nothing is lost in the cooler, the activated carbon leaving is the same as the amount entering. This stream is then fed into one of two wash tanks.

Now the material balance is carried out over the washing stage, where the activated carbon is firstly washed with 0.1M hydrochloric acid and then water.

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Stream 10 It has been assumed that all the flow enters the first tank until it is full.

Stream 11 Once the first tank is full, all of stream 9 is diverted into stream 11 until tank 2 is full.

Stream 12 The activated carbon in the washer is then washed with HCl, assuming that 10kg of 0.1M HCl is required for every 1kg of product from the water and washing step.

Stream 13 After acid washing it has been assumed that 2% of acid residue is left on the activated carbon. Twice the amount of acid is added as water to the washer which will wash off the acid remaining on the activated carbon.

Stream 14 Once the first tank is full tank 2 is used. Stream 12 or stream 13 flow into the second tank through stream 14, depending on what stage tank 1 is at. Stream 15 Stream 15 comes from the first wash tank and makes up half of stream 17

Stream 16 Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

117 Stream 16 comes from the first wash tank and makes up half of stream 17

Stream 17 Stream 17 is the stream that is to be discharged. It contains only water, acid and ash. All the acid that was added in stream 12 is removed in stream 17.

Stream 18 Stream 18 comes from the 1st wash tank and is half of stream 20

Stream 19 Stream 19 comes from the 2nd wash tank and is half of stream 20

Stream 20 After the washing step, it has been assumed that the product is 4.167% greater than that of the stream that entered the washing tanks, stream 9.

A material balance over the dryer is next to be carried out, this is where the activated carbon is dried to get rid of any excess water left over from the washing step.

Stream 21 The activated carbon is now fed to a rotary dryer for drying at a temperature of 60oC for 2 hours to remove the excess water that has been left over after the washing stage.

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Stream 22 Once the activated carbon has been dried, it is assume the product leaving is 85% of stream 9

Finally a material balance is carried out over the sieves, which remove the particles of activated carbon which do not meet the size specifications.

Stream 23 The activated carbon is then passed through a sieve and 5% of the activated carbon is removed, due to it not being of the right size.

Stream 24 The final activated carbon product leaves the sieves in stream 24 and is 19.38% of the original feed of bagasse to the mill.

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

119 B.1.2 Batch Activated Carbon Process Assuming bagasse is fed into the reactor in a ratio of 2:1. 20g of Bagasse and 10g of molasses. Pyrolysis For the pyrolysis step, a total of 30g of pellets are fed into the reactor and is purged with nitrogen for 30 minutes at a rate of 235ml/min. The volumetric flowrate was multiplied by the density to get the mass flow rate and then multiplied by 30 minutes to get the mass of nitrogen that needs to be added. The reactor is heated up from 25oC to 700oC which takes 67.5 minutes and is then held in the reactor at this temperature for an hour.

21% of the original amount of bagasse going into the system is left in the reactor as char. of char left after pyrolysis. Therefore the amount of gases leaving the reactor is:

The 25.8g of gases are then condensed, assuming that 90% is condensed to liquid and the remaining 10% is gas.

The remaining amount is gases.

This mixture of gas and liquid is then separated out. 23.22g of liquid leaves the process and the 2.58g of gases are fed to a gas filter to get rid of any unwanted gases. Assuming that 0.01% of the gas is removed as unwanted:

The remainder of the gas is then vented off

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

120 Activation Now that there is 4.2g of char left, it needs to be activated. This is done by passing a mixture of nitrogen and steam over it in a ration of 1:0.6.

The process is heated to 900oC from 700oC which takes 20mins and the char is then kept in the reactor for 2.5 hours until it is activated. The mass of steam that must be supplied is calculated from:

40% of the original char is burnt off and leaves in the exit gases, the rest is left behind as granular activated carbon.

The amount of gases leaving the reactor is calculated from:

Therefore:

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

121 The 1.68g of gases are then condensed, assuming that 90% is condensed to liquid and the remaining 10% is gas.

The remaining amount is gases.

