Drying and burning wood waste using pulse combustion

Conference · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:115263

Buckkowski, A G; Eng, P; Kitchen, J A ^[1]

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1. Novadyne Ltd., Ontario (Canada)

Development of an industrial dryer using pulse combustion as a heating source for drying wood waste has continued. Pulse combustion offers the advantage of high heat transfer, efficient combustion, low NOx emissions and a source of kinetic energy for providing a motive force for a drying system. In our experiments, the drying system consists of a pulse combustor and a vertical drying column. The wood waste is injected into the exhaust gases from the combustor where the turbulence created by the pulsations enhance the drying process by reducing the boundary layer thicknesses. The material is further dried in the vertical drying column, then separated from the conveying airstream using a cyclone. The paper discusses two aspects of the drying system. Firstly, the performance of the drying tests are reviewed. Tests with the 1,000,000 BTU/hr test rig have shown that a gas-fired pulse combustion dryer can dry materials such as sawdust and pulverized hog fuel from a moisture content of 50% down to a 30% in a single pass, or further with multiple passes, without scorching or burning. Preliminary figures show that the operating costs of the dryer are reduced due to the kinetic energy created by the pulse combustor which offsets the use of electricity. Secondly, it has been shown that a pulse combustor can be fired with wood waste and thereby providing the potential to displace natural gas or propane as a fuel. The development of the wood burning combustor is reviewed.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
• OSTI ID: 115263
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP--200-8098; CONF-9508104--; ON: DE95009230
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
DRYING
EXHAUST GASES
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
HEAT TRANSFER
PULSE COMBUSTION
WOOD WASTES