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Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
1
APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING
EVALUATION OF A BIOMASS DRYING PROCESS USING WASTE HEAT FROM
PROCESS INDUSTRIES: A CASE STUDY
Hanning Li, Qun Chen, Xiaohui Zhang, Karen N. Finney*, Vida N. Sharifi and Jim Swithenbank
Sheffield University Waste Incineration Centre (SUWIC), Department of Chemical and Biological
Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK
*Corresponding author. Tel: +44-114-2227563, Fax: +44-114-2227501, Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Dry biomass provides considerable benefits for combustion, such as increased boiler efficiency,
lower flue gas emissions and improved boiler operations, compared to fuels with high moisture.
Drying is however an energy-intensive pre-treatment. Utilising low-grade, waste heat – of
which large amounts are available from many process industries – could significantly reduce
energy consumption. The integration of a drying process into a power station fuel system was
investigated; the results are presented here. Waste heat from a process industry plant (100 MW
output) was utilised as the heat source for drying. The biomass, pine chips at 60wt% moisture,
was dried and could then be provided as the input fuel for a subsequent 40 MW power plant.
The process consisted of a belt conveyor as the dryer and either flue gases or superheated
steam (generated from the hot cooling water) as the heat source. Flue gas usage would result in
lower capital costs (~€2.5m), but environmental issues, such as pollutant emissions must be
considered. Superheated steam can combine short drying times, good heat recovery and
environmental protection, but would entail greater capital costs (~€3m). A 3-4 year return on
the initial investment was calculated for both technologies, but profitability was sensitive to
fuel price.
Keywords: low-grade waste heat; biomass; belt dryer; process industry.
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the past few decades, the combination of a number of issues has meant that developing
sustainable and renewable energy sources and improving the efficiency of systems using
thermal energy have become increasingly important. The depletion of natural resources, due
to rapid fossil fuel consumption, and environmental issues, like climate change and acid rain,
are just some of these problems.
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
2
Biomass can be used as a form of renewable energy, for both heat and power generation
through thermo-chemical treatments, such as combustion or gasification. The term ‘biomass’
refers to both energy crops (plants grown to be used as a fuel) and wastes/by-products, such as
forestry residues, sawdust, municipal waste and a range of other agricultural and
commercial/industrial wastes, which can all be utilised for energy production in much the
same way as coal. Biomass is usually combusted on a grate (fixed-/moving-bed) or in a
fluidised-bed boiler. The moisture content of biomass is typically high, often varying between
50 and 63wt%, depending on the season, weather and type of biomass. Typical higher heating
values (the gross calorific value) of biomass fuels are around 15-22 MJ/kg; the energy content of
pine wood, the fuel investigated herein, is reported to be 18.3 MJ/kg [1]. The energy needed for
the evaporation of water from biomass fuels in a combustion boiler cannot be utilised in the
power generation process, since the temperature level of the latent heat is too low, e.g. <110°C at
atmospheric pressure. An initially low level of fuel moisture however could recover much of
the energy used during combustion for water evaporation. It would also be beneficial for
decreasing the dimensions of the boiler and reducing the emissions of unburned solids.
Biomass with lower moisture contents could also minimise or eliminate other combustion
control problems caused by fluctuations in the fuel moisture. Nonetheless, drying is an energy-
intensive process and can easily account for up to 15% of industrial energy utilisation [2].
Consequently, in many industrial drying processes, a large fraction of energy is wasted [3].
Energy management is therefore an essential part of any drying process and energy
conservation can significantly lower the overall operating costs [4].
This paper investigated a biomass drying process using low-grade waste heat as the heat source.
The heat source (100 MW) consisted of either waste flue gases at 250-450°C or hot water at 90°C,
both exiting an industrial process plant. After drying, the lower moisture content pine wood
chip fuel was then supplied to a 40 MW power generator. Two alternative drying systems, flue
gas drying and steam drying with a water pre-heating process, were compared to assess the
differences in energy consumption. A continuous belt dryer with a heat exchanger (if steam
drying was used) was considered as the dryer configuration in both systems. The dryer design
mainly consisted of the determination of various sizing and operational variables. The
evaluation of specific process variables for each design was carried out using economic criteria.
Both the capital and running costs were included in the evaluation and the profitability was
assessed by determining the net present value (NPV).
2. INDUSTRIAL DRYERS FOR BIOMASS DRYING
The dominant combustion technique for biofuels in the 1970s and 1980s was grate firing. This
type of boiler can handle fuels with varying levels of moisture, but ideally, one of 30-40% should
be used [5]. Since the 1970s, fluidised-bed boilers have generally replaced grate-firing as a
combustion technique [6]. Compared with grate firing, fluidised-bed boilers are a more suitable
method of combustion for moist biofuels. The use of fuels with a high moisture content
however decreases the overall energy efficiency of the power plant and reduces the boiler
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
3
capacity to such an extent that it becomes reasonable to install a dryer in combination with
the boiler. In the 1970s and 1980s, industrial dryers tended to be direct flue gas dryers [7]. Flue
gases were either taken directly from the boiler or generated in a separate flue gas burner. The
most common dryer types are rotary dryers, flash dryers, fluidised-bed dryers and belt dryers.
Typical performance data for these are presented in Table 1, along with other considerations in
Table 2.
Table 1: Typical range of design parameters and performance data for various dryers [7-11].