This mixture of gas and liquid is then seperated out. 1.512g of liquid leaves the process and the 0.168g of gases are fed to a gas filter to get rid of any unwanted gases. Assuming that 0.01% of the gas is removed as unwanted:

The remainder of the gas is then vented off

Industrial scale As this calculation was based on a laboratory scale, it had to be scaled up to an industrial level of production. To be able to compare the batch and the continuous process the same annual feed was used for both. To scale up from the initial 20g of bagasse and 10g of molasses a reactor chamber volume of 0.0001736m3 was calculated, it was then found from literature that a typical batch reactor chamber size is 8m3. It was then scaled up to be able to handle the same load as the continuous process. The volume of the reactor was calculated from:

Using the typical reaction chamber size of 8m3

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Using the same load as the continuous process which is 2.6x108kg/year, the amount of batches that would need to be processed per year can be calculated.

Dividing this number by the operating hours per year, gives batches having to be prepared per hour.

This would result in the need for one reactor having to be bought and taking into account the time one batch takes, physically this process isnt possible. Using batch processing to process the same amount of baggase as the continuous process, i.e. 260000 tonnes per year is unfeasible because it requires the use of too many batches, 188079 batches per year or the use of very large reactors which would increase the capital costs. . Along with the large capital costs associated with the batch process, labours costs will also be marginally higher than those with continuous processing. In addition to the large number of batches, of which in a single batch pyrolysis and activation take approximately 5.5 hours, the downtime processing also renders the process impractical for this scale of production. There is also always a delay before the raw material (bagasse and molasses) is processed and the output is obtained. The process however might be feasible for a much smaller scale of production, on a smaller sugar factory for instance. Given that bagasse production will be seasonal, using batch for smaller processing is the more attractive option. Out with the seasonal time of the bagasse, the flexibility of the batch processing might enable factories to use it for other processes or renting out equipment to other processors.

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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B.2 Energy Balances


B.2.1 Continuous activated carbon process The following calculations are energy balances for the streams and equipment for the continuous process of production of activated carbon. A reference temperature of 273K will be used all calculations. Steam 1 contains bagasse at a temperature of 298 K.

The specific heat capacity of bagasse from literature (110);

A reference temperature of 273K was taken;

The mass of bagasse in stream one;

Therefore the enthalpy of stream one is calculated from;

Stream 2 is a recycle stream from the mill. The content of the stream is particles that are larger than the required size. The temperature of the stream is 298K. The mass of bagasse being recycled to the storage tank in stream two is;

Therefore the enthalpy of stream two is calculated from;

Stream 3 leaves the mill and flows into the pellet mill. This too is at a temperature of 298K. The mass of bagasse leaving in stream three is then calculated by;

The enthalpy of stream three is then calculated from; Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

124

Stream four contains molasses that have been heated to 50oC due to the high viscosity of sugarcane, the molasses are added to bind with the bagasse to make pellets, the specific heat capacity of molasses, amount of molasses being added and temperature have been taken as (111);

The enthalpy of stream four is then calculated;

Once the pellets have been made in the pelletizer, they leave in stream five, which has an enthalpy of;

Stream five is then sent to a kiln, where the pellets are to be pyrolysed. The pellets are heated to approximately 700oC to carbonise them, then the pellets are further heated to 850 oC to activate them. The mass fraction of pellets that are bagasse and molasses is calculated; The mass flow of stream 5 is given as

The specific heat of the combined stream is;

The temperature of stream 5 calculated as Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

125

Stream 6 leaves the kiln, activation occurs at 1123K, hence the temperature of stream 6 will be 1123K. A 20% yield if activated carbon is assumed hence the mass of stream 6 is 20% of stream 5. The flow, temperature and specific heat capacity of stream six is; (112)

The enthalpy of this stream is calculated from;

Energy Balance Over kiln The overall energy balance over the kiln is calculated using the following equations;

The heat of reaction is calculated from reactions happening in the kiln, i.e. gasification with steam and the water gas formation reaction.

The overall energy required with the two reactions is

Assuming about 19% of yield in the kiln, the amount of carbon undergoing pyrolysis is

The number of moles of carbon reacting is the mass flow divided by the carbon atomic weight;

The heat of reaction is thus given as;

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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This is the amount of heat that needs to be added to the kiln. The stream from the kiln is then fed into a cooler where the activated carbon is cooled from approximately 1123K to 358K. The specific heat capacities of water and activated carbon are (113);

The mass flow of stream 9 is the same as that of stream 6 since there is no loss of mass across the cooler. The enthalpy of the stream leaving the cooler is calculated from:

To calculate the mass of stream 7, assume inlet temperature 20oC of the cooling water and an outlet temperature of 80oC of the heated water.

