PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR A BIOGAS FIREDBOILER FOR BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION

ABSTRACT

The rise in the population and industrialization of the world translates directly to an increase in its energy requirements. As the major source of fuel that satisfies the worlds energy needs, fossil fuels experience high demand but are limited in supply, have unstable prices and their continued use has harmful effects on the environment. As a result, there is a need for more stableand safer energy resources such as hydro, biomass, geothermal etc. which can be used to generate renewable energy. Incorporating a biogas fired boiler for the heating and distillation process in bioethanol production can prove to be a more sustainable method, as the combustion of biogas is carbon neutral (doesn’t add any net CO2 to the environment) and more cost-effective in the long run. For this project, a fire-tube Horizontal return tubular boiler configuration that utilizes steam for the production process and biogas as fuel was designed. At Steam, feed water and furnace temperature conditions of 180°C, 30°C and 1200°C respectively, Steam capacity ( 𝑠) -500kg/hr output and biogas with Net Calorific value of, 50.05552KJ/ Kg, the energy requirement, capacity, temperature, and efficiency of the boiler are calculated using design calculations. The Boiler was then modelled on Solidworks 2018 and a flow simulation was carried out to validate the results from the calculations. Finally, an economic evaluation of different fuel types was carried out to show the cost-effectiveness of using biogas as fuel for the boiler over LPG, wood pellets and Electrical heating.