DRYER TYPE
Rotary Flash Belt
Evaporation Rate (t/h) 3-23 4.8-17 0.5-40
Drying Temperature (°C) 200-600 150-280 30-200
Capacity (t/h) 3-45 4.4-16 -
Feed Moisture at Inlet (%) 45-65 45-65 45-72
Moisture Discharge (%) 10-45 10-45 15-25
Feed Moisture at Outlet (%) - 12 25
Pressure Drop (kPa) 2.5-3.7 7.5 0.5
Optimal Particle Size (mm) 19-50 - -
Maximum Particle Size (mm) 25-125 0.5-50 -
Thermal Requirement (GJ/t-evaporation) 3.0-4.0 2.7-2.8 1.26-2.5
Table 2: Considerations when choosing a dryer [7-10].
DRYER TYPE
Rotary Flash Belt Fluidised-Bed
Requires Small Particles none yes none none
Heat Recovery difficult difficult easy easy
Fire Hazard high medium low medium
Air Emission medium high low medium
Steam Use yes none yes yes
2.1 Dryers
As outlined above, there are several different types of dryer that are available. Rotary dryers,
for instance, are the most common type for biomass applications and have low maintenance
costs. Their robust and simple construction combines flexibility with reliability, enabling this
type of dryer to operate under the most arduous conditions. They can handle a vast range of
materials and are less sensitive to particle size, as shown in Table 2. The material moisture
however is hard to control in rotary dryers because of the long lag time [13]. Though their
design does permit the use of the highest possible drying/operating temperature (Table 1) and
they can accept hot flue gases, this poses a considerable fire risk (Table 2); this also means that
they require a lot of space – the most of all dryer types. Most dryers have outlet temperatures
higher than 100°C to prevent the condensation of acids and resins.
Flash dryers are able to dry biomass rapidly, owing to the easy removal of free moisture. Wet
material is mixed with a stream of heated air (or other gas), which conveys it through a drying
duct where high heat and mass transfer rates rapidly dry the product. Flash dryers require
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
4
smaller biomass particle sizes to suspend and transport the biomass by the fluid stream alone
(Table 2). Gas temperatures tend to be slightly lower than for rotary dryers. Flash dryers are
much more compact than rotary dryers, but have higher installation costs [13]. They also have
high blower power costs in addition to the heat requirements for drying. Flash dryers have a
lower fire risk than rotary dryers due to the shorter retention times and lower operating
temperatures (Table 1 and 2). They can be used to dry most types of biomass.
In belt dryers, the feedstock is spread on a moving perforated conveyor to dry the material in a
continuous process. Fans blow the drying medium through the belt and biomass material.
Belt dryers are versatile and can handle a wide range of materials. They are now frequently
used in low temperature operations (as low as 30°C) to save energy, reduce air emissions and
minimise fire hazards (Tables 1 and 2).
Dryers can also be classified into fixed- and fluidised-bed designs according to the hot air
velocity flowing through the bed. In a fluidised-bed dryer, the hot air flows through the bed at
a velocity sufficient to support the weight of particles in a fluidised state. Bubbles form and
break within the bed and as a result, there is a high volume of gas in contact with the biomass
particles, leading to high heat and mass transfer rates, providing fast evaporation (Table 2).
2.2 Selection of the Dryer
Belt dryers are better suited to take advantage of low-grade and waste heat because they
operate at lower temperatures than rotary dryers (Table 1). Rotary dryers, for example,
typically require inlet temperatures of 260°C, but more optimally operate around 400°C. In
contrast, the inlet temperature of a belt dryer, such as a commercially-available vacuum dryer,
can be as low as 10°C above the ambient temperature, although more typically they operate at
higher temperatures, between 90°C and 200°C. Because of their lower temperature operation,
fire hazards and emissions to the air are lower for belt dryers (Table 2).
Using steam to dry moist fuels has recently attracted much interest for a number of reasons:
the high energy efficiency, low fire hazard and better environmental control. Steam drying is
mostly done using belt feeders or fluidised-beds (Table 2). The superheated steam in the dryer
provides the thermal driving force necessary to evaporate the moisture in the fuel. Generally,
the wet material is mixed with enough superheated steam to dry the material and end with
saturated steam. There are disadvantages to this process however; these include the
requirement of a small particle size to ensure good mixing with the steam, the high capital
costs incurred for a stainless steel pressure vessel and wastewater treatment issues.
In the design of a drying process, fire safety and emission issues should be considered. Fire
safety refers to precautions that are taken to prevent the likelihood of a fire. Fires start when
flammable and/or combustible materials with an adequate supply of oxygen are heated to their
ignition temperature. Biomass generally has an auto-ignition temperature of 260-280°C. In
most cases, air-drying poses a potentially high fire risk, because of the high amount of oxygen
in the air supply and the temperature used. Flue gas dryers can operate at higher temperatures
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
5
than air dryers, because flue gases contain lower amounts of oxygen [9]. Compared with air or
flue gas dryers, superheated steam drying processes have an even lower fire risk because no
oxygen is present. There are additional fire risks if the dried biomass is heated above its
ignition temperature though [9]. As the high temperatures used in these dryers are a fire
hazard, one effective method is to reduce the operating temperature; a temperature of less than
100°C could significantly minimise the likelihood of a fire.
