1. Energy utilization and disposal of herb residue by an integrated energy conversion system: A pilot scale study
- Author
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Zhanjun Cheng, Beibei Yan, Zhaoling Zhang, Guanyi Chen, Lei Dong, and Junyu Tao
- Subjects
Water-energy nexus ,business.industry ,020209 energy ,Mechanical Engineering ,Steaming ,02 engineering and technology ,Building and Construction ,Raw material ,Pulp and paper industry ,Pollution ,Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering ,Renewable energy ,General Energy ,020401 chemical engineering ,Wastewater ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Environmental science ,Energy transformation ,Heat of combustion ,0204 chemical engineering ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,business ,Civil and Structural Engineering ,Syngas - Abstract
With huge demand of herbal medicine worldwide, herb residue (HR) treatment is attracting growing attention. This work proposed an integrated energy conversion system to treat and utilize HR, which contained a crushing and drying section to pretreat HR, a gasification section to convert HR into syngas, and a boiling section to produce hot steam for HR drying and herb steaming. A pilot scale plant was established to validate its feasibility. The results showed that HR with particle size below 10 mm and moisture content about 20 wt% was qualified as gasification feedstock. The energy efficiency, syngas heat value, and syngas yield during gasification reached 76.1%, 5.7 MJ/Nm3, and 0.6 Nm3/kgHR, respectively. When treating each kg of HR, 1.0167 kg of wastewater was emitted, which primarily came from HR dehydration and herb steaming. Meanwhile, 0.3292 kg of hot steam with 0.89 MJ of enthalpy would be produced per kg of HR as net energy output. This integrated system fully considered the upstream and downstream adaption of HR gasification technique. Highly efficient disposal and utilization of HR were thus achieved. It is hoped that this work could promisingly enhance the overall efficiency of herbal medicine production industry.
- Published
- 2021