The enthalpy is calculated using the mass flow rate above;

The mass of stream 7 is equal to that of stream 8, therefore the enthalpy gives;

Streams 10 and 11 work in alternation, when stream 10 is in operation stream 11 is not. Therefore stream 10 enthalpy is calculated which will equal stream 11 when in operation. The flow rates and temperatures in both streams will equal that of stream 9.

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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Thus stream 11 when in operation enthalpy is equal to that of stream 10.

Stream 12 contains the hydrochloric acid for washing. Assume stream 12 enters the washer at a temperature of 25oC. From material balance calculations, the mass flow is 81250 kg/hr.

The specific heat capacity of HCl at 25C from literature (114):

The enthalpy of stream 12 is calculated as

Stream 13 contains wash water .Assume stream 13 enters at a temperature of 25oC.

The enthalpy of stream 13 is;

As stream 12 and 13 work in alternation, when stream 13 is in operation stream 12 isnt. Therefore stream 14 is equivalent to either stream 12 or stream 14 whichever one is in operation. Stream 17, the mass from the material balances is used to calculate the mass fraction of ash, water and acid present;

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The specific heat capacity of ash was collected from literature (115) and used to calculate the specific heat capacity of stream 17;

To calculate the temperature of stream 17 the temperature of the inlet streams were multiplied by the mass fraction;

The resulting temperature, allowed calculation of the enthalpy of stream 17;

Depending on which wash tank is in operation the enthalpy of stream 17 is equal to stream 16 and stream 15 when in operation. Stream 18 and 19 obey the same principles to that of stream 17 and 16, which one is in operation the other isnt. Therefore either stream 18 or stream 19 is equivalent to stream 20 at any given point. Stream 20, the mass from the material balances is used to calculate the mass fraction of activated carbon and water present. Stream 20 has a total flow of 8125 kg/hr, of which 1495kg/hr is water.

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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The combined heat capacity of stream 20 is calculated from;

The temperature of stream 20 is the same as the temperature in washer which was 303.07K. This is also the temperature in stream 17.

The enthalpy of stream 20 is calculated as;

This will be the same enthalpy in streams 18 and 19. Energy balance over drier It is assumed that there are no heat losses across the drier and that the drier operates adiabatically. It is also assumed that hot air enters the drier at a temperature of 60C with a relative humidity of 10% to maximise the humidity difference driving force. Read from a psychometric chart; the absolute humidity of this stream is 0.0124kg/kg. The relative humidity of the outlet stream is 90%, with the absolute humidity of the outlet air stream being 0.0244kg/kg. The air inlet stream into the drier is stream 21A and the air outlet is 21B. The absolute humidity of the inlet and outlet air streams are given as;

Moisture balance over the drier gives; Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

130

The drying rate R is equal to the mass of water removed from the solids which is equal to the mass of water collected by the air stream.

G is the dry gas flow rate into the drier. This is calculated as;

The total flow rate of stream 21A, the stream entering the drier is calculated as;

The mass flow rate of water in stream 21A if given by;

From the total flow rate and the water flow rate of stream 21A, the mass fraction of water in stream 21A can be calculated as;

Therefore the mass fraction of dry gas in stream 21A is

The heat capacity of air is 1 kJ/kgK from steam tables. Stream 21A enters the drier at a temperature of 333K. Defining these parameters;

Since the inlet stream contains both water and air, the combined heat capacity of the stream is calculated as;

The enthalpy of stream 21A is given as

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

131 The mass flow of stream 21B, the outlet stream from the drier is the mass of the inlet stream plus the water from the carbon, given as

The mass of water in stream 21B is calculated as the absolute humidity by the dry gas flow rate;

The mass fraction of water in stream 21B therefore is given as

The mass fraction of air in stream 21B is calculated as,

The combined heat capacity of stream 21B is given as;

The temperature of stream 21B can be estimated from the inlet temperatures into the drier. This is calculated from stream 20 which in the stream entering the drier. Mass fraction of activated carbon is given as

Mass fraction of air is calculated as;

The temperature of stream 21B is then approximated as

The enthalpy of stream 21B is then calculated as;

From the material balance calculations, the mass flow rate of activated carbon in stream 22 is 6630kg/hr. The temperature of the stream is 333K which is the temperature of operation for the drier.

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The enthalpy of stream 22 is given as;

The mass flow rate of activated carbon in stream 23 is 331.5kg/hr and the temperature of the stream is 333K.

The enthalpy of stream 23 is given as;

The mass flow rate of activated carbon in stream 24 is 6298.5kg/hr and the temperature of the stream is 333K.