The exhaust gas from a biomass dryer mostly contains sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, hydrocarbons and suspended particulate matter as pollutants. SO2, CO2 and CO can
be removed by absorption processes before the exhaust is released to the atmosphere and
particles can be removed in part by cyclones and wet scrubbers. All types of woody material
contain volatile organics that may be emitted together with the water vapour. The emissions
from biomass drying are greatly affected by the drying temperature, especially when it exceeds
100°C [7]. Below 100°C, emissions are reported to be low [14]. Exhaust gases or unclean
condensates must be treated after the dryer if they contain high concentrations of the above
emissions; this increases the overall drying costs. The drying temperature when using flue
gases should be controlled so that it remains below 100°C to reduce the gas treatment costs,
even though the temperature of flue gas is normally much higher than this. In steam drying,
contaminated condensates include aerobic biological organisms, organic compounds, organic
carbon and non-condensable components, such as CO2, H2, CO, CH4 and C2-C4 compounds,
which require removal from the gas stream before release to the atmosphere for environmental
and health reasons [8].
In addition to the safety and environmental considerations, the selection of a dryer should also
take into account the water evaporation rate, biomass properties (such as particle size),
operating temperature and the availability of heat resources. Table 2 summarized some
considerations in choosing the dryers. The significant advantages of rotary dryers are that
they are less sensitive to material size, operate at high temperatures to reduce drying time,
have a wide range of evaporation rates and are easy to install. The main drawback is the much
greater fire risk, due to this high operating temperature. Gaseous emissions from this type of
dryer also need to be highly controlled and heat recovery is difficult. Flash dryers on the other
hand are more compact and easier to control, but require a small particle size; reducing the
size of the material may thus be beneficial for drying in this type of system, although this is an
energy-intensive operation, adding further to the overall processing costs. Flash dryers can
also be used in high capacity water removal applications. Belt dryers are used in low
temperature operations with reduced fire risks, fewer gaseous emission and low energy
consumption. The advantages of belt dryers over the other types for biomass drying hence
mean that the feasibility of their application was assessed herein.
2.3 Drying Rate
In the operation of a belt drying process, air or steam that is used as the drying media flows
through the solid bed and comes into contact with the surface of the material (fuel). This
convective drying process removes water from the surface of the material whilst increasing the
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
6
temperature of the fuel, because the temperature of the drying media stream is higher than
that of the fuel. During the convective drying process, two distinct phases can be distinguished
in the material [15]. During the first stage – the constant drying rate period – the surface water
on the material is removed. In the second phase – the falling drying rate period – internal
diffusion of the water to the surface of the material takes place. These physical phenomena
have been described by various models [15-17]. In the first kind of model, mass and energy
balances are formed to describe the convective mass and heat transfer between the solid
surface (fuel) and the gas stream (drying media). In these models, partial differential equations
have a good physical basis to predict the drying process of a material with appropriate drying
models, given the drying stream conditions and the mass and characteristics of the material.
In general, there are three equations needed to predict the drying properties of wood: those for
the stream temperature, wood temperature and drying rate. In the second type of model, the
drying rate is described by the characteristics of the material, such as porosity, hardness, pore
size and particle size, among others. The drying rate is generally determined by experimental
observations and then developed into an empirical relation. The drying rate curve can be also
used for estimating the residence time of materials in the dryer.
Various studies have investigated fuel drying, many of which have focussed on wood fuels.
Sheikholeslami and Watkinson [18], for example, explored the water evaporation rate from
wood-residue fuels, mainly bark, comparing air and superheated steam drying. The maximum
drying rate was obtained after a short drying time and then the drying rate rapidly decreased.
Comparing the effect of temperature on both the superheated steam-drying and air-drying
techniques, the maximum drying rate was much higher with the superheated steam than with
the relatively dry air at temperatures above approximately 180°C, while the relationship was
reversed below this point. The maximum drying rate represents the initial drying rate, which
identifies the optimal operating conditions. The results indicated that in view of the drying
rate, air-drying is the preferred option to accelerate the drying process at temperatures below
180°C, whilst steam drying will significantly improve drying rates at temperatures above 180°C.
Later, Fyhr and Rasmuson [16] investigated the drying rates of pine and spruce woods at
various particle sizes and operating temperatures in a superheated steam system. They found
that drying pinewood takes less time than spruce wood, mainly due to the internal structure of
the pine being more permeable than the spruce. They also assessed the effects of solid size (L,
the longitudinal particle length, in m, and T, the thickness, also in m) on the total drying
residence time (TDT), which can be estimated by:
0
0
0
L
LTDTTDT 1
1
1T
T= (1)
Gigler, et al. [15] carried out drying experiments for willows chips and simulated drying for the
same chips using airflow. At the beginning of the drying process, convective heat transfer
dominates, leading to a rapid drop in the fuel moisture content. Following this, the diffusion of
water inside the solid becomes significant, slowing down the drying rate. An increased chip
size lengthens the drying time. Most recently, Holmberg [7] studied the drying rates of pine
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
7
wood bark in a bed of variable height using air as the drying medium. It was found that an
increased drying temperature significantly reduced the drying time and hence accelerated the
drying process. Furthermore, it was concluded that the bed must be deep enough so that the
drying air at the exit has reached its saturation point. Increasing the bed height still decreased
the dryer size but the influence on dimensions was not as significant as for thin beds. Bed
heights between 0.2m and 0.8m are generally selected for conveyor dryers.
3. DESCRIPTION OF DRYING SYSTEM: A CASE STUDY
The UK faces the combined challenges of maintaining secure energy supplies and reducing
carbon dioxide emissions to address climate change. Biomass can provide an alternative
source of energy, replacing coal, to alleviate, at least in part the above issues. Accordingly, a 40
MW power station has been proposed for Sheffield, UK, using waste wood as the fuel source.
