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Modelling and design of a continuous biochar production reactor

Conference Paper · June 2020

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Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

Modelling and design of a continuous biochar

production reactor.
[1]
Akshay Anand, [2]Priyak Nellikka Kandiyan, [3]Sachin Payyanad
[1]
PG scholar, Govt. college of engineering Kannur, [2]Assistant Professor, Govt. college of engineering
Kannur, [3]Research assistant, Govt. college of engineering Kannur
[1]
akshayanand.13821@gmail.com,[2]priyakmex@gcek.ac.in, [3]sachinpayyanad@gmail.com


Abstract— Conversion of biomass to biochar is very much important since it involves the conversion of waste to value added and
environment friendly product. In this paper modeling of a continuous biochar production unit is carried out using Cycle-tempo software
and biochar yield for three different biomass available locally is analyzed. Based on the results from modeling and other design data an
auger is designed for continuous production of biochar. It recycles various aspects of their operation to provide an economically viable
solution to the biomass waste that is accumulation. This device will have the capability to perform continuous process, scalable
industrial design, energy efficient design, dynamic control system, and function as heat exchange.

Index Terms— Biochar, Cycle-tempo, Auger

300°C to 500°C depending on the actual biomass considered
I. INTRODUCTION [5]. At a small scale production, drums built to carry
The use of renewable resources for energy is increased petroleum tar and other crude oils are used to produce char by
because of several problems including dependence of society heating away the volatiles leading to 20% to 30% char. The
on fossil fuels and concerns about global warming [1]. The controlled heating by combines the heating rate with the
important issue is that the magnitude of biomass now used is temperature to which the biomass is raised leads to chars of
large and comparable to mainstream fuels, even if it is different fractions and quality. Slow heating rate and
incompetent and polluting. Coal is the primary fuel which is achieving high temperatures (pyrolysis has been considered
used in large power generation plant which is largely even up to 1000°C) leads to much larger fraction of gases.
producing power in the north east of India. The advantage of Slow pyrolysis is a typical process used to manufacture
biomass against coal is its availability even though it is charcoal. Faster heating rates tend to produce more liquids,
seasonal. Biomass continues to be the backbone of energy for because there is not adequate time for the liquids to react and
cooking over millions of households, mostly in the form simpler compounds. High heating rate (1000°C/s) and
developing and developed part of the world. The two aspects residence times of 0.7 to 1 second in a process called fast
of biomass cook stoves for a long time are that improve pyrolysis are used to generate liquids. These liquids can be
cooking efficiency and reduced emission of CO and used for the combustion application or they can become a
particulates that improve health [2]. Biomass is biological feedstock for conversion to straight hydrocarbons in another
material derived from living or recently living organisms. process.
Unlike animals plants produce their own food that is biomass Different kinds of pyrolysis reactors are used, with those
by the process of photosynthesis. Urban solid wastes also having high heat and mass transfer rates for example bubbling
contain biomass and plastics with varying shape and size and beds, circulating beds, spouted and fluidized beds. Other
moisture along with non consumables. reactors include autoclaves, melting vessels, plasma reactors
Pyrolysis is thermal decomposition occurring in the and particular arrangements to enable vacuum pyrolysis.
absence in content of oxygen. Lower process temperature and Rotary kilns, cyclonic reactors, rotating cone, and ablative
longer vapour residence time favour the production of process reactors are the other reactors used. These reactors
charcoal. Higher temperature and longer residence time are also used for different energy applications depending on
increase biomass to gas, and moderate temperature and short the feedstock characteristics and the production of energy
vapour residence time are optimal for producing liquids. sources like heat energy, electrical energy and carbonaceous
These Three products are always produced, but the materials [4].
proportions can be varied over by the tuning of the process Pyrolysis needs heat source to maintain high temperature into
parameters [3]. the reactor chamber to run thermal treatment and convert
feedstock into products [6], as illustrated in Fig. 1. The initial
Pyrolysis is the process in which the solid fuel will be step for the combustion process is pyrolysis. The biomass
converted at high temperature to vapor and gases in the particle is followed by cracking and oxidation of gaseous
absence of oxidant. The output is condensed to ambient products and oxidation of char.
temperature to lead to water and some complex oxygenated
hydrocarbons in the form of liquids and permanent gases like
CO, H₂, CO₂ and CH₄. There are residual solids in the form of
char. The amount of solids, liquids and gases produced will
depend on the rate of temperature rise and the temperature to
which it is raise. Usually, volatiles begin to develop at about

