This study aims to determine the influence of mill type and pellet wood composition on particle size and shape of milled wood. The size and shape characteristics of pellets comminuted using power plant-scale roller-and hammer mills were compared with those obtained by using a laboratory-scale roller mill. A 2D dynamic imaging device was used for particle characterization. It was shown that mill type has a significant impact on particle size but an almost negligible effect on the shape of milled wood. Comminution in the pilot plant using a Loesche roller mill requires less energy than using a hammer mill, but generates a larger fraction of coarse particles. The laboratory-scale roller mill provides comparable results with the power plant roller mill with respect to particle size and shape.
The subject of this work is the mathematical modelling of a counter-current moving-bed gasifier fuelled by wood-pellets. Two versions of the model have been developed: the one-dimensional (1D) version-solving a set of Ordinary Differential Equations along the gasifier height-and the three-dimensional (3D) version where the balanced equations are solved using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Unique procedures have been developed to provide unconditionally stable solutions and remove difficulties occurring by using conventional numerical methods for modelling counter-current reactors.The procedures reduce the uncertainties introduced by other mathematical approaches, and they open up the possibility of straightforward application to more complex software, including commercial CFD packages. Previous models of Hobbs et al., Di Blasi and Mandl et al. used a correction factor to tune calculated temperatures to measured values. In this work, the factor is not required. Using the 1D model, the Mandl et al. 16.6 kW gasifier was scaled to 9.5 MW input; the 89% cold-gas efficiency, observed at 16.6 kW input, decreases only slightly to 84% at the 9.5 MW scale.
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