Biomass drying

[kszyho100]

Hi

I need to calculate heat demand for biomass drying. I know its weight and properties. For this purpose I would like to use some kind of outside floor heting. Any ideas?

Thanks

Chris

 

[macmet]

Why are you drying it? How wet is it? How much do you have?

 

[Mattysdad]

describe what you are doing a bit... I have a lot of ideas !!!

 

[thermcool]

by drying you are really taking the moisture out of the bio-mass bulk. A very rough approximation is if you know the water content inside the bulk then you need to provide the mass times the latent heat of the water to remove the whole water out. but heat will also be absorbed by the bio-mass bulk and loss to the ambient during the process so you have to give some positive tolerance to the above calculation.

 

[thermcool]

have a look at this link

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy99osti/25885.pdf

 

[Mattysdad]

How dry do you want it ? What is the destination of dry bulk material.

Thermcools' statement on rough approximation is correct - except I don't understand what He means by "heat absorbed by bulk biomass" and "loss to the ambient".

While as a unit operation Themcool is correct on rough approximation as a single step process. However a more complex precess arrangement would enable you to achive pretty low moisture levels for less than 100 btus / lb of water removed.

Much more detail required to determine suitability of such.

Regards,