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Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

reactor and convey by rotation of an endless screw. The

temperature for pyrolysis is transferred through the wall of the
reactor. The screw single screw type conveyor provides
proper mixing betwween particles, provides necessary
temperature transfer to the feedstock by ensuring proper
particle contact. In ideal case of practical the biomass is
completely volatilized when it passes through auger reactor.
In many industries augers are used in several applications,
especially for feeding processes. These devices are widely
used for uplifting, transporting and mixing solid particles in
different industries. Unsteady flow of the particles,
heterogeneity in product quality, wrong metering, etc are the
Fig 1. Schematic representation of pyrolysis.
several issues that may arises in the experimental phase. The
Carbonization is known as pyrolysis in slow conditions that
important feature for designing auger for a reactor is its auger
is long residence time and low heating rates. It has been used
length. If the length of auger increases in more than a limi,
for so many years to manufacture charcoal from biomass [7].
there may be an additional support is required. Hollow shaft
Slow pyrolysis is involved by lower heating rate comparing to
design can reduce the weight of the auger [11].
intermediate pyrolysis, and the vapour residence time in
among 10 seconds to 30 seconds [8]. Intermediate pyrolysis
Cycle tempo is a software used for the thermodynamic
will occur at lower heating rate compared fast pyrolysis
analysis and optimization of energy conversion systems by
(heating rate is 1000 °C/min), and the vapour residence time
the method of flow sheeting. It is one of the software packages
(< 2 s). The feedstock with smaller size is used for fast
that provides exergy analysis for the energy conversion
pyrolysis, so that formation of liquid products is easier. In
problems. The key feature of cycle tempo is the calculation of
intermediate pyrolysis size and shape of the biomass are less
relevant mass and energy flows through the system. Cycle
significant compared to fast pyrolysis, which allows a wider
tempo also features more detailed analysis and optimization
variety of feedstocks. Flash pyrolysis is actually rapid thermal
of the system. It is a basic tool when looking for the optimum
decomposition pyrolysis with very quick temperature
system configuration and performance [12].
variations (1000 to 10,000 °C/min).
The pyrolysis of biomass starts from a temperature of 300 °C
II. MODELLING OF A CONTINUOUS BIOCHAR PRODUCTION
and continues. After pyrolysis the products can be participate
REACTOR IN CYCLE-TEMPO
in a secondary reaction. Secondary reactions contain
cracking, reforming, dehydration, condensation, From literature review it can be seen that there is not
polymerization, charring, oxidation and gasification [9]. much research and development is going in the area of
continuous biochar production. it may be due to the difficulty
in attaining fast pyrolysis procedure, inefficiency of making
desired pyrolysis temperature in the reactor, conveying
granular feedstock, etc. So there is a need of an efficient and
continuous biochar production machine which can be adopt
different biomass for the production of biochar. The handling
of feedstocks is an important element, the machine must be
capable of conveying desired feedstocks without any
undesirable issues The quality of biochar is an important
factor, so the proposed design must have the ability to make
good quality biochar. So study on biochar production leads
me in a decision that auger reactors are most adoptable
method for the production of biochar for commercial purpose.
The auger reactors can be easily adopt continuous production
method unless the other conventional method are batch
Fig 2. Pyrolysis process of a single auger reactor.
process. Because of the capability of continuous production
The auger reactors are used to convey and process solid method it can be easily automated. The objective of this
materials, which is widely used in industrial production of project is that make continuous biochar production machine
biochar. The auger reactors are economical and reliable. The with a practical biochar production capability. There is need
usual auger conveyor have a helical screw rotating in an of verifying the produced biochar production machine is
covered with a shell (Fig 2). Auger reactor contains a screw giving required performance in the production of biochar.
conveyor which is an integral part of many granular The performance of the machine can be validated using the
conveyance systems [10]. The screw conveyor of auger is operational parameters and quality and quantity of biochar
used to guide the feedstock and to take away the residual solid produced.
fraction. In well designed auger can perform better particle The designing of the biochar production machine require
mixing and efficient heat transfer between solid reactants and many data regarding its thermal capability, production
heat carriers. Due to the good axial dispersion of auger reactor quantity, production quality, residence time etc. so the design
allows feedstock particles to expose in a higher uniformity in data of machine structure must correlated with its thermal
the length of auger. The feedstock particles fed into the capability. Therefore the designing starts with its modeling in

