Blissett, R, Sommerville, R, Rowson, N et al. (2 more authors) (2017) Valorisation of rice husks using a TORBED® combustion process. Fuel Processing Technology, 159. pp. 247-255. ISSN 0378-3820
Abstract
World production of rice exceeds 750 million tonnes per year of which a fifth is removed in the form of rice husk during the milling process. The use of rice husks as a source of sustainable and renewable energy is often hindered by lack of capital and a poor understanding of rice husk combustion characteristics. This results in the selection of poor quality technology which generates significant quantities of harmful crystalline silica waste. Despite previous work in the area, detailed characterisation of the combustion of rice husk ash in a TORBED reactor across a wide temperature range has not yet been attempted and little effort has been directed towards assessing the economic viability of generating quality rice husk ashes. The use of a TORBED reactor enables low residual carbon after combustion without the generation of harmful crystalline material. Rice husk was combusted in a 400 mm reactor at temperatures between 700 and 950 °C. In the subsequent characterisation studies the resulting materials were shown to be fully amorphous high purity silica (> 95%) and were readily digested in a series of alkaline digestion experiments. Complete silica conversion was only possible using uneconomic Na₂O/SiO₂ ratios and further optimisation of the combustion process to generate higher surface area material is necessary to increase the digestion rates further. Provisional economic analysis suggests that sales of the by-product enhance the returns from rice husk based power generation. TORBED reactors enable the combustion of rice husk with considerable operating flexibility and they generate products that could be used to displace resource intensive products and processes thus, added value from the by-products can be obtained by using TORBED reactor technology.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Fuel Processing Technology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2017 16:02 |
Last Modified: | 02 Feb 2018 01:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2017.01.046 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.fuproc.2017.01.046 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:112946 |