DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING OF A FLUIDISED BED COMBUSTION BOILER FOR ENERGY PRODUCTION

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Department of Engineering

ABSTRACT
With the ever-growing energy demand over the globe, fluidised bed combustion (FBC) technology is continuously gaining importance due to its ability to burn different low-grade coals and biomass as source of fuel. This study presents a waste-to-energy process by incineration of corncob as an agricultural waste in a fluidised bed boiler for thermal energy production. The X-ray Diffractometry profile and Thermo-gravimetry profile of the corncob calcined at 800oC proves its viable options for use of this fuel in fluidised boiler. Hence, the performance evaluation of the developed miniature fluidised bed boiler at bed height of 77mm, 47mm and 27mm using 250μm granual material recorded stability in saturation temperature of steam at 121oC from bed height of 77mm at 50 minutes, 144oC from bed height of 47mm at 45 minutes and 153oC from bed height of 27mm at 30 minutes. In addition, the superheated temperature of 141oC at 55 minutes, 147oC at 45 minutes and 163oC at 30 minutes was obtained for bed height of 77mm, 47mm and 27mm respectively. Furthermore, the maximum superheated pressures obtained were 2.1 bar at 55 minutes for bed height of 77mm, 2.6 bar from bed height of 47mm at 45 minutes and 4.0 bar to 4.2 bar from bed height of 27mm from 45 to 55 minutes. The maximum capacity of steam generated throughout the experimental methods was 6.6kg/h that is capable to run a small steam turbine to meet the rural electrification of a small community like shika located in zaria, Kaduna state. Lastly, biomass as a promising energy source due to its abundant, carbon-fixing, and carbon-neutral properties has proven to be efficient in a fluidised bed boiler as the emission analysis of the flue gas has shown to be low in various percentages of 0.0003% of NOx, 0.001% HC, 0.02% of CO and 0.93% of Nitrogen respectively