title: Ignition and burning rates of segregated waste combustion in packed beds.
abstract: Recent developments in national recycling and re-use programmes for municipal waste have led to segregation of an increasing proportion of waste to enhance material recovery. Several of the segregated streams contain materials that can not viably be re-used or recycled but can be used for energy recovery. In this study, the combustion of cardboard and waste wood was investigated in a small-scale packed bed reactor in order to provide fundamental data for the design/operation of moving bed furnaces. Key parameters of combustion including the ignition and burning rates were evaluated for various air flowrates and compared to the modelling results. Two successive stages of combustion were identified for both samples: the propagation of ignition front into the bed and combustion of the fuel above the ignition front. The burning rate of cardboard reached a peak of about 300 kg/m(2)h at the air flowrate of 936 kg/m(2)h and decreased at higher air flowrates. For waste wood, both the ignition and burning rates increased in the tested range of the air flowrate up to 702 kg/m(2)h, of which the values were very close to those for the cardboard. The model prediction was in good agreement with the test results for waste wood. However, the burning rate for cardboard was under-predicted due to strongly irregular shapes of the fuel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK. c.ryu@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: Changkook
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Anh N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Phan
authors.forename: Yao-bin
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Vida N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Sharifi
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Swithenbank
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources / Q000379:methods; D017745:Incineration / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014934:Wood