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This article deals with the possibility of separating water vapour from flue gases after oxyfuel combustion using condensation processes. Those processes can generally be described as condensation of water vapour in the presence of non-condensable gases. Hence, the effect of noncondensable gas (NCG) on the condensation process has been theoretically and experimentally analysed in this study. The theoretical model was developed on the basis of the heat and mass transfer analogy with respect to the effect of the NCG, the flow mode of the condensate film, the shear stress of the flowing mixture, subcooling and superheating. Subsequently, an experimental analysis was carried out on a 1.5m long vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 23.7mm. The mixture of vapour and air flowed inside the inner tube with an air mass fraction ranging from 23% to 62%. The overall heat transfer coefficients (HTC) from the theoretical model and experimental measurement are significantly lower than the HTC obtained according to the Nusselt theory for the condensation of pure water vapour. The overall HTC decreases along the tube length as the gas concentration increases, which corresponds to a decrease in the local condensation rate. The highest values of the HTC are observed in the condenser inlet, although a strong decrease in HTC is also observed here. Meanwhile, there is a possibility for an HTC enhancement through turbulence increase of the condensing mixture in the condenser outlet. Results also showed that the heat resistance of the mixture is several times higher than the heat resistance of the condensate film. The developed theoretical model based on heat and mass transfer analogy is in good agreement with experimental results with the standard deviation within +25% and −5%. The model is more accurate for lower NCG concentrations.

This paper focuses on biomass drying for the design and operation of an indirect dryer used in a biomass power plant. Indirect biomass drying is not as well described process as direct drying, especially when used for the preparation of biomass in energy processes, such as combustion or gasification. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a suitable model describing the drying process and evaluate its applicability for this purpose. The aim of this paper is to identify parameters that most significantly affect the indirect drying process of biomass for precise targeting of future experiments. For this purpose, the penetration model was chosen. The penetration model describes indirect drying through 21 parameters. To run a series of experiments focused on all parameters would be time consuming. Therefore, the easier way is to select the most important parameters through a sensitivity analysis, and then perform experiments focused only on the significant parameters The parameters evaluated as significant are the temperature of the heated wall, operating pressure in the drying chamber, surface coverage factor, emissivity of the heated wall, emissivity of the bed, diameter of the particle, and particle surface roughness. Due to the presumption of perfect mixing of the material being dried, stirrer speed is added into important parameters. Based on these findings, it will be possible to reduce the scope of experiments necessary to verify the applicability of the penetration model for the description of indirect biomass drying and the design of dryers for a practical use.

This article deals with the integration of a rotary indirect dryer, heated by low pressure extraction steam, into the Rankine cycle. The article evaluates the power generation efficiency of a steam power plant, with an integrated indirect dryer, which combusts waste biomass with a high moisture content and is further compared to the same plant without the dryer. The benefits of the dryer’s integration are analysed in respect to various moisture contents of biomass before and after the drying. The evaluation of the power generation efficiency is based on parameters evaluated from experiments carried out on the steam-heated rotary indirect dryer, such as specific energy consumption and evaporation capacity. The dryer’s integration improves the efficiency of the cycle in comparison to a cycle without a dryer, where moist biomass is directly combusted. This improvement increases along with the difference between the moisture content before and after the drying. For the reference state, a fuel with a moisture content of 50% was dried to 20% and the efficiency rised by 4.38 %. When the fuel with a moisture content of 60% is dried to 10 %, the power generation efficiency increases by a further 10.1 %. However, the required dryer surface for drying the fuel with a moisture content of 60% to 10% is 1.9 times greater as compared to the reference state. The results of the work can be used both for the prediction of the power generation efficiency in a power plant with this type of dryer based on the moisture content in the fuel and the biomass indirect dryer design.

This paper deals with the condensation of water vapour possessing a content of noncondensable gas in vertical tubes. The condensation of pure steam on a vertical surface is introduced by the Nusselt condensation model. However, the condensation of water vapour in a mixture with non-condensable gas differs from pure vapour condensation and is a much more complex process. The differences for the condensation of water vapour in a mixture containing a high concentration were theoretically analysed and evaluated. In order to investigate these effects, an experimental stand was built. Experiments were carried out in regards to the case of pure steam condensation and the condensation of water vapour with a non-condensable gas mixture to evaluate the influence of the variable non-condensable gas content during the process. A non-condensable gas in a mixture with steam decreases the intensity of the condensation and the condensation heat transfer coefficient. A gradual reduction of the volume and partial pressure of steam in the mixture causes a decrease in the condensation temperature of steam, and the temperature difference between steam and cooling water. The increasing non-condensable gas concentration restrains the transportation of steam towards the tube wall and this has a significant effect on the decrease in the condensation rate.

This article investigates the effect of the filling ratio of the indirect rotary dryers on their operating characteristics. For moist biomass drying before combustion, the use of indirect drum dryers heated by a low pressure steam has proven to be highly suitable. Regarding the design of new dryers, it is necessary to experimentally verify the operating characteristics for specific materials and drying conditions. For this purpose, a set of experiments on a steam heated rotary drum dryer were carried out with green wood chips containing 60 to 66 wt% of moisture. The following operational characteristics of the dryer were experimentally determined: drying curves describing the process, square and volumetric evaporation capacities and drying heat consumptions. Based on the experimental results, the effect of various drum filling by dried material on the mentioned operating characteristics was analysed. On the one hand, higher drum filling ratio increases the drying time, on the other hand, the evaporation capacity also increases, while the specific energy consumption does not significantly alter. The maximum value of the evaporation capacity was reached when the drum was filled to 20 wt%. When the filling ratio was increased to 25 wt%, the evaporation capacity experienced almost no change.

An aim of this paper is suggestion of the evaluation method based on the experimental data and the Wilson plot method for the Plate Heat Exchangers (PHE). For the purpose of the project the new experimental loop was built for the testing of PHE to obtain the overhaul heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop between inlet and outlet of the fluid. The measurement were done for three different PHE with the performance range 30-100kW. The working fluid was water on both sides of the PHE. The differences are in number of pates as well as in extrusion profiles. The Wilson plot evaluation method was involved for the processing experimental data. To obtain more accurate correlations between the experimental data and theoretical results yield of the Wilson plot, the method was enhanced by the measured pressure drop involving. This approach could be useful for PHE designing software and for the manufacturing company.

This paper presents an analysis of heat transfer in the process of condensation of water vapor in a vertical shell-and-tube condenser. We analyze the use of the Nusselt model for calculating the condensation heat transfer coefficient (HTC) inside a vertical tube and the Kern, Bell-Delaware and Stream-flow analysis methods for calculating the shell-side HTC from tubes to cooling water. These methods are experimentally verified for a specific condenser of waste process vapor containing air. The operating conditions of the condenser may be different from the assumptions adopted in the basic Nusselt theory. Modifications to the Nusselt condensation model are theoretically analyzed.