The enthalpy of stream 24 is given as;

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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B.3 Economics for Activated carbon continuous process


Bagasse; The cost of purchasing bagasse is calculated below. The mass of bagasse used per hour is converted into the mass annually;

The costs of bagasse per tonne was taken from literature as 13.8/tonne (97), this value was taken from 2003 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

This allows for the calculation of the cost per year;

As the value is in dollars it must be calculated into pounds sterling;

Molasses; The cost of purchasing molasses is calculated below. The mass of molasses required per hour is converted into the mass required annually;

The price for molasses according to literature is 211/tonne (97);

Hydrochloric acid; The amount of hydrochloric acid 0.1M solution that needs to be supplied in the process is:

The price per tonne of hydrochloric acid is 60/tonne (116), but this was the price in 1998, so it was scaled up to current prices using the appropriate cost indexes.

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Therefore the price of hydrochloric acid per year is found:

Activated carbon; The amount of activated carbon that is produced per year from the process is:

The price per kg of activated carbon is $3.12/kg (117) this was the price in 2003, so it was scaled up to current prices using the appropriate cost indexes.

The value is the used to calculate the $/tonne of activated carbon produced.

This allows for the calculation of the cost per year;

As the value is in dollars it must be calculated into pounds sterling;

The total cost of the raw materials can now be calculated:

Therefore the when the bagasse plant buys the raw materials from an independent supplier the economic potential of the plant is:

However if the activated carbon process is run alongside a sugar factory, where the bagasse and molasses are supplied for free, the economic potential of the plant is: Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

135

An estimation of the capital costs of the activated carbon plat can be determined using an overall capital cost of a plant which has the same manufacturing process. This gives a quick estimate of the capital costs;

Where C2 is the capital costs of the project with a capacity of S2, C1 is the capital costs of the known project with a capacity of S1. The capital costs for a similar plant were taken from literature (117). The value of n used is 0.6 (116).

The value calculated needs to be multiplied by the cost inflation index as it is relative to 1991 and the required year is 2011.

Then to convert into sterling pounds;

Thus giving the estimated capital costs required for the correct capacity of the activated carbon plant.

Section: Activated Carbon Author(s): Holly Keir, Innes MacLennan and Zengani Chabinga

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C. Pulp Appendix
C.1 Material Balance for Pulp and Paper Production
The total mass of bagasse in stream 1 is given by:

The pith content of the bagasse is assumed to be 35.21% of dry solids (DS), where the bagasse is 50% DS. 66% of the bagasse pith is removed in the moist depithing process. The mass of pith removed in stream 2 is therefore given by:

The mass of pith remaining in the bagasse is given by:

Therefore the total mass going to bulk storage is given by:

In bulk storage the bagasse is stored under moist conditions to control microbiological action. The storage piles require a moisture content of 80%. Assuming the pith removed in the first stage contains 50% moisture, a mass balance can be carried out to calculate the mass of water to be added to the bagasse. First we carry out a dry solids mass balance:

Therefore:

Then for the water balance:

Therefore:

In the wet depithing operation, 70% of the remaining pith is removed and leaves in stream 6. Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

137

Therefore the total mass leaving in stream 7 is calculated by:

The pith is 50% moisture by weight therefore leaving the system is 1361.75 kg/hr of dry solids and moisture. This means that the remaining composition of stream 7 is equal to:

This means that the amounts of moisture and dry solids leaving in stream 7 are:

In the cooking process dry solids account for 27,361.98 kg/hr of the full flow. Amounts equal to 14% and 4% of the dry solids flow are added in the form of sodium sulphite and sodium carbonate respectively.

The flow of sodium sulphite is equal to:

The flow of sodium carbonate is equal to:

Therefore the total mass leaving the cooking operation is given by:

Assuming a yield in pulp of 75% on bone dry depithed bagasse, the mass of pulp leaving the cooker can be calculated. Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

138

The remaining mass leaving in stream 9 is black cooking liquor produced by the cooking process, and is calculated by:

In the filtration stage the pulp is separated from the cooking liquor. Assuming 95% separation of stream 9 is achieved, meaning that 95% of stream 11 is pulp. Therefore:

And:

Therefore the liquor leaving in stream 10 is given by:

In the cleaning stage 2 tonnes of steam are used per tonne of pulp being processed, therefore the mass flow of steam entering in stream 12 is given by:

The cleaning stage removes the remaining liquor in stream 13:

