Chin YS Chemical and Process Engineering Phd 2017.Pdf
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Impacts of Fuel Inventory on Low Temperature Ignition Risk during Handling and Storage of Biomass Yee Sing Chin Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Chemical and Process Engineering April 2017 - ii - The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own, except where work which has formed part of jointly-authored publications has been included. The contribution of the candidate and the other authors to this work has been explicitly indicated below. The candidate confirms that appropriate credit has been given within the thesis where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Yee Sing Chin to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2017 The University of Leeds and Yee Sing Chin - iii - List of Work Presented/Published Some parts of this research had been presented or published and the details are as follows: Part of Chapter 4 had been presented as listed: Y.S. Chin, A.R. Lea-Langton, L.I. Darvell, J.M.Jones, A. Williams. An Experimental Study on Minimum Ignition Temperature. Poster. 5th December 2014: SUPERGEN Bioenergy Hub Annual Assembly, Birmingham, UK Y.S. Chin, L.I. Darvell, A.R. Lea-Langton, J.M.Jones, A. Williams. Biomass Handling – Ignition Risks from Dust-Layer Ignition on Hot Surfaces. Poster. 21st May 2015: SUPERGEN Researchers Day, Bath, UK Y.S. Chin, L.I. Darvell, A.R. Lea-Langton, J.M.Jones, A. Williams. Minimum Ignition Temperature and Ignition Delay Time of Dust Layers – An Experimental on Biomass Blends. Poster. 16th-17th September 2015: International Energy Agency Clean Coal Centre – 5th Workshop on Cofiring Biomass with Coal Workshop, Selby, UK Part of Chapter 5 had been presented as listed: J.M. Jones, K. Bindemann, A. Williams, M. Wang, L.I. Darvell, Y.S. Chin, A. Dyer, J. Oladipo, R. White. Assessment of Spontaneous Combustion Risk, Including Biomass. Poster. 6th October 2015: 64th Energy Science Lecture, London, UK K. Bindemann, J.M. Jones, A. Williams, M. Wang, L.I. Darvell, Y.S. Chin, N.K. Brown. Assessment of Spontaneous Combustion Risk, Including Biomass. Poster. 20th September 2016: 65th Energy Science Lecture, Leeds, UK - iv - Part of Chapter 6 had been presented as listed: Yee Sing Chin, Leilani I. Darvell, Amanda R. Lea-Langton, Jenny M. Jones, and Alan Williams. Ignition Risks of Biomass Dust on Hot Surfaces. Proceedings of XXII International Symposium on Combustion Processes. 22nd – 25th September 2015: XXII International Symposium on Combustion Processes, Jurassic Highland (Jura Region), Poland Yee Sing Chin, Leilani I. Darvell, Amanda R. Lea-Langton, Jenny M. Jones, and Alan Williams. Ignition Risks of Biomass Dust on Hot Surfaces. Special Issue: International Symposium on Combustion Processes, Energy & Fuels 2016, 30, pp.4398−4404, DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5b02622 Yee Sing Chin, Leilani I. Darvell, Amanda R. Lea-Langton, Jenny M. Jones, and Alan Williams. Ignition Characteristics of Biomass Dust on Hot Surfaces. Poster. 8th December 2015: Postgraduate Research Conference, Leeds, UK Part of Chapter 7 had been presented as listed: Y.S. Chin, J.M. Jones, L.I. Darvell, A.R. Lea-Langton, A. Williams. Biomass Handling – Dust Layer Ignition Risks. Proceedings of IEA Bioenergy Conference. 26th – 29th October 2015: International Energy Agency Bioenergy Conference, Berlin, Germany Part of Chapter 8 had been presented as listed: Y.S. Chin, A.R. Lea-Langton, J.M. Jones, A. Williams. Emissions from Biomass on a Hot Surface. Proceedings of International Biomass Emissions Conference. 14th – 15th September 2015: International Biomass Emissions Conference, Leeds, UK Part of Chapter 10 had been presented as listed: Y.S. Chin, N.K. Brown, L.I. Darvell, K. Bindemann, J.M. Jones, A. Williams. Biomass Self-Ignition Characteristics during Handling & Storage – Hot Storage Basket Tests on Pellets and Powder. Poster. 22nd – 23rd March 2017: International Bioenergy Conference, Manchester, UK - v - Acknowledgements First of all, a big thank you to University of Leeds for making everything possible! I am utterly grateful for the Leeds scholarship and convenience the accommodation office provided me with. Indeed, I am thankful to have made it through this research. I owe thanks to my supervisors, Professor Jenny M Jones, Professor Alan Williams, Dr Leilani I Darvell and Dr Amanda R Lea- Langton (in University of Manchester); for their constant guidance. Appreciation goes to my research group members, present and past – Ben Dooley, Diarmaid Clery, Douglas Phillips, Eddy Mitchell, Lee Roberts, Natalie Brown, Patrick Mason, Richard Birley, Dr. Abby Saddawi, Dr. Bijal Gudka, Dr. Farooq Atiku, Dr. Femi Akinrinola, Dr. Paula McNamee and Dr. Peinong Xing, for their valuable support and friendship. I am much indebted to Dr. Connie Ellul, Dr. Dave Waldron, Dr. Mi Wang, Mr. James Ashman and Mr. Karl Bindemann for their valuable feedback on industrial