Fresh wood chips can have a considerable moisture content, often up to 70%, which would
significantly reduce the thermal efficiency of the combustor if they were used directly.
Reducing the moisture content through drying was thus required to improve efficiency.
As stated above, biomass drying is an energy-intensive process, so utilising waste energy can
make this more efficient and reduce the overall energy demand. In a survey of process
industries near Sheffield, it was found that the waste heat contained in flue gases, with a
temperature of 250-450°C, could be recovered and used as an energy source with the greatest
potential for biomass drying. Around 100 MW of energy can be provided in the form of waste
heat: 60% available thermally as hot water at 90°C, and the rest as hot flue gas. Figure 1 shows a
schematic diagram of the biomass drying process using waste heat from a process industry
plant. The mass flowrate of the 90°C hot water exiting the plant has been estimated to be 737
t/hr. The mass and volumetric flowrates at the flue gas exit are shown in Table 3.
Figure 1: Schematic of the biomass drying process integrated into the power stations.
40% flue gas at 250-450°C
100 MW combustor
fresh biomass
dryer dried biomass
40 MW combustor
60% hot water at 90°C
heat source
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
8
Table 3: Flowrates of the flue gas exiting the process industry plant at various temperatures.
TEMPERATURE (°C) FLOWRATE
250 300 350 400 450
Mass (kg/s) 179.71 146.24 123.12 106.19 93.26
Volumetric (Nm3/s) 139.29 113.35 95.43 82.31 72.29
Volumetric (× 105 m
3/h) 9.61 8.56 7.84 7.30 6.89
To estimate the usage of the waste heat required for biomass drying, two process
configurations were proposed and compared. The first was the direct use of the flue gas as the
heat source, without the need for a heat exchanger. The temperature of the inlet gas flow in
this first drying option was 250-450°C. Figure 2 shows a flow diagram for this adiabatic drying
process. The second configuration utilises the flue gas to raise the hot water to superheated
steam at a desired temperature via a heat exchanger. The generated steam can then be used as
the energy source for drying. Figure 3 outlines this drying process and the associated pre-
heating. The inlet superheated steam in the second configuration was around 150-180°C at 1-2
bars. The drying temperature is usually 20°C lower than the temperature of the heat source.
These waste thermal energy sources were then evaluated for supplying heat to dry the biomass.
The capital and operation costs, as well as the profitability of using a conveyor-belt dryer were
subsequently estimated to provide information for the industrial design and construction of
this drying process.
Figure 2: Flow diagram of the adiabatic drying process using waste flue gases as the heat source.
Figure 3: Flow diagram of the adiabatic drying process using superheated pressurised steam generated from the hot cooling water as the heat source, heated by the waste flue gases in a
pre-heater.
Direct use of the flue gases for drying can mitigate the need for a heat exchanger, as shown.
The problem with direct drying though is commonly believed to be contamination of the
biomass, but this should not be an issue, since the biomass is to be combusted. The use of the
flue gas at a high temperature (250-450°C) could increase the drying rate, meaning that a dryer
with smaller dimensions could be used. These higher drying temperatures however can cause
problems, such as increasing both the amount of gaseous emissions and the fire risk, as
DRYER flue gas feed
wood feedstock
wetted flue gas
dried wood
recycled steam
DRYER
steam
wood
saturated steam
dried wood
PRE-HEATER 90°C water
flue gas feed
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
9
identified above [7,9,14]. Thus the design of the dryer must take into consideration that the
temperature of flue gas at the outlet of the dryer should be less than 100°C.
The use of steam as the drying medium, however, represents a more valuable energy source,
because by allowing the steam to expand in a turbine, it would be possible to also recover
mechanical work (electricity) from the steam [8]. Furthermore, the construction of the
associated heat exchanger for this dryer arrangement would increase the capital costs. The
flue gas or steam demand for drying depends on the type of dryer and many drying parameters.
The waste flue gas from the industrial plant could provide sufficient heat for two alternative
drying approaches.
Industrial conveyor-belt dryers are the most popular type for removing moisture from
agricultural products. As discussed in the review of industrial dryers above (Section 2), belt
dryers are able to use low-temperature heat sources to achieve biomass drying. Moreover, the
utilisation of a belt dryer will reduce the fire risk and minimise emissions, compared to other
dryers if the exit temperature of the flue gas is designed to be below 100°C in the case of direct
drying. The interior of this type of dryer is illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Side view of a continuous cross-flow dryer.
4. ESTIMATION OF FLUE GAS USAGE FOR BIOMASS DRYING
The mass flowrates of flue gas in the two process configurations were determined according to
the heat and mass balances for the heating medium and the biomass streams in a steady-state
adiabatic process. Firstly, the dryer capacity was estimated and then the flue gas usage and
superheated steam requirements were calculated for the different drying configurations.
4.1 Capacity of the Dryer
The solid biomass – white pine wood chips – had an initial moisture content of around 50-
60wt%, as shown in Table 4. The dried fuel was to be the input fuel for a 40 MW power plant.
The heating value of this fuel was 16.66 MJ/kg on a dry basis. The mass flowrate of the dry
biomass was calculated from the power input requirement and biomass heating value. The
evaporation rates of water from the biomass were then evaluated (Table 4).
OUT
wood at a lower moisture content and specific
temperature flue gas in
flue gas out IN
wood at a high moisture content and specific
temperature
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
10
Table 4: Evaporation rates of water from the solid biomass.