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Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

cycle tempo. The analysis in the cycle tempo modeling gives part. The amount of air is set to be zero for introducing the
the idea about the pyrolysis temperature of different biomass pyrolysis conditions.
feed stocks. A biochar separator unit is providing to separate the
The residence time is one of the key features of designing an biochar from auger or pyrolysis unit. After pyrolysis the
auger reactor. The residence time can be set for a definite biomass is split into biochar, syngas and bio oil, as per the
volume of biomass to be pyrolysed. The time needed for pyrolysis conditions. So a separator unit is provided to
attaining the pyrolysis temperature for biomass is calculated. capture the biochar from the output of pyrolysis unit. part
The designing of the auger is based on this data these two number 6 shows a separator which separates 100% solid
parameters, which are residence time and pyrolysis carbon to the sink which is shown as the part number 8 in the
temperature. The mass balance governing equation can be layout. The residue contains a mixture of bio oil and syngas.
solved to get the mass of fuel required and the auger speed. The residue from the separator is burned in a combustion
The fabrication of auger can be carried out based on this chamber. In this model two combustion chambers are
design data. provided to incorporate two different fuels. So for
Table 1 chemical composition of biomasses thermodynamic modeling it is taken to be as two combustion
Coconut Rubber Bamboo chambers. In the actual model only one combustion chamber
shell wood is needed. Here we have primary and secondary fuels.
Carbon 52.59 44.33 48.93 Secondary fuel is the residue from the separator and primary
Hydrogen 6.6 6.26 5.3 fuel is the fuel which is used to start the combustion process.
Oxygen 39.69 29.79 45.34 Primary fuel is not needed throughout the process and can be
Nitrogen 0.31 19.31 0.318 reduced as the machine working time progress. The exhaust
Sulphur 0.81 0.31 0.095 gas is used for preheating.
Table 1 shows the chemical composition of biomasses that Firing is not required throughout the process because
we are selected for the simulation of cycle tempo model. The of flue gas circulated for firing the biomass. Another model is
chemical compositions of different biomasses are essential developed without the initial firing setup which does not
required any external fuel supply. For this purpose the
inputs for the modeling of the system in the cycle tempo
primary fuel is removed from the layout which is shown in the
software.
Fig 4.
III. CYCLE-TEMPO MODEL LAYOUT
The thermodynamic modeling is done using cycle tempo
software. The model consists of mainly three areas;
combustion chamber for startup firing, pyrolysis unit for
auger reactor, and biochar separator for separating biochar
and other liquid and gaseous particle. Since the cycle tempo
has not the proficiency of including auger reactor for
pyrolysis, we go for a gasifier with air fuel ratio as zero. So the
model can be as similar to our proposing auger reactor design.

Fig 4 cycle tempo model of auger reactor without startup

firing.

IV. DESIGN PART OF AUGER

The important design parameter of auger reactor is its auger
length and residence time. The residence time can be find out
by considering the biomass as the lumped mass in laminar
flow. That is the biomass movement in the auger reactor is
Fig 3 cycle tempo model of auger reactor with startup firing. assumed as the hot air is moving over a stationary biomass. So
The biomass can be stored in storage chamber like a the time required can be calculated by using Equation (1).The
hopper. Gravitational movement will helps the feeding of
residence time is depends on some parameters, which are
biomass into the reactor. In this cycle tempo model source 1 is
density of the biomass (  ), velocity of the hot air with
provided as biomass extracting sink. For the efficient design
preheating of the biomass is required which will reduce the respect to surface of biomass( Vc ), heat transfer coefficient
biomass moisture content. Moreover employing preheating ( h ), area of contact( A ), and temperatures of the systems.
will enhance property of biochar obtained. The part number 5 After finding the time required for time required for attaining
shows a heat exchanger which extracts heat from the exhaust the pyrolysis temperature using that find the distance requires
gas of combustion chamber. Part 14 shows the gasifier, since to keep the biomass in this heating condition. Distance can be
the cycle tempo is insufficient of providing pyrolyser as a

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Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

find out using simple velocity equation. pyrolysis reactor is 1m.

