Exergy Analysis of Biomass Drying Based on Self-Heat Recuperation Technology and Its Application to Industry: a Simulation and Experimental Study

Abstract

An energy-saving process for biomass drying was proposed to improve the overall energy efficiency by using self-heat recuperation technology for future industrial use. Energy analysis based on the simulation results showed that the primary energy consumption and CO 2 emission in the proposed process can be decreased to 74% and 36% of that of the conventional heat recovery dryer, respectively. Moreover, exergy analysis was conducted to clarify exergy losses in the proposed drying process, and further energy-saving solutions were raised to minimize exergy loss based on exergy recuperation theory. The experimental results indicated that three times of the minimum fluidization velocity was a necessary condition for good fluidization. It was also confirmed that the proposed fluidized bed dryer for biomass drying achieves stable performance for more than 2 h in the experiments.