Waste Heat Recovery from Walls of the Combustion Chamber of a New Portable Jaggery Plant to Dry Bagasse

Abstract

In conventional jaggery plants, the extracted sugarcane juice is used for preparing jaggery, while the residue bagasse is used as a fuel to meet the energy requirement. Normally, bagasse contains from 48 to 52% moisture which affects the calorific value of bagasse; hence, drying of bagasse is necessary. The heat required for the evaporation is provided by burning the bagasse in a pit-type furnace. It is crucial to maintain the level of moisture in bagasse used as a fuel in order to achieve high calorific value. In conventional jaggery plant, a large amount of heat is wasted inside the wall of the combustion chamber. The performance analysis is carried out for a newly designed portable jaggery plant. The bagasse drying mechanism of this plant recovers waste heat from the combustion chamber through walls. The heat transfer from combustion gases through a brick wall, metallic wall, porous wall, etc., are simulated through ANSYS software and are tried out to validate through experimentation with certain limitations. The experimental outcome reveals that about 3.5% waste heat from the combustion chamber removes 51% moisture from wet bagasse. Jaggery preparation utilizes 23% of the combustion chamber heat. Thus, a quick and non-laborious bagasse drying process alternative to conventional sun drying process is developed.