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Keywords: Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), Heat and Mass Transfer Coefficient Correlations, Moisture Content, Drying System, Refuse
Nomenclature
jH Q MA Chilton-Coburn factor for heat transfer heat-transfer rate from the hot air to refuse-component surface mass flow rate of the hot moist air average specific heat of the hot moist air UAB the overall heat transfer coefficient G mass flow velocity (mass flux) of the hot moist air
Aran Wasantakorn : Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology Silpakorn University, Sanam Chandra Palace Campus, Nakhon Pathom 73000, Thailand
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AB viscosity of the hot moist air kAB thermal conductivity of the hot moist air convective mass transfer coefficient Ap = Aeff the effective surface area for evaporating water d hAB diameter of spherical diameter the connective heat transfer coefficient
Subscript mod modified eg. modified Reynolds number, Remod = SS several refuse-component surfaces for evaporating water into the hot moist air mixture of bone dry air and Moisture
AB
energy source. This is due to the fact that solid wastes can be produced and manipulated within a very shorter period of time than fossil fuels (if carbon cycle of these two energy sources are compared) and they also have a considerably high heating value. Although the components of municipal solid waste is varied with time and place, its main components are normally paper, wood, plastic, vegetables, fruits, animal meat, rags, dust and cinder (Neal, 1979). One should be aware that none of these above components takes time to be produced longer than 7 years. For example, eucalyptus can grow and mature for paper production within a period of approximately 7 years, the paper can be manipulated and go to the bin within very short time. In hot countries, the main route of solid-waste utilization is for producing electrical power, but in cold countries, it can also be used for district heating, as called a combined heat and power production plant, CHP. Electricity can be generated by burning solid wastes in an incinerator having a boiler equipped to its furnace chamber in order to recover combustion-evolved heat for a steam cycle. When using municipal solid waste as a primary energy source, its moisture content becomes the most undesired component because, on one hand, it causes
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The Heat and Mass Transfer Coefficient Correlations for a MSW-Drying System
high sensible heat loss from the refuse combustion and, on the other hand, it depresses the net calorific value of the refuse. Field and Rolfe (1969) presented that the moisture content of refuse normally varied between 20% up to 50%. Stabenow (1966) showed a list of the compositions of municipal solid wastes belonging in various cities around Europe and America. It can be obviously seen from the list that moisture content of the MSW in some cities is as high as nearly 60%. It should also be stated here that the moisture content of MSW in various monsoon-zone countries, e.g. Thailand and etc., is higher than 100% because it has heavy rain and refuse is soaked. When a high moisture situation is concerned, loss of combustion-evolved heat due to being absorbed and carried away by the excess moisture must be huge undoubtedly. The flame temperature is thus lowered, otherwise sometimes the flame itself cannot be sustained. Thermal efficiency of the steam power plant is, therefore, lower than usual. The proposed method to handle this problem is to equip a dryer in front of the incinerator feed chute as sketched in Figure 1. The dryer should use the hot flue gas emitted from the incinerator itself to dry the incoming raw refuse. The excess moisture must be removed from the refuse before entering
the chamber so that the relatively higher flame temperature can be achieved. By following this although moisture content of the refuse get changed all the time, the dryer can still keep the steadiness of providing combustion-evolved heat for the boiler. This will sustain a flame and thermal efficiency of the plant will not be lowered. The research determines heat and mass transfer coefficient correlations for a MSW-drying system. The obtained result will be used as information for designing a dryer for a MSW incinerator.
