DESIGN OF A PERFORATED PLATE DISTRIBUTOR FOR FLUIDIZATION OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE-INERT BLEND
Carlos Manuel Romero Luna1; Felipe Rigone Francischetti1; Ivonete Ávila1; Gretta Larisa Aurora Arce Ferrufino2
1 UNESP - Faculty of Engineering at Guaratinguetá; 2 INPE - Combustion and Propulsion Associated Laboratory
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-1347
Resumo
Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane in the world, being São Paulo state accounts for most. Consequently, large amounts of sugarcane bagasse are generated in the state. Through thermochemical conversion processes (combustion, gasification and pyrolysis), the sugarcane bagasse can be used to produce energy or chemicals. Fluidized bed reactors are characterized by high energy conversion and low emissions of air pollutants and can be applied in the conversion of biomass. However, the bagasse is difficult to fluidize, using an inert material such as contact medium is needed. In the fluidized bed, a major component is the gas distributor, responsible for uniform distribution of the gas in the bed. The literature presents several types of distributors, where the perforated plate is one of the simplest type for industrial use. Thereby, the design of the gas distributor type perforated plate for fluidizing the biomass must consider the characteristics of biomass and inert material, to ensure good fluidization. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the parameters involved in the design of a gas distributor type "perforated plate" for fluidization of sugarcane bagasse-inert blend. The results have demonstrated that the presence of biomass has a considerable influence on the values of the minimum fluidization velocity and the perforated plate distributor design parameters. It was found that the number of holes of the perforated plate distributor increases considerably due to the increase of particle size
Palavras-chave: perforated plate distributor; fluidization; biomass; inert