Interaction of biomass with NOx during the re-burning process

D'Souza, Francis (2017) Interaction of biomass with NOx during the re-burning process. Honours thesis, Murdoch University.

Abstract

The interaction between biomass and NOx is very important to understand because it can revolutionise the way industrial furnaces are used. The technology that was discussed was re-burning. Re-burning is essentially changing the atmosphere in a furnace where the biomass is being combusted. This zone is known as the re-burning zone. The re-burning zone is a medium where NOx and biomass can interact. The type of biomass that was experimented on was a wood-based biomass. In terms of the characterisation, an ultimate and proximate analysis was done in conjunction with a bomb calorimeter test. The results from the characterisation, when tested with four different sources of biomass, yielded that all the biomass samples have similar properties. The four samples that were tested were pine, eucalyptus, miscanthus and oak. Since they all had similar properties it was safe to perform a test on one of these biomass samples. The test that was being performed was the diffused reflectance infrared fourier transform spectroscopy analysis also know as the DRIFTS analysis and the sample of biomass that was chosen was the miscanthus as seen from the results of the characterisation, it made no difference which biomass sample was picked. The DRIFTS analysis was also done in four different atmospheres to assess the interaction between NOx and biomass. The four different atmospheres included the following; inert atmosphere which would provide data for oxygen-fuel ratio when burning biomass, inert and NOx The conclusion that was drawn due to the DRIFTS analysis is that biomass can interact with NOx in gas-gas and gas-solid reaction. This implies that NOx can interact with wood-based biomass before combustion even occurs. This information is useful as it would help decrease the biomass emissions. The DRIFTS analysis did have its limitations and this was the fact that there no quantifiable data was extracted although this is easily fixed by running the same types of test in a thermogravitimetric analyser (TGA) with the same atmosphere. This would yield the actual amount of NOx that has interacted with the biomass.

Item Type:	Thesis (Honours)
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Engineering and Information Technology
Supervisor(s):	Altarawneh, Mohammednoor
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/40455

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