Citation

Goss, J. R., Miller, G. E., and J. J. Mehlschau, Thermo-chemical conversion and utilization of energy and chemical feedstocks from rice straw. Comprehensive Research on Rice Annual Report, Project No. RS-1, University of California and United States Department of Agriculture, pp 111-118, 1983.

Abstract

A producer gas conditioning system for fueling internal combustion engines has been assembled and tested. The system contained a prototype hot gas filter and full-scale cooler-condenser. The quality of the cool-clean gas from this system was within the established range of temperature and solid particulate content for sustained engine operation. With contract support from other agencies, the development of a fluidized-bed gas producer-engine system has been continued to produce electrical power from high ash crop residue. Performances testing of the system will begin in January, 1984. About three months will be required to obtain the data for six different crop residues including rice straw. The test work will be done at the Agricultural Engineering Department on the Davis Campus.

The pollution constituents have been determined for the s tack effluent from a small horizontal furnace fueled with hot producer gas generated from a mixture of soft cubed and chopped rice straw by the fluidized-bed gas producer. This determination was made by the Engineering Evaluation Branch of the California Air Resources Board. The constituents which are subject to air pollution regulations were reported as follows: 100 ppm SO2, 75ppm CO2, 150 ppm hydrocarbons, 100 ppm Nox and 0.7 grains/ft3 of particulates. The gaseous emission installations. The allowable solid particulate content is 0.3 grains/ft3. The high level of this pollutant in the stack effluent was attributed to malfunctioning of the hot gas cyclones during the test which was discovered after the test had been conducted. Iso-kinetic sampling of the hot gas before combustion indicates that proper functioning of the hot gas cyclone may not be adequate to meet the solid particulate stack effluent standard. During 1984, the Air Resources Board will be requested to make a second determination of the furnace stack effluent when combusting hot produce gas generated from rice straw.

The annotated reference listing for gasification was updated to contain 710 references from the previous listing of 572. During 1983 one Master of Science thesis was completed on the iso-kinetic sampling of the hot gas and two technical papers presented on the chemical composition, deformation and fusion temperature of crop residue composition, deformation and fusion temperatures of crop residue ash. Several samples of rice straw were included in the analyses. The deformation temperature of the ash of any fuel to be gasified in a fluidized-bed gas producer must be known to avoid fouling of the refractory sand bed.

Country, State, District, etc.

United States, California

Language

English

Material

rice straw

Use category

energy production