Characterization, Evaluation and Performance Optimization of Wheat Straw – Bagasse Fuel Pellets

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Date
2024-11
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
The current transition of the utilization of fossil fuels to sources of renewable energy has led to the exploitation of biomass energy from agricultural residues such as wheat straw and bagasse. The conversion of biomass waste into fuel pellets will provide an alternative source of reliable and affordable energy for cooking. This would help to curb the issue of over-dependence on fuel wood which results in deforestation. This research focused on the characterization, evaluation and performance optimization of wheat straw – bagasse fuel pellets. Wheat straw and bagasse were compacted to form fuel pellets. However, the fuel pellets could not be utilized directly before investigating their properties in order to determine their quality. The physical characteristics of the fuel pellets that were investigated included the moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, ash content, calorific value, bulk density and mechanical durability. The effect of blend ratio, moisture content and raw material particle size on the ignition time, burning rate and specific fuel consumption of the wheat straw – bagasse blended fuel pellets was also studied. The water boiling test was used to determine the ignition time, burning rate and specific fuel consumption of the fuel pellets. This study involved varying four particle sizes (2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm, 10 mm), four levels of moisture content (9.1%, 10.6%, 12.6%, 14.7%) and four blend ratios (10:90, 30:70, 70:30, 90:10). The results revealed that the fuel pellets with larger particles size, low moisture content and blends containing more bagasse had favorable burning characteristics. By using Response Surface Methodology, an optimization of the parameters was achieved. The results indicated that an optimum combination of blending ratio 10:90, moisture content of 14.70 % and a raw material particle size of 9.0481 mm resulted in the lowest ignition time of 38.001 seconds, highest burning rate 15.9511 g/min and lowest specific fuel consumption of 153.1153g/l. The findings of this work reveal that wheat straw – bagasse blended fuel pellets can be produced at optimal conditions by the use of optimization tools and practically utilized as a source of biomass energy.
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A Research Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Award of the Degree of Master of Science in Renewable Energy Technology in the School of Engineering and Architecture of Kenyatta University, November 2024
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