FUEL MOISTURE CONTENT (wt%) Initial, Final
EVAPORATION RATE kg/s t/h
60, 10 3.3339 12.0019
60, 20 3.0005 10.8017
60, 30 2.5718 9.2586
50, 10 2.1337 7.6812
50, 20 1.8003 6.4810
50, 30 1.3716 4.9379
4.2 Estimation of the Flue Gas Requirement
The first drying option involved the direct use of the flue gas. The amount of flue gas required
was estimated based on the heating rate of the flue gas that can evaporate water from the
biomass. It is common practice to assume that within the interior of a dryer, the drying stream
follows an adiabatic process. The enthalpy of the flue gas at the entrance of the dryer (Hf,in, in
kJ/kg-dry flue gas) was equal to that at the outlet of the dryer (Hf,out):
outf,inf, HH = (2)
The enthalpy of the flue gas with a specific water content could thus be estimated using the
humidity data for air containing water:
flatentffwater,pair,pf HumHT)HumCC(H ×+×+= (3)
where Cp,air is the specific heat of the air, Cp,water is the specific heat of the water vapour, Humf is
the humidity of the flue gas, Tf is the flue gas temperature and Hlatent is the latent heat of water.
The humidity of the flue gas can be calculated in terms of the saturation pressure:
sat
sat
air,r
water,r
fPP
P
M
MHum
ϕ−
ϕ×= (4)
where Mr is the molecular weight or mass (in this case of the water and the air), φ is the relative
moisture, P is the pressure and Psat is the saturated pressure (both in mmHg). This saturation
pressure can be estimated with the Antoine equation:
TC
BA)(Plog sat10
+−= (5)
where the parameters A, B, and C are constants, selected according to temperature, either
above or below 100°C.
During the drying process, a known amount of water was removed from the solid biomass over
a certain period of time – Wevap, the water evaporation rate (kg-water/s). A corresponding
amount of flue gas must therefore have removed the water vapour from the dryer at the
specified humidity. The flowrate of the flue gas balanced the mass of water evaporated from
the material in the dryer. The mass flowrate of the flue gas (Gf in kg/s) was then determined
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
11
according to the water removal rate at a given humidity change (the difference in humidity
between the inlet and outlet, Humf,in - Humf,out) in the flue gas:
out,fin,f
evap
fHumHum
WG
−= (6)
The mass flowrate of the flue gas determined from Equation 6 was then used to evaluate the
availability of the supplied flue gas. Figure 5 shows the volumetric flowrate of the flue gas at
varying flue gas temperatures for different final fuel moisture contents. The maximum
flowrate to obtain the required amount of flue gas was 2.3×105 m3/hr, which was sufficient to
dry the biomass. Figure 5 also demonstrates that a higher flue gas temperature could reduce
the loading of flue gas in the dryer.
Figure 5: Flue gas flowrates at varying flue gas temperatures for drying pine wood chips, where the initial moisture content of the fuel was 60wt%.
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
150 250 350 450 550
Flue gas temperature (oC)
Flu
e gas
volu
me
flow
rate
(x105
M3/h
)
20
Final MC
(wt%-wet)
30
10
4.3 Estimation of the Superheated Steam Requirement
Superheated steam was the alternative option for drying the biomass. In the absence of other
gas species in the flue gas, water vapour is a major component in the heating medium. The
mass flowrate of the steam in the dryer was estimated based on an adiabatic process, as for the
flue gas case above, limited by saturated steam at a given temperature. In the steam drying
process, the heating source was steam that can be partially generated by using the hot water at
90°C, but an integrated pre-heating process using the high temperature flue gas can be used as
an additional source of heat, as shown in Figure 3. Thus, the flowrate of the flue gas also
needed to be evaluated in the thermal balance to determine the energy required to raise the
90°C hot water to the desired superheated steam temperature of 140-180°C.
Figure 6 shows the variation in the mass flowrate of steam with steam temperature at different
final moisture contents. As expected, an increased steam temperature results in a reduction in
the flowrate of the steam required. For the same final fuel moisture content, a fuel with an
initially high moisture content required a higher flowrate of steam, and thus, for the same
initial moisture, a fuel with a higher final moisture content required a lower steam flowrate.
Flue Gas Temperature (°C)
10 wt%
20 wt%
30 wt%
Flue Gas Volumetric Flowrate
(105 m
3/h
r)
final moisture content
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
12
The steam recycle ratio (R) had no effect on the required flow rates since the recycled steam
was mixed with the generated steam before entering the dryer. However, varying the recycle
ratio significantly affected the operation of the pre-heater, because an increased recycle ratio
reduced the generation of steam, consequently lowering the requirement of flue-gas usage, as
shown in Figure 7. It is interesting to note that at a high recycle ratio, i.e. R=0.75 (75%), flue gas
usage is negligibly affected by the flue gas temperature for steam generation in the pre-heater
and steam temperature in the dryer. Figures 6 and 7 also demonstrate that the maximum
flowrate of flue gas was about 2.4 × 105 m3/hr and the maximum flowrate of the 90°C hot water
was 12 t/hr. The maximum amount of waste low-grade energy in terms of the available flue
gases (up to 9.6 x 105 m3/hr) and 90°C hot water (737 t/hr) that can be supplied would be
sufficient to generate enough steam at a temperature of 140-180°C.
Figure 6: Steam flowrates at different steam temperatures for drying wood, at an initial moisture content of 60wt% and a flue gas temperature of 250°C.
