Improved Fluidized Bed Drying Technology for Wood Fuels

Abstract: In this thesis, I discuss experiences from designing, building and evaluating two research plants, which use circulating, atmospheric pressure superheated steam as drying medium for drying sawdust in a fluidized bed. The increased use of pellets has created a demand for new drying equipment at the Swedish pellet plants. The underlying cause is that almost all of the available dried material, such as wood shavings, is already in use. The remaining biofuel materials, primarily wet sawdust need drying before entering the pellet process. The primary demands on the drying process were an uncomplicated design and efficient energy use. A key aim was to improve the drying technique used in the Swedish wood fuel system with specially interest on the control system. Sawdust has been tested in both a full scale and a laboratory scale dryers. The tests were done in a spouted bed. The product of the steam mass flow and the enthalpy difference limits the drying capacity. The tests showed that it is possible to use the temperature after the dryer as a control parameter for the outgoing moisture content in a spouted bed dryer. The results and conclusions can be very useful when designing a similar full scale drying system.