The mass flow of stream 14 is equal to the pulp entering in stream 11:

The chemicals in the bleaching stage are added in stream 15 based on the bone dry solids content of pulp in stream 14. Assuming a solids concentration of 9% in stream 14 the bleaching chemicals are added as follows; 1.5% H2O2, 3% NaOH, 3% Na2SiO3. The total mass flow of stream 15 is then calculated:

The physical quantities of these chemicals added are equal to:

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

139

Steam is also used in the bleaching stage at 0.5 tonnes per tonne of pulp. Therefore the mass flow of steam in stream 16 is calculated where mass of steam in=mass steam out:

Therefore the total mass leaving in stream 18 is calculated:

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

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C.2 Energy balances for Pulp and Paper Production


Initially the bagasse goes in at 50% moisture at 15oC to be depithed and removed 66% of bone dry bagasse by using a rotary mill. There is no temperature change or mass lost over the depither, but energy must be supplied to the rotary mills to depith the bagasse. Depithing of the bagasse is done by rotary mills which operate at 200kW each. The amount of rotary mills needed was calculated using the average input capacity/hour which is 13 bone dry metric tonnes. As this process has 32.5 bone dry metric tonnes, 3 rotary mills are needed to handle the load. Therefore the mechanical energy supplied to the rotary mills is:

Water is added in the wet bulk storage, but it is added at 15oC, so there is no energy required. The bagasse is now 80% moisture after the wet bulk storage and is depithed again. The second depither is similar in construction to the first one. As the process now has 28.723 bone dry metrics tonnes. As the average input capacity/hour of the rotary mill is 13 bone dry metric tonnes, it has been decided that 2 rotary mills will be sufficient to handle this load. Therefore the mechanical energy that needs to be supplied for the wet depithing stage:

Now the wet bagasse is fed into the cooking stage. Where sodium sulphite and sodium carbonate are added at 15oC. The specific heat capacities were found from literature (21) The amount of water in stream 7 is calculated from:

Therefore the mass fraction of bagasse is 0.39. Knowing the mass fractions we can calculate the specific heat capacity of the stream:

Now the enthalpy of stream 7 is calculated, using a reference temperature of 0oC:

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

141

Added to the cooker is stream 8 which contains 77% sodium sulphite and 23% sodium carbonate, the heat capacities of the individual components are:

Therefore the heat capacity of the mixture is:

Now the enthalpy of stream 8 is calculated:

The total enthalpy of the streams of the streams going in:

In the cooking process the mixture must be heated to 175oC for 60minutes to produce a mixture of pulp and black liquor at 175oC. Therefore the heat capacity of the stream 9 is: These streams are heated to 175oC in the cooking vessel for 30 minutes. This results in a stream containing pulp and a black liquor leaving the cooking vessel at 175oC. The heat capacity of this stream can be calculated using the mass fraction and specific heat capacity of the respective components shown below:

As the liquor is greater than 80% water by mass its heat capacity has been taken to be the same as that of water.

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

142 Therefore the enthalpy of stream 9 is:

Therefore the amount of heat that needs to be supplied:

Prior to filtration the mixture of pulp and black liquor is cooled to 15oC to achieve more efficient, due to solubilitys being lower at lower temperatures. The heat that is required to be removed in the exchanger is:

Now leaving the filtration system is stream 11 at 15oC. Stream 11 is now fed into the cleaning system where it subject to 2 tonnes of steam for every tonne of pulp fed in. The steam is at 181oC and 10 bar. The steam is used to vaporise the liquor, so that pulp can be left on its on. The heat required to vaporise the liquor is calculated from:

It takes 388029.54kJ to vaporize the liquor, heat distribution in the cleaning process is such that the heat supplied to the liquor is the same as the heat that takes effect on the pulp, in turn raising its temperature. Therefore the output temperature of the pulp can now be calculated:

Now the steam leaving in stream 13 is:

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

143

The final step is bleaching where hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate are all added to the pulp.

The chemicals are added to the pulp in the bleaching step and then steam is added. As the amount of chemicals added is much smaller than the amount of pulp added, the temperature of the mixture is taken as 56oC. Assuming a solids concentration of 9% in stream 14, the bleaching chemicals are added as follows; 1.5% H2O2, 3% NaOH, 3% Na2SiO3.