2.00
4.00
6.00
8.00
10.00
12.00
14.00
120 140 160 180 200
Steam temperature (oC)
Ste
am
flo
w r
ate
(t/h
)
Final MC
(wt%-wet)
10
20
30
Figure 7: Flue gas flowrates required for generating steam at various flue gas temperatures and for different steam recycle ratios, where the steam temperature was 140°C, the initial
fuel moisture content was 60wt% and the final moisture content was 10wt%.
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
200 250 300 350 400 450 500
o
G(1
05xM
3/h
)
R=0
R=0.5
R=0.75
final moisture content
10 wt% 20 wt% 30 wt%
Steam Temperature (°C)
Steam Flowrate (t/hr)
Flue Gas Temperature (°C)
Flue Gas Volumetric Flowrate
(105 m
3/h
r)
R=50%
R=75%
steam recycle ratio
R=0%
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
13
5. THE COST OF DRYING
The overall costs of biomass drying consist of both the capital costs (Costcapital) and the running
costs (Costrun). The capital cost is generally considered to primarily be composed of the
equipment costs (Costeq):
∑= eqcapital CostGCost (7)
where G is the Lang factor, determined to be 1.6, which included 0.1 for electricity, 0.1 for
instrumentation, 0.05 for lagging, 0.15 for civil work and 0.2 for installation. Equipment costs
are usually correlated with the capacity factor using the following relationship:
bkYCosteq = (8)
where k is the proportionality factor, Y is the capacity parameter and exponent b is typically
within the range of 0.4-0.8, as demonstrated below [19]. In drying systems, the conveyors and
heat exchangers are the main pieces of equipment. While the capacity factor of each of these is
different, it is directly or indirectly dependent on the mass flow of air or steam. Equations 9
through 11 outline the equipment cost functions of individual items:
belt dryer: Costeq = 2700Y Y is cross-sectional area (9)
heat exchanger: Costeq = 660Y0.7 Y is heat transfer area (10)
cover: Costeq = 1200Y0.5 Y is cover area (11)
In calculating the cost of the belt dryer, the capacity parameter is affected by the belt cross-
sectional area. This can be determined based on the fuel mass flowrate and the residence time
of the wood. The mass flowrate (Mwood) was derived from the data in the previous section. The
residence time (τwood) was considered to be the drying time of the pinewood, which was based
on published date from both Fyhr and Rasmuson [16] and Holmberg and Ahtila [20]. As the
total amount of the wet fuel on the belt was known, calculated by:
Mwood x (1+MC) x τwood) (12)
where MC is the initial fuel moisture content. The required belt area can be estimated based on
the unit area loading (Wload) of the wet fuel. Kiranoudis and Markatos [21] recommended a
maximum unit area loading of 50 kg/m2 on a wet basis. A unit area loading of 30 kg/m2 was
used here and thus the effective area of drying (Aeff) was estimated by:
load
woodwood
effW
MC)(1 MA
τ×+×= (13)
The equipment cost of the conveyor was then calculated according to Equation 13 and the cost
function outlined in Equation 9. The cost of the cover was evaluated according to the cost
function in Equation 11, based on the area that covers the conveyor belt. The length and width
of the cover were slightly larger than the belt. The height of the cover was 6 m, which is
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
14
commonly used in industrial belt dryer applications. For the heat exchanger, the heat transfer
area (Aheat ex) was determined by:
)TT(h
QA
watf
heat ex−×
= (14)
where Q is the thermal flow rate, h is the heat transfer coefficient and Tf and Twat are the
temperature of the flue gas and the water respectively. The heat exchanger was used to convert
the hot water at 90°C into steam at temperatures of 140-180°C. During this process, the heat
transfer rate consists of three stages: (i) the water temperature rises from 90°C to 100°C, (ii) the
water evaporates to steam at 100°C, and (iii) the steam temperature increases to the desired
temperature. Tf is the average value of the inlet and outlet flue gas temperatures for the heat
exchanger. Because evaporation of liquid water to steam at 100°C is energy intensive, Twat was
set to 100°C. The capital cost of the heat exchanger was then evaluated according to the cost
function in Equation 10.
Figure 8 shows the variation in capital costs with the final fuel moisture content at different
flue gas temperatures. As expected, leaving the material at a higher final moisture level and/or
using a higher operating temperature can reduce the capital costs. As the operation of the
steam dryer is likely to cause corrosion problems, stainless steel can be partially used for
equipment construction to minimise this issue. In the heat exchanger, for example, the tubes
and dryer are constructed from stainless steel and the shell is constructed from carbon steel.
The costs derived from Equations 9 and 10 are based on equipment constructed from carbon
steel; for stainless steel, corrections factors of 2.2 and 2.9 need to be applied here as multipliers
for the heat exchanger and the dryer respectively [19]. Figure 9 shows the variation in capital
costs with different final fuel moisture contents for various steam conditions and equipment
materials. The capital costs will be significantly increased if stainless steel is used.
Figure 8: Variation in the capital costs with final fuel moisture at an initial moisture content of 1.5 kg-water/kg-fuel for different flue gas temperatures.
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Ca
pit
al
cost
(M
illio
n €
) 90 °C
110 °C
Capital Cost (millions €)
Final Fuel Moisture Content (kg-water/kg-fuel)
90°C
110°C
flue gas temperature
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
15
Figure 9: Variation in the capital costs with final fuel moisture at an initial moisture content of 1.5 kg-water/kg-fuel under different steam conditions and equipment materials.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Ca
pit
al
cost
(M
illi
on
€)
140 °C C-steel
160 °C C-steel
140 °C SS316
160 °C SS316
As stated above, the overall costs of drying consist of both the capital and running costs.
