Predictive temperature modeling and experimental investigation of ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting of wheat straw

Ethanol made from cellulosic biomass is an alternative to petroleum-based liquid transportation fuels. However, large-scale manufacturing of cellulosic ethanol is hindered by several factors. The main factor driving this hindrance is the low density of cellulosic biomass. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting can effectively increase cellulosic biomass density by compressing raw biomass into pellets, reducing transportation and storage costs. Pelleting temperature has also been identified as a key parameter influencing pellet quality. In this paper, a predictive mathematical model of pelleting temperature using spatio-temporal dynamics was developed to study multiple factors affecting temperature rise through pelleting. The mathematical model was then validated with experimental data along with high goodness of fit (average R2>0.83). Effects of three input variables (ultrasonic power, pelleting pressure, and pellet weight) on temperature ranges (highest temperature point and lowest temperature point) were investigated using a 23 (two levels and three variables) factorial design. Our results indicated that friction between mold and biomass has a marginal effect on the temperature profiles, and demonstrated the highest and lowest temperature points are significantly correlated to the input variables (ultrasonic power, pellet weight, and pellet pressure) and their interaction effects. The proposed mathematical model delivers a new guideline by avoiding unnecessary experiments and provides a systematic understanding of temperature profiles during the biomass pelleting process. Knowledge transferred from the current study fulfills the literature gap between mathematical modeling research and an optimal, ultrasonic, vibration-assisted pelleting process; and, therefore, provides insight into improving biomass quality in energy-related ultrasonic manufacturing.

[1]  Taraneh Sowlati,et al.  Modeling and analysing storage systems in agricultural biomass supply chain for cellulosic ethanol production , 2013 .

[2]  L. Tabil,et al.  Optimization of biological pretreatment to enhance the quality of wheat straw pellets , 2017 .

[3]  L. Cedola,et al.  Development of a numerical model for biomass packed bed pyrolysis based on experimental validation. , 2016 .

[4]  M. Fay,et al.  Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney or t-test? On assumptions for hypothesis tests and multiple interpretations of decision rules. , 2010, Statistics surveys.

[5]  Z. J. Pei,et al.  An experimental study on charring of cellulosic biomass in ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting , 2011, Int. J. Manuf. Res..

[6]  James Barber,et al.  The conduction of heat from sliding solids , 1970 .

[7]  Donghai Wang,et al.  Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Pelleting of Cellulosic Biomass for Biofuel Manufacturing , 2011 .

[8]  Bryce J. Stokes,et al.  U.S. Billion-ton Update: Biomass Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry , 2011 .

[9]  S. Sokhansanj,et al.  An Overview of Compaction of Biomass Grinds , 2003 .

[10]  L. Domingues,et al.  Evaluation of strategies for second generation bioethanol production from fast growing biomass Paulownia within a biorefinery scheme , 2017 .

[11]  D. P. de Sousa,et al.  Modulation of chemical dermal absorption by 14 natural products: a quantitative structure permeation analysis of components often found in topical preparations , 2017, Cutaneous and ocular toxicology.

[12]  Douglas C. Montgomery,et al.  Introduction to Statistical Quality Control , 1986 .

[13]  M. Deaton,et al.  Response Surfaces: Designs and Analyses , 1989 .

[14]  In-Beum Lee,et al.  Strategic planning design of microalgae biomass-to-biodiesel supply chain network: Multi-period deterministic model , 2015 .

[15]  Zhijian Pei,et al.  Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Pelleting of Wheat Straw: A Designed Experimental Investigation on Pellet Quality and Sugar Yield , 2012 .

[16]  J. Lienhard.  A heat transfer textbook , 1981 .

[17]  Mehdi Dehghan,et al.  Study of a system of non-linear difference equations arising in a deterministic model for HIV infection , 2005, Appl. Math. Comput..

[18]  W. Cong,et al.  Investigating pellet charring and temperature in ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting of wheat straw for cellulosic biofuel manufacturing , 2016 .

[19]  J. Tumuluru,et al.  A REVIEW ON BIOMASS DENSIFICATION TECHNOLOGIE FOR ENERGY APPLICATION , 2010 .

[20]  Stig-Inge Gustafsson,et al.  Fractional factorial design for energy systems , 1994 .

[21]  Xian‐Fang Li,et al.  Exact frequency equations of free vibration of exponentially non-uniform functionally graded Timoshenko beams , 2014 .

[22]  M. Jaberi-Douraki,et al.  Predictive Models of Type 1 Diabetes Progression: Understanding T-Cell Cycles and Their Implications on Autoantibody Release , 2014, PloS one.

[23]  Haiping Yang,et al.  Characteristics of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin pyrolysis , 2007 .