The enthalpy of all streams entering was calculated:

The reason for not using a change in temperature is because the specific heat capacity of steam is given at 180oC and doesnt change over the temperature range considered. Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

144

To calculate the temperature of the steam leaving the bleaching unit, the heat capacity of the chemical and pulp mixture has been taken as the heat capacity of pulp as the mass flowrate of chemicals is very small compared to the mass flowrate of pulp. When steam is added, the pulp and chemicals are heated to 70oC. The heat that needs to be added for this to happen is calculated:

Therefore we can calculate the outlet temperature of the steam:

An overall energy balance of the entire process has been carried out considering all of the streams entering the process and all of the streams leaving the process. This will give an idea of how much energy must be supplied or removed from the whole system. Qin kJ 1365000 5428783.71 57193.29 87397 7825780.62 92757.135 7676059.08 2913.49 133050.46 133050.46 665252.322 16515935.12 Qout kJ 158599.35

Q1 Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q10 Q12 Q13 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 Total

7109901.795

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

145

The overall amount of energy that must be added to this process is:

Section: Pulp material and energy balances Author(s): Holly Keir, Roddy MacKay, Innes MacLennan and Ross Murphy

146

C.3 Paper Pulp Economics


Bagasse; The cost of purchasing bagasse is calculated below. The mass of bagasse used per hour is converted into the mass annually;

The costs of bagasse per tonne was taken from literature as 13.8/tonne (97), this value was taken from 2003 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

This allows for the calculation of the cost per year;

As the value is in dollars it must be calculated into pounds sterling;

Sodium Sulphite; The cost of purchasing Sodium sulphite is calculated below. The mass of sodium sulphite required per hour is converted into the mass required annually;

The price for Sodium sulphite according to literature is 600/tonne (21); this value was taken from 2002 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

This allows for the calculation of the cost per year;

Sodium carbonate; The amount of sodium carbonate that needs to be supplied in the process is:

Section: Economics Pulp Author(S): Innes MacLennan

147

The price for Sodium carbonate according to literature is 180/tonne (21); this value was taken from 2002 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

Therefore the price of sodium carbonate per year is found:

Hydrogen peroxide; The amount of hydrogen peroxide that needs to be supplied in the process is:

The price for hydrogen peroxide according to literature is 510/tonne (21); this value was taken from 2002 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

Therefore the price of hydrogen peroxide per year is found:

Sodium hydroxide; The amount of sodium hydroxide that needs to be supplied in the process is:

The price for Sodium hydroxide according to literature is 60/tonne (21); this value was taken from 2002 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

Therefore the price of sodium hydroxide per year is found:

Section: Economics Pulp Author(S): Innes MacLennan

148 Sodium silicate; The amount of sodium silicate that needs to be supplied in the process is:

The price for Sodium silicate according to literature is 60/tonne (21); this value was taken from 2002 so due to inflation it must be scaled up;

Therefore the price of sodium silicate per year is found:

Paper pulp; The amount of paper pulp that is made in the process is:

The price for paper pulp according to literature is 602.71/tonne (21);

Therefore the price of paper pulp per year is found:

The total cost of the raw materials can now be calculated:

Therefore the when the bagasse plant buys the raw materials from an independent supplier the economic potential of the plant is:

Section: Economics Pulp Author(S): Innes MacLennan

149

However if the activated carbon process is run alongside a sugar factory, where the bagasse is supplied for free, the economic potential of the plant is:

Estimating a capital cost for the pulp plant was difficult as generally a pulp plant is attached to a paper plant. It was found from an article that in 1982, for a small sized paper and pulp plant the capital cost is a minimum of $100 million, which is extremely capital intensive for its time. Assuming that this process is classed as a medium sized plant it has been decided to take the price of a minimum paper and pulp plant, as this is a medium sized plant, but it doesnt produce paper, this would be an acceptable assumption.

Section: Economics Pulp Author(S): Innes MacLennan

150

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158

D. Minutes Minutes 3/02/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees Holly Keir Innes MacLennan Ross Murphy Review of last week tasks All first drafts of given points completed: Holly and Innes completed draft of 1st two points Ross completed draft of 2nd and 3rd point. 4/02/11 the group will have a review of the drafts to see if theyre are any gaps in any of the points.

Items discussed Innes suggests finding a use of bagasse that is not known. Dr Haw states we need to dig deeper to get more detail and need to have reason behind all assumptions made.