Running costs encompass all the costs associated with the operation of the dryer. The most
significant are for the use of heat and electricity, as well as the maintenance costs, which are
dependent on the annual operating time of the dryer and the price of energy. Maintenance
costs are usually estimated as a percentage of direct capital costs; typically, values range from
2% to 11%, averaging around 5-6% [19]. Personnel costs and insurance are also often included in
the running costs.
6. PROFITABILITY
Based on the cumulative cash flow, the profitability was evaluated in terms of payback time,
which is generally the main concern for investors. It is sometimes taken as the time from the
commencement of the project to the recovery of the initial capital investment. When
measuring profitability, the net present value (NPV) is used, which is a measure of the net cash
benefit generated by a project and is utilized herein to evaluate the profitability of the designed
drying processes. The NPV was calculated by:
capital
kt
0tt
maint Cost)1(
CostC NPV −
+
−= ∑
=
=i
(15)
where t is an individual/specific year, k is the total number of years, Ct is the cash benefit in t
years, Costmain is maintenance costs and i is the interest rate. The maintenance costs are
generally around 5% of the capital costs. Expressions for calculating Costmain and Ct are as
follows:
Capital Cost (millions €)
Final Fuel Moisture Content (kg-water/kg-fuel)
140°C carbon steel
160°C carbon steel
140°C stainless 316
140°C stainless 316
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
16
Costmain = 0.05 Costcapital (16)
Ct = (Csave-Q•Cf) • τop (17)
where Csave is the saved fuel per MWh, Cf is the price of energy stored in the flue gas (€0.5/GWh
here) and τop is the total number of operating hours in year ‘t’ (in this case, 8400 hours). Since
the heating rate for the water evaporation is Q (kJ/s), the total flue gas costs in this case would
be Q•Cf.
When the water content in the biomass is reduced, i.e. from an initial ratio of 1.5 down to 0.1 kg-
water/kg-fuel, the calorific value of the biomass will increase. This increased energy content
will be beneficial in saving energy during the operation of the boiler to evaporate the same
amount of water as removed from the fuel during drying. The saved fuel and thus the saved
energy in the boiler (Csave) can be converted into a positive cash flow, as follows:
fuellatentevapsave CHWC ××= (18)
where Cfuel is the price of fuel. Wevap x Hlatent represents the total energy required to evaporate
the desired amount of water in one hour, where Wevap can be found in Table 4. Cfuel generally
depends on the type of fuel, time and other parameters but is considered here to be the same
price as the biomass fuel used in the drying-boiler integrated process. The fuel price – how
much the dried pine wood biomass can be sold for – is generally in the range of €6-20/MWh;
here, €14/MWh was used for the calculations.
Figure 10 shows the variation in the NPV when the dryer is operating at a temperature of 90°C,
using flue gas as the heat source – the first configuration described in Section 3. The finial
moisture levels for the two cases considered here were 0.1 and 0.3 kg-water/kg-fuel. A return on
investment should be achieved after 3 years of operation for the higher final moisture content
and about 4 years for the lower moisture level. Figure 11 compares the 10-year NPV at different
final fuel moisture levels. At an operating temperature of 110°C, a profit of €3.6m can be
achieved after 10 years with the fuel moisture as low as 0.1 kg-water/kg-fuel. Increased fuel
moisture contents lower the profit. At an operating temperature of 90°C however, the most
profitable value is found a fuel moisture content of 0.3 kg-water/kg-fuel.
Figure 12 shows the NPV for biomass drying using superheated steam – the second
configuration described in Section 3 – at an operating temperature of 150°C; different steam
recycle ratios are compared. As shown, 3-4 years of operation is expected to achieve a return
on investment, as with the first configuration. Figure 13 shows the NPV after 10 years for
different final fuel moisture contents at an operating temperature of 150°C; various steam
recycle ratios were assessed. In general, the NPV decreases slowly as the final fuel moisture
increases until it reaches levels of around 0.25 kg-water/kg-fuel, after which the profitability
rapidly declines with increased final moisture. This indicates that drier biomass would yield a
higher profit.
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
17
Figure 10: Cumulative cash flow for biomass drying using flue gas at an operating temperature of 90°C and drying biomass from an initial moisture of 1.5 kg-water/kg-fuel to
0.1 and 0.3 kg-water/kg-fuel.
Figure 11: Variation in the net present value after 10 years with final moisture (initial moisture, 1.5 kg-water/kg-fuel).
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
NP
V (
Mil
lio
n €
)
90 °C
110 °C
The results calculated and plotted in Figures 10 to 13 are all based on a fuel price of €14/MWh.
As expected, profitability is very sensitive to the selling price of the fuel. Figure 14 outlines the
effect of fuel price on the NPV after 10 years of operation. Selling the biomass fuel at a higher
price obviously results in better profitability. Figure 14 also demonstrates that the fuel price
needs to be greater than €8/MWh in order to see a return on investment after 10 years.
Furthermore, the results indicate that drying fuels with a high moisture content will be
beneficial.
Net Present Value (millions €)
Duration of Operation (yrs)
90°C, 0.1 kg-water/kg-fuel
90°C, 0.3 kg-water/kg-fuel
Net Present Value (millions €)
Final Fuel Moisture Content (kg-water/kg-fuel)
90°C
100°C
drying temperature
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
18
Figure 12: Cumulative cash flow for biomass drying using superheated steam at an operating temperature of 150°C and drying biomass from an initial moisture content of 1.5
kg-water/kg-fuel to 0.1 kg-water/kg-fuel.