Figure 1 The proposed MSW incineration power plant having a dryer equipped in front of the feed chute
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The jH factor for a MSW drying system The heat and mass transfer coefficient correlations of the gas film for gases flowing through a granular bed of solid spheres and cylinders have been previously reported by Gamson et al. (1943), by Wilke and Hougen (1945) and by Hurt (1943). Those correlations obtained from the experiments which were not taking into account the difference in porosity, density, solid compositions, and the temperature, pressure and velocity of the air stream, but taking into account only maintaining the solid wetness among various mass flow rates of the air stream. Taecker and Hougen (1949) studied the heat and mass transfer of the gas film for gases flowing through the packed beds of various commercial tower packings with a better technique. They used steam to control moisture in the air stream, and also controlled the flow rate, pressure and temperature of the air stream itself. In the experiment the surface of the packing materials was kept wet during the constant-rate period by the large reservoir porosity and capillarity of the materials. For this case the water inside the pores can be brought to the surface rapidly and continuously. One of their results shown the heat transfer correlation for Berl
saddles packing is
The present paper determines the heat and mass transfer coefficient correlations of the air film flowing through a packed bed of municipal solid waste. Surface and porosity of MSW particles are quite different from the commercial packings used for the experiments of the above literatures. Containing many components makes MSW too complicated to identify the porosity and surface characteristics of its particles, from which the moisture is transferring into bulk of the air film. For such a drying system it is not so difficult to determine a heat transfer coefficient from the experiment, but it is too difficult in case of a mass transfer coefficient because we cant know an exact value of the diffusion coefficients of water diffusing through many refuse particles. However, it might be obtained by the method of heat and mass transfer analogy. In the determination of the number of heat-transfer units for general adiabatic dryers McCabe et al. (1993) presented the logarithmic mean temperature difference in term of the wet- and dry-bulb temperatures as follow:
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Experimental Procedure
Combining eq. (1) and (2) we get Refuse being dried in the experiment was made up according to the fractions of various components of MSW presented by Kaiser (1966) as follows : 70.6% of corrugated paper boxes, 2.92% of paper food cartons, 1.08% of plastic coated paper, 1.08% of waxed milk cartons, 3.24% of banana skin, 2.16% of orange skin, 3.24% of cooked meat scraps, 3.24% of wood; 3.24% of ripe tree leaves, 2.16% of flower garden plants, 2.16% of green lawn glass, 2.16% of plant trimmings, 1.08% of plastics, 1.08% of rags, and 0.54% of leather. The fraction of corrugated boxes was relatively high because it was a representative of corrugated boxes, newspaper, magazine paper, brown paper and mail which were contained in the refuse. These refuse components were cut to small pieces of 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm and four corners of each piece were folded, as shown in Figure 2, in order to make the refuse-piece shape similar to Berl Saddles. Every pieces of the refuse were packed into the bed with a void fraction of approximately 0.5. The total number of pieces was recorded and multiplied by the surface area of two sides per piece to obtain total surface area. The
Taecker and Hougen (1949) reported their heat transfer coefficient correlation for the drying system in the form of a heat transfer factor, jH , which was defined as
For the bed filled with the packings of arbitrary shape (not spherical or cylindrical shape), they recommended the use of the modified Reynolds number,
instead of its normal form, Gd/. In case of evaporating water from the unlike surfaces of various refuse components in a loosely packed bed, the main mode of heat transfer from the hot air to the solid surfaces is definitely convection. Conduction and radiation are relatively neglected. The UAB is therefore very close to the hAB and it can thus be replaced by the hAB. The heat transfer coefficient correlation for a MSW drying system can
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Figure 2 Experimental rig of the packed-bed drying system to dry MSW, and its sketching diagram
completely packed bed was then exposed into a water basin gently (also while lifting up) in order to prevent the particles from collapsing and thus reduce the void. It was allowed to soak up to about 250% wetness. The experiment was started by filling the dryer chamber with a hot air stream with a certain flow rate. After the wet and dry-bulb temperatures of the hot air passing through the chamber had approached to equilibrium, the packed bed was then put down into the chamber. The inlet-bed air temperature (Tha), the wet-bulb temperatures at two
points on the refuse-particle surface (Twr1 and Twr2), the bed-outlet wet- and dry-bulb temperatures ( T wb and T hb ), including the instantaneous weight of the bed, were recorded at every minute until the instantaneous weight of the packed bed converged to a certain value. The drying process was then stopped because it was implied that all of the refuse moisture content has been completely evaporated. The bed was removed from the chamber. All of the refuse pieces were removed from the bed one by one in order to measure the clinging surface area
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between any two pieces. All of these clinging surface area was summed together in order to get total clinging surface area of every piece of the refuse within a bed. Total free surface for evaporation, which is called as the effective surface area, Aeff, was obtained by subtracting the total clinging surface area from the total surface area of all refuse pieces within a bed. The following mass flow rates of the hot air were varied for various small experiments; 40, 80, 120, 160, 200, 250, 300 liter/min respectively.