Targets for next meeting Next official meeting is been set for Monday 14/02/11 at 11am By then we will have a final draft on part 1 which we will compile on Friday 11/02/11 On 11/02/11 we will also collect physical and chemical data for our technical analysis

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

159

Minutes 14/02/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees Holly Keir Innes MacLennan James Gascoine Items discussed Group have been focussing on project 1 tasks this week as interim report is due in on the 18th. Dr Haw emphasised the point that we dont want to fall behind on project 2 and that we MUST have more regular meetings. Group attempted to meet up on the 10th, but not everyone managed so the first 7 points are still yet to be finally completed

Targets for next meeting Have first 7 points completed Start looking at the technical analyses for the process Look for possible new ways that bagasse can be used.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

160

Minutes 25/02/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees

Zengani Chabinga Holly Keir Roddy MacKay Innes MacLennan Ross Murphy
Items discussed The group decides we should begin design of the cogeneration process by coming up with a basis for the design, detailing: typical scale for sugar cane processing plants, varying compositions of bagasse, varying availability of bagasse, and cost information for bagasse feedstock. The group will also consider two methods of sourcing the feedstock; obtaining the feedstock directly from our own sugar mill and then assuming we have to buy in the feedstock from an independent sugarcane processing plant. We can them compare the economic viability of each process for converting bagasse for each method of sourcing the feedstock. Dr Haw emphasises that we should justify in detail why we have chosen to focus on each particular use of bagasse (e.g. paper production) after discussing all of the various possibilities. The group will also set a series of weekly deadlines to be met by every team member for a particular section of the design process

Targets for next meeting

Next Meeting: Tuesday 1st March, 10am

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

161

Minutes 04/03/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees All present Previous weeks work Group met on 1st of March and agreed on a composition of bagasse and a basis for the design. Also split cogeneration and activated carbon between the 6 members. Items discussed Dr Haw emphasised that group must use team work as there is only 7 full weeks left before project is to be handed in. Interim report handed in on 18th of March, which Dr Haw agreed to look over. Group agreed that once activated carbon and cogeneration is completed they will look at paper production to show the alternative routes. Dr Haw tells group they must identify the potential risks specifically with regards to data collecting.

Targets for next meeting The material balance for the continuous activated carbon process to be completed by Holly, Innes and Zengani The cogeneration material balances for both process selected by group to be completed by Ross, Roddy and James.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

162

Minutes 08/03/11 Project 2 Group 7

Attendees James Gascoine Zengani Chabinga Innes MacLennan Roddy MacKay Absent Holly and Ross got meeting times mixed up but spoke to Dr Haw. Items Discussed We still have to look and economic and environmental aspects of all processes as this is an important part of any final analysis. Dr Haw agreed that this is a very important part of the report. Must leave plenty of time to do formatting and tidying up as a group, therefore we need to set deadlines. To decide on a date for this once all of the group are together, some point in the next week/week and a half. Roddy brought up that we should initially compare our processes to other methods of doing the same thing using a different raw material to get a better view of how these processes stand up before discussing which process would be the best use for the bagasse. All agreed. Innes made the point that we need to ensure that all calculations are written up in the same format. Holly, Innes and Zengani are going to finish of the mechanisms for activated carbon reactions. James is going to upload his calculations on to SharePoint so someone can look over them. In terms of looking into the economics of processes Dr Haw recommended that we should look for information on rough capital, energy and material costs that we can justify. All to make sure that we have completed most of our individual work to put together next week.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

163

Minutes 11/03/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees All except Holly, who sent her apologies as she had an interview Items discussed Zengani, Holly and Innes finished with material balance and PFD for activated carbon, for next week have energy balance done and finish off this process route completely. Roddy, Ross and James have split up their parts into 3 so each member has a specific process to focus on and all are in the process of doing material/energy balances. Dr Haw recommends putting the report together soon so we can see what we are missing and what needs to be done.

Targets for next meeting Interim report ready to submit Have energy balances/material balances complete.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

164

Minutes 17/03/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees All present Items discussed Emissions of different processes are part of the quantities that can be possibly compared to get a degree of how environmentally friendly the processes are. Interim report to be submitted next week on Monday Dr Haw recommends putting the report together soon so we can see what we are missing and what needs to be done. Broad ideas for the costs of equipment estimating only rough costs for the unit blocks, another way to compare the different processes. For the gasification process, James was to estimate the likely levels of impurities in order to carry out calculations for the scrubber. Reasonable amounts of calculations were to be placed in the main body of the report while some (more detailed) to be in the appendix Ross and Roddy have done material balances for the cogeneration process with the same boiler but different turbine.