[24]  Donghai Wang,et al.  Ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting of cellulosic biomass for ethanol manufacturing: An investigation on pelleting temperature , 2016 .

[25]  Zhijian Pei,et al.  Comparison of two pelleting methods for cellulosic ethanol manufacturing: ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting vs. ring-die pelleting , 2016 .

[26]  C. Dupont,et al.  Heat capacity measurements of various biomass types and pyrolysis residues , 2014 .

[27]  F. N. Reece,et al.  Temperature, Pressure, and Time Relationships in Forming Dense Hay Wafers , 1966 .

[28]  D. Inman.  Vibration control , 2018, Advanced Applications in Acoustics, Noise and Vibration.

[29]  F. Kremkau,et al.  Intracellular temperature distribution produced by ultrasound , 1978 .

[30]  George Lindfield,et al.  Numerical Methods Using MATLAB , 1998 .

[31]  M.J.A. van den Oever,et al.  Process for production of high density/high performance binderless boards from whole coconut husk: Part 1: Lignin as intrinsic thermosetting binder resin , 2004 .

[32]  Donghai Wang,et al.  Ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting for cellulosic biofuel manufacturing: Investigation on power consumption , 2013 .

[33]  Yasuhide Murase,et al.  Friction of wood sliding on various materials , 1984 .

[34]  M. O. Faborode.  Analysis of extrusion compaction of fibrous agricultural residues for fuel applications , 1990 .

[35]  Nathanael Greene,et al.  The role of biomass in America's energy future: framing the analysis , 2009 .

[36]  Bart Nicolai,et al.  Modelling of thermal processes during extrusion based densification of agricultural biomass residues , 2016 .

[37]  Nuttapol Lerkkasemsan,et al.  Fuzzy logic-based predictive model for biomass pyrolysis , 2017 .

[38]  Donghai Wang,et al.  Investigation on characteristics of corn stover and sorghum stalk processed by ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting , 2017 .

[39]  Satya N. Atluri,et al.  Computational heat transfer , 1986 .

[40]  Zhijian Pei,et al.  Effects of ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting on chemical composition and sugar yield of corn stover and sorghum stalk , 2015 .

[41]  S. Sokhansanj,et al.  Effects of compressive force, particle size and moisture content on mechanical properties of biomass pellets from grasses , 2006 .

[42]  Zhijian Pei,et al.  Physical properties of pellets made from sorghum stalk, corn stover, wheat straw, and big bluestem , 2011 .

[43]  Ger Devlin,et al.  Controlling moisture content and truck configurations to model and optimise biomass supply chain logistics in Ireland , 2015 .

[44]  Michael Pecht,et al.  Vibration model of rolling element bearings in a rotor-bearing system for fault diagnosis , 2013 .

[45]  F. Felissia,et al.  Preliminary evaluation of organosolv pre-treatment of sugar cane bagasse for glucose production: Application of 23 experimental design , 2010 .

[46]  R. Lakes,et al.  Poisson's ratio and modern materials , 2011, Nature Materials.

[47]  Meng Zhang,et al.  Ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting of wheat straw: a predictive model for energy consumption using response surface methodology. , 2014, Ultrasonics.

[48]  A. F. Turhollow,et al.  Biomass Densification - Cubing Operations and Costs for Corn Stover , 2004 .

[49]  F. Kennedy,et al.  Frictional Heating and Contact Temperatures , 2000 .

[50]  Hongze Wang,et al.  Effect of acoustic softening on the thermal‐mechanical process of ultrasonic welding , 2017, Ultrasonics.

[51]  Donghai Wang,et al.  A physics-based temperature model for ultrasonic vibration-assisted pelleting of cellulosic biomass. , 2014, Ultrasonics.

[52]  H. Bi,et al.  Study on Density, Hardness, and Moisture Uptake of Torrefied Wood Pellets , 2013 .

[53]  Edward M. Rubin,et al.  Genomics of cellulosic biofuels , 2008, Nature.

[54]  M. Jaberi-Douraki,et al.  Continuum model of T-cell avidity: Understanding autoreactive and regulatory T-cell responses in type 1 diabetes. , 2015, Journal of theoretical biology.

[55]  Alessio Frassoldati,et al.  Mathematical Modeling of Fast Biomass Pyrolysis and Bio-Oil Formation. Note II: Secondary Gas-Phase Reactions and Bio-Oil Formation , 2017 .

[56]  M. Kianmehr,et al.  Effect of temperature, pressure and moisture content on durability of cattle manure pellet in open-end die method. , 2012 .

[57]  M. N. Özişik.  Boundary value problems of heat conduction , 1989 .

[58]  On the exponential decay of vibrations of damped elastic media , 2012 .