the least square method. The obtained regression line is log jH = -0.26log Remod - 0.31, of which the R2 value is 0.837. The jH factor correlation can be obtained from derivation of the above relation as follow:
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Figure 3 The heat transfer factor jH is plotted against Remod in a log-log scale and the data is fitted to a straight line
diameter of a refuse particle equivalent to the diameter of a sphere having the same surface area as the refuse particle. It should bear in mind that all of the properties of air used in all of the above equations were the average of bone dry air and moisture. Therefore, it should be subscribed by AB. It was not done because of the requirement of saving
space. The heat transfer factor, jH, of this moisture drying system is found to be similar to that of the packed-bed drying system carried out by Taecker and Hougen (1949), which water was evaporating from a commercial Berl-Saddle packing material, . Similarity of these two heat-transfer correlations (they have the same dimensionless groups, but only their constants are different) is resulted from similarity in physical characteristics of these two drying systems, which is about evaporating water from surface of solid materials packed in a bed into air stream flowing through the bed. Both of these drying systems are slightly different in surface and porosity of solid materials evaporating water only. In general, the analogy of heat and mass transfers in a system will
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be existed if the following conditions are truly available in the system: nearly constant physical properties, no energy or mass produced by chemical reactions, no emission or absorption of radiant energy, no viscous dissipation, and having such a low rate of mass transfer that it doesnt affect the velocity profile of the moving air. As a result of the availability of these conditions entirely, the analogy of heat and mass transfers in the MSW drying system is thus existed. According to the Chilton-Colburn analogy, we have
Subscribing with SS indicates mass of water leaving several surfaces of the refuse components and transferring through the air phase.
Conclusion
Many waste incinerators in various countries in the monsoon zone are facing problem regarding too wet municipal solid waste to burn. An idea of making a dryer and equipping it to an incinerator furnace is proposed. The dryer can be manipulated to carry the excess moisture away the MSW before entering the furnace chamber. This can enhance thermal efficiency of the incinerator. Important information for designing a MSW dryer is the heat- and mass-transfer coefficients for the drying process. Unfortunately, no such information is available. The present work is, therefore, devoted to determine both of these correlations. MSW used in the experiment was made up according to the fractions of various components of general MSW reported by Kaiser in 1966. The MSW was dried in the vertical packed-bed dryer through which the hot air are moving upward. The jH factor and its corresponding Remod at various values of air flow rate are plotted and the heat transfer correlation of the refuse drying system is determined. The resulted heat-transfer coefficient correlation is jH = 0.49Re-0.26 or it is written in term of Nu ; Nu =
By substitution of h from this relation into the above Nu correlation and rearranging, we have
Therefore, the resulted mass-transfer correlation for the drying system is finally obtained, (8).
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0.423Re 0.74 Pr 1/3 . The corresponding mass-transfer coefficient correlation obtained by the Chilton-Coburn analogy of heat and mass transfer is NuAB = 0.423Re0.74Sc1/3.
tended to low modified Reynolds numbers, Trans. Am. Inst. Chem. Engrs., 41, p 445-451. [7] Hurt, D. W. 1943, Mass and heat transfer through fixed and fluidized beds, Ind. Eng. Chem., 35, p 522. [8] Taecker, R. G. and Hougen, O. A., 1949, Heat, mass transfer of gas film in flow of gases through commercial tower packings, Chemical Engineering Progress, 45, p 188-193. [9] Kaiser, E. R. 1966, Chemical Analyses of Refuse Components, Proceedings of 1966 National Incinerator Conference, ASME, p 84-88. [10] McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C. and Harriort, P., 1993, Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, p 767-809.
References
[1] The Shell Briefing service, Shell, 1995, Energy in Profile, no. 2. [2] Neal, A. W., 1979, Refuse Recycling and Incineration, Technology Limited, p 1-74. [3] Field, M. A. and Rolfe, T. J. K., 1969, The principles of burning solid wastes, particularly house refuse, Proceedings of Brighton Conference : the incineration of municipal and industrial waste, the Institute of Fuel, p 39-67. [4] Stabenow, G., 1966, European practice in refuse burning, Proceedings of 1966 National Incinerator Conference, ASME, p 105-113. [5] Gamson, B. W. Thodos, G. and Hougen, O. A., 1943, Mass and heat transfer through fixed and fluidized beds, Trans. Am. Inst. Chem. Engrs., 39, p 1. [6] Wilke, C. R. and Hougen, O. A., 1945, Mass transfer in the flow of gases through granular solids ex-
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