Targets for next meeting Have energy balances/material balances complete. Have the interim report submitted before then.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

165

Minutes 25/03/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees All present Items discussed The comments on the interim report submitted to Dr Haw were discussed

Comments on Interim Report An executive summary is needed An Introduction to baggase needs to be added with references to where baggase comes from, it uses etc The quantities involved in each process (e.g. the gasification process) need to be mentioned Introduction to each process (e.g. gasification, cogeneration, activated carbon etc) are needed The titles and sub titles need to be clearer All calculations need to be explained There is a lot of repetition in the report If for any reason information on a process can not be found then it needs to be noted in the report.

Targets for next meeting To tidy up all sections of the report by cutting out repetition, having clearer titles and editing the report in general To have all introductions to each process written up

Next meeting on April 1st

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

166

Minutes 01/04/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees All present Items discussed Group needs to make a to-do list, regarding Dr Haws comments on interim report and what else we feel should be included in the report. Need to start putting the project together, compile all the parts and we will see where there are gaps. The group decided that a section on the environmental factors and the emissions from baggase should be included in the final report. A section on economics also needs to added

Targets for next meeting Identify gaps that need to be filled and start them Look at pulp and paper production Meetings will continue over Easter holidays Ross and James to sort out the layout of Cogeneration on Tuesday Group to meet on Wednesday and work as a team on paper and pulp and the other things that still need to be done.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

167

Minutes 5/04/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees Holly Keir Roddy MacKay Innes MacLennan Ross Murphy Apologies Zengani cant make the meeting because he has an interview to attend. Items discussed The team meets to research a possible process scheme for pulp and paper production. It is decided that the process will be used to produce to the pulp stage, and this product will then be sold ready for paper production. After deciding on a suitable process Holly, Innes and Ross will carry out preliminary material balances, while Roddy will write up a description for each unit operation. The group will ask Zengani if he is happy to take on a section on activated carbon mechanisms himself, while Holly, Innes and Ross focus on pulp production. This will mean that each member is taking on a similar work load.

Targets for next meeting Holly, Innes and Ross will have completed their material balances. Roddy will have written up a detailed process description. The members will then carry out energy balances for the pulp process, working together at the next meeting

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

168

Minutes 12/04/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees Holly Keir Roddy MacKay Innes MacLennan Ross Murphy Zengani Chabinga Items discussed The team meets to work on the energy balances, and finalise the process write-up for pulp production. Zengani will work on activated carbon kinetics own his own since he has made progress on this already. Holly, Innes, Roddy and Ross will work together on pulp production. The team compiles a list of final tasks to do in the coming week. Holly, Innes and Zengani will work together to carry out an economic and environmental analysis of the activated carbon process. Roddy and Ross will do the same for the cogeneration schemes.

Targets for next meeting Holly, Innes, Roddy and Ross will have completed the energy balances and process description for pulp production. Zengani will have completed the kinetics for activated carbon Holly, Innes and Zengani will research the economics and environmental impacts associated with activated carbon. Roddy and Ross will research the economics and environmental impacts associated bagasse based cogeneration.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

169

Minutes 21/04/11 Project 2 Group 7


Attendees Holly Keir Innes MacLennan Ross Murphy Previous weeks work Group met on 19th April and completed economics of activated carbon and cogeneration. The environmental aspects for pulp production, activated carbon production and cogeneration were also covered. Items discussed Innes asked about the layout of the report. Dr Haw said that the environment sections should be collected and put in the same section, after the detailed descriptions. The same applies to the economic review. The environmental aspects and economics can be cross referenced within the specific section so the reader knows that it will be covered later. All data must be written up and referenced accordingly before Tuesday.

Targets for next meeting The next meeting will be Tuesday 26th April, and the group will compile the report together for printing on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Dr Haw thinks its a good idea to print if before Thursday. Within the report the reader must know the layout; they must know what is going to be focused on pulp, activated carbon and cogeneration. Pulp economics have yet to be completed. Group members Innes, Ross, Holly and Roddy will attempt to do this during any spare time from project 1. Ross and Innes are planning to attempt it sometime today and forward it to Holly and Roddy. On Tuesday the group will to a comparison of the processes and Dr Haw recommends using a table or bullet points to make it clear for the reader. The group will also write the executive summary on Tuesday which will have the format (this is the problem, this is what we did, this is the conclusion) this is clear and concise for the reader.

Section: Minutes Author(s): All

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