Abstract
Biomass is a source of renewable energy and can undergo thermochemical processes to be converted into gaseous and liquid fuels. Thermal decomposition-induced biomass fouling on the screw feeder is a major challenge in preconversion of pyrolysis, leading to plugging of the feed line. This work intends to gain fundamental understanding of the biomass fouling phenomena across the heat gradient on the screw feeder via a combination of materials characterization and thermal simulation. An actual screw feeder that failed because of biomass fouling was examined to reveal the deposit’s morphology, composition, and mechanical properties. Thermal simulations were developed for both the screw feeder and the wood particles being transported using a combined analytical and numerical approach. The simulated temperature profiles correlated well with the deposit observations, based on which potential mitigations were proposed from both the operation and screw design perspectives and supported by preliminary experimental validation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 4934-4942 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 13 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 3 2023 |
Funding
The authors thank Dr. D. Carpenter from NREL for providing background information on the screw feeding system and K. Cooley and D. Loposser from ORNL for technical support. The research was sponsored by the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC) of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), US Department of Energy (DOE). Nanoindentation was performed at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of DOE-BES. R. Wang was supported by the ORNL Higher Education Research Experience (HERE) program. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- Biomass fouling
- Deposit
- Screw feeder
- Thermal simulation