Figure 13: Variation in the net present value after 10 years with final moisture, where the initial moisture is 1.5 kg-water/kg-fuel and the steam temperature is 150°C.
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
NP
V (
Mil
lio
n €
)
R= 0%
R= 50%
R=75%
The sensitivity of the UK market to the Euro exchange rate is highlighted in Figure 15, which
demonstrates the effects of the exchange rate on the NPV of the system. The fuel price and
NPV both are calculated based on the current exchange rate and the error bars (+6.7% and
−7.9%) represent the fluctuations in the exchange rate over the last two years, which varied
between €1.06 and €1.22 to the pound. The results indicate that variation in the UK Sterling to
Euro exchange rate only significantly impacts the NPV when fuel prices are high.
Net Present Value (millions €)
Duration of Operation (yrs)
steam recycle ratio
0% 75%
Final Fuel Moisture Content (kg-water/kg-solid)
Net Present Value (millions €)
steam recycle ratio
R = 0%
R = 50%
R = 75%
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
19
Figure 14: Variation in the net present value with fuel price after 10 years, for initial and final moisture contents of 1.5 and 0.1 kg-water/kg-fuel and a steam temperature of 150°C).
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
NP
V (
Mil
lio
n €
)
R=0%
R=75%
Figure 15: Variation in the net present value with fuel price after 10 years, showing the sensitivity of the UK market to the Euro exchange rate over the past last two years (initial and final moisture contents of 1.5 and 0.1 kg-water/kg-solid, steam recycle ratio=0, and a
steam temperature of 150°C); the exchange rate is based on data from [22].
7. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has studied the integration of a drying process into a power generation plant using
two different forms of waste energy from the process industries. The potential thermal energy
sources for biomass drying were both low-grade heat – either in the form of the flue gas from
the process or hot cooling water that could be used to form superheated steam. The dried
Net Present Value (millions €)
Fuel Price (€/MWh)
steam recycle ratio
Fuel Price (£/MWh)
Net Present Value (millions £)
R = 0%
R = 75%
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
20
biomass could then be provided as the fuel input for a subsequent power station. A belt
conveyor was the chosen dryer. According to the result herein, sufficient heat is contained in
both the waste flue gases and the hot water exiting from the industrial process plant to be the
heat source for biomass drying – in this case, white pine wood chips. The moisture levels can
be reduced from 1.5 to 0.1-0.3 kg-water/kg-fuel, which is satisfactory for this to then be used as a
fuel for combustion in the latter energy generation process, at a higher efficiency.
By using flue gases as the heat source for drying, the capital costs would be in the region of €2.5
million. Although a higher flue gas temperature would reduce the capital costs, environmental
issues may then become a problem, such as increased emissions. Using superheated steam as
the drying medium however would mean that the capital costs would greater – about €3
million. To protect the equipment from corrosion, many components can be constructed from
stainless steel, though this will double the equipment costs. In the selection of either the flue
gas or superheated steam, the use of the flue gases would result in lower capital costs. Even
though superheated steam is a good option in terms of short drying times, good heat recovery
and environmental protection, the high capital costs associated with this dryer configuration
is a considerable issue, particularly when stainless steel is used for some of the equipment
components. Overall, for both the flue gas and steam drying configurations, 3-4 years of
operation is expected to give a return on the initial investment at a fuel price of €14/MWh.
However, profitability was found to be very sensitive to the biomass fuel-selling price. It was
calculated that this needs to be higher than €8/MWh to achieve a return on the investment
after 10 years of operation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC Thermal Management of Industrial Process Consortium) and our industrial partners
for their financial and technical support for this research programme.
NOMENCLATURE
A constant in Antoine equation [-] Aeff effective area of drying [m2] Aheat ex heat transfer area of heat exchanger [m2] b exponent [-] B constant in Antoine equation [-] C constant in Antoine equation [-] Cp specific heat [kJ/kg-K] Cf price of flue gas [€/MWh] Cfuel price of fuel [€/MWh] Csave price of saved fuel [€/MWh] Ct cash benefit [€] Costcapital capital cost [€]
Applied Thermal Engineering 35 (2012), 71-80
21
Costeq equipment cost [€] Costmain maintenance costs [€] Costrun running cost [€] G Lang factor [-] Gf mass flow rate of flue gas [kg/s] Hf enthalpy of flue gas [kJ/kg] Hlatent latent heat of water [kJ/kg] Hum humidity [kg-water/kg-air] h heat transfer coefficient [W/m2K] i interest rate [%] k total number of years [yrs] k proportionality factor [-] L longitudinal particle length [m] Mr molecular weight/mass [-] Mwood dry mass flow of biomass [kg/s] P pressure [mmHg] Psat saturated pressure [mmHg] Q thermal flow rate [W] R steam recycle ratio [-] t time [s] or [yr] T temperature [K] or [°C] T thickness [m] Twat Temperature of water [K] Wevap evaporation rate of water [kg/s] Wload unit loading of wood on the belt [kg/m2] Y capacity parameter [-] Y area [m2]
Greek symbols:
φ relative humidity [-] τ drying time or operating time [s or hr/year] τop total operating hours in one year [hour] τwood residence time of wood in the dryer [s]
Subscripts:
air air f flue gas in inlet, initial out outlet, final vapour vapour water water
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