t      
 hA      h  T T
 
Vc  ln i    clc  ln TiT  (1)
The design parameters are obtained from the equations
mentioned above. The pitch and flight thickness and other
dimensions of screw conveyor part are obtained from design
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS manual of screw conveyor design. The model of auger and
entire system design is drawn using Solidworks 2019.
(a). Biochar yield obtained
Three types of biomass coconut shell, bamboo and
rubberwood are run in cycle tempo model and obtained mass
flow of biochar is noted in the Table 2.
Table 2 mass flow rate of biochar obtained for different
temperature
Pressure Temperature Mass Flow ( g/sec )
in auger in auger (ºC)
(bar) Rubber Coconut Bamboo
wood shell

1.013 300 31.25 38.34 35.56

1.013 400 31.14 37.62 34.46
1.013 500 31.77 37.57 33.57 Fig 6 Auger design using Solidworks 2019
1.013 600 30.92 35.89 30.87 Auger design parameters are obtained from solving
1.013 700 26.84 30.32 24.21 equations and obtained from design manual of screw
1.013 800 23.30 25.09 17.91 conveyor [14]. The important specifications obtained are
1.013 900 22.20 23.29 15.63 auger length=1000mm, diameter= 230mm, flight
1.013 1000 21.98 22.88 15.07 thickness=1.41mm, pitch=230mm.

It is found that when the temperature increases the biochar

yield decreases. This is shown in the graph below. However
the pyrolysis temperature to get biochar with good properties
is in the range of 500-600ºC. The theoretical mass percentage
of biochar yield of 25-30wt% is obtained from the cycle
tempo model.

Fig 5 Mass flow (Biochar yield) of different biomass on Fig 7 Biochar production system design using solidworks
different temperatures 2019
The pyrolysis of three different biomasses is modeled in
(b). Design parameters proposed continuous biochar production machine using cycle
The input parameters required are speed of 0.001 m/s, the tempo software. This work introduces a new design of
temperature of 293 K are defined at the inlet of the reactor and continuous biochar production machine with solidworks
the outer surface of the pyrolysis reactor is assumed to be at a model. And also deals with the effect of product yield with
temperature of 750 K. We get the time required to attain pyrolysis temperature of the proposed machine design. The
pyrolysis temperature as 14.994min. It has been cycle tempo analysis shows that the amount of product yield
approximated that the time required for wood parts to reach decreases after certain pyrolysis temperature. The graph
600 K is 15 min. This time refers to the time the particles stay shows that the biochar yield will reduce in increased the
in the pyrolysis reactor. So we get the distance covered to temperature. This is due to the excess gaseous particle will
pyrolysed is 0.9m.Taking into account the possible heat escape out from the biomass and residue will contain lesser
losses, it is considered that the optimum length for the biochar properties. In the study observed that biochar yield

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Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

was higher at 500ºC than at the maximum temperature [12] Auger Reactor for Biomass Fast Pyrolysis: Design and
(1000ºC). Operation Leena Kapoor1, Aditya Mekala2 and Debajyoti
Bose3 1Department of Chemical Engineering 2,3Department
The design parameters are obtained from the governing
of Electrical, Power & Energy University of Petro leum &
equations. The pitch and flight thickness and other Energy Studies Uttarakhand, Dehradun 248007, India
dimensions of screw conveyor part are obtained from design {lkapoor, dbose}@ddn.upes.ac.in
manual of screw conveyor design. The fabrication needs a [13] www.asimptote.nl/software/cycle-tempo/cycle-tempo-details
well dimensioned design of all the parts which is not included [14] Conveying Knowledge, Workmanship, Solutions engineering
in this project work. guide for screw conveyors
A detailed design of components other than the Auger is
required for further improvement in this area. That is in the
design of conveyor can be desirable to different feedstocks
and dynamic flow analysis of feedstock in the conveyor is
essential because of the inter particle heat transfer mechanism
is important. The heat transfer and machine design analysis of
different arrangements of fins and its efficient size and shape
are essential of efficient performance of the machine. An
elaborate study on design of various heating method for auger
reactor will make the system more advanced and more
efficient. Further research in the area of cost analysis, fuel
consumption analysis (energy analysis), automation and
safety measures study, possibility of efficient conveying
system, etc. are required for the development of a continuous
biochar production unit.

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