relevance from time-to-time. Also thank you to all power stations and research institutions for supplying me a variety of raw materials in this research. I am also grateful to other university staff that had helped me along the way – Dr. Adrian Cunliffe, Ed Woodhouse, Gurdev Bhogal, Karine Thorne, Sara Dona, Simon Lloyd, Stuart Mickelthwait, Susanne Patel, David Haynes; Dr Patrick Biller and Dr Surjit Singh when they were still in Leeds. My sincere thanks go to researchers from other research groups – Aidan Smith, Amal Al-Rahbi, Andrew Dyer, Chibi Takaya, Dave Allen, Hafizah Yun, Harriet Fletcher, Hussain Al- Shamri, Hasimawaty Mat Kiah, Imran Khan, Jabbar Gardy, James Hammerton, Josh Cottom, Juniza Saad, Morgan Tachell-Evans, Sergio Solis, Yeshui Zhang, Zainab Adiya, Dr Antonio Salituro, Dr Buland Dizayi, Dr David Slatter, Dr M Anas Nahil, Dr M Azam Saeed and Dr S Zaheer Abbas for being considerate friends. Thanks is also extended to Adilah from Heriot-Watt University. Special mention is due to Ben, Buland and Chibi who have always been encouraging and reassuring – not a day goes by that I do not think of all your kind and inspiring words that kept me going. Not forgetting my Cranfield buddies, Alastair, Catherine, Darren, Ellen; my high school besties, Sing Yee, Li Yun, Mann Yee for their endless encouragement, and their lovely kids Andrew, Benjamin, Esther and Rachel that bring me limitless joy in the UK! My other friends in Leeds, Georgios, Gioula, Kamla, Kisandra, Nassya, Rima, Shafa and Zai, thanks for your company. Also thanks to Dr. C. Gorrard-Smith, Dr. N. Pearce, Dr. R. Chowdhury, Dr. T. Milligan, Dr. S. McCormack, Dr. A. Dworak-Kula & team, Mr. M. Philipson, Mr. I. Simmons & team and Mr. D. Mitchell for all the advice and needed support during my days in Leeds. My heartfelt thanks go to my family and loved ones who have always been thoughtful and understanding. Last but not least, my utmost thanks and sincere gratitude to my parents for their unshakeable patience, unconditional love, and for not giving up on me regardless how my condition was. - vi - Abstract As modernisation takes place, fossil fuel burning is one of the quickest ways to meet the ever rising energy demand. The increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, as a result of excessive fossil fuel burning had been blamed for global climate change. Vegetation-based biomass is a form of bioenergy and a recognised solid renewable fuel with potential to replace coal in combating anthropogenic climate change in the power generation sector. Nevertheless, it is not a straight forward case for biomass to replace coal since biomass is an extremely reactive fuel prone to self-heating leading to self-ignition. Spontaneous biomass ignition leading to disastrous fires during biomass handling and storage could be avoided if the causes of biomass low temperature ignition are well understood. Detailed studies on woody and herbaceous biomass fuels commonly used in UK power stations were examined according to several British Standards. On top of characterising all the biomass samples, BS EN 50281-2-1 and BS EN 15188 were adhered to specifically in investigating low temperature ignition during biomass handling and biomass storage respectively. Many power stations use a mix of different biomass in their fuel inventories which can lead to dusts of biomass mixtures. Thus the low temperature ignition characteristics of biomass blends have been studied. Other factors that may impact on ignition risks are binders (added to give strength to briquettes or pellets) and pretreatments (washing and torrefaction). Washing aims to improve ash properties towards the end of combustion process while torrefaction is used to increase the calorific value of biomass that is naturally lower than fossil fuels. The reaction kinetics of some biomass dust layers deposited on a constant temperature hot surface and corresponding ignition delay time were estimated mathematically. Results from minimum dust layer ignition temperature determination showed that all biomass, regardless of woody or herbaceous, with or without binder, before or after pre-treatments, had critically ignited within a very small temperature range. This was consistent with the results of self-ignition propensity risk ranking that concluded that biomass possess medium-high risk of self-igniting. An exception to this is torrefied biomass which had not sustained a much higher temperature before it critically ignited as compared with the untreated counterpart; unlike many anticipations and therefore, the low temperature ignition characteristics were discussed from many other aspects, mainly on the reduced particle size or dust layer density. For biomass storage, scaling up method and Frank-Kamenetskii method derived from Thermal Explosion Theory had been applied to forecast the critical ignition temperature and ignition delay time for large-scale industrial storage from smaller laboratory scale experiments.