Michele Miccio

OPTIMAL KINETIC PARAMETERS AND BATCH MODELING FOR PECTIN HYDROLYSIS TO GALACTURONIC ACID WITH PECTINEX ULTRA SP-L ENZYME

Galacturonic acid is a monosaccharide obtained by pectin hydrolysis and a suitable substrate to produce bioethanol by fermentation. This article focuses on quantification of citrus pectin hydrolysis to galacturonic acid and provides new, reliable kinetic parameters for the Michaelis-Menten equation when the well-known commercial Pectinex Ultra SP-L is employed as enzyme. They are: r max = 1.10 g/(L min), K m = 10.42 g/L, and K IGA = 10.05 g/L, as obtained with a great accuracy by a nonlinear regression method and confirmed by the three classical linearization procedures (Lineweaver-Burk, Langmuir, and Eadie-Hofstee). The quantification of product inhibition has been achieved, with its inclusion in the rate equation. A batch reactor model yields perfect agreement between predictions and experiments, even under conditions different from those on which the parameters had been determined by regression.

Dual-Fuel Fluidized Bed Combustor Prototype for Residential Heating: Steady-State and Dynamic Behavior

Fluidized bed combustion of biogenic fuels can be recognized as an attractive option for an ecologically sustainable use of biofuels in residential applications. Nevertheless, biomass combustion in fluidized bed reactors presents some drawbacks that are mainly related to mixing/segregation of fuel particles/volatile matter during devolatilization inside the bed and in the freeboard or to bed agglomeration. A prototype of a 30–50 kWth fluidized bed boiler for residential heating has been designed to burn either a gaseous combustible or a solid biomass fuel or both fuels at the same time. The prototype has been equipped with a gas burner located in the wind-box to optimize the start-up stage of the boiler and with a fluidized bed characterized by a conical geometry (“Gulf Stream” circulation) to improve the mixing of the fuel particles during both devolatilization and char burn-out. The operation of the combustor adopting wood pellets as fuel has been investigated to evaluate their use in residential combustion applications. Steady-state thermally stable regimes of operation have been recognized analyzing both boiler temperatures and gaseous emissions. The optimization of the steady-state operation of the boiler in terms of gaseous emissions has been achieved by varying the nominal thermal power and air excess. An ad-hoc experimental campaign has been carried out to analyze the dynamic performance of the prototype as a response to changes of the demanded thermal power. On the basis of the experimental data, an interpretation of the dynamic behavior of the fluidized bed boiler has been proposed.

An Investigation on Low-Temperature Fluidized Combustion of Liquid Fuels

Presently, the combustion at low temperature is receiving a great deal of interest because emissions of micro- and nano-pollutants are expected to be greatly reduced. Following previous studies on the low temperature combustion behavior, the authors report results and discussion of steady-state experiments on an atmospheric, pre-pilot scale, 140 mm ID, FB reactor, equipped with an under-bed, air-assisted, liquid-fuel injector. The experimental program was focused on the operation at temperatures lower than the classical value for FBC of solid fuels (i.e., 850°C). The data series taken into consideration are the concentrations of the main unburned species in the splash zone, those of oxygen measured in the bed and in the splash zone as well as the freeboard pressure. The interpretation of the results is mainly based on the statistical analysis in the time domain. The combustion pattern of bio-diesel is compared to that of the diesel fuel under varying operating conditions (e.g., bed temperature, dispersion air velocity at the fuel nozzle, injector height in the bed). Conclusions that were previously published on the base of lab-scale results are checked against new data obtained on the pilot scale. An innovative technique for the analysis of the micro-explosive regime is presented. It consists in the comparison of oxygen concentration measured by the zirconia-based probes at different heights in the bed and in the splash region, pressure signals measured in the freeboard and purposely filtered, and video-recordings of the bed surface phenomena.Copyright

Modeling Homogeneous Combustion in Bubbling Beds Burning Liquid Fuels

This paper presents a first implementation of a model for the description of homogeneous combustion of different fuels in fluidized bed combustors (FBC) at temperatures lower than the classical value for solid fuels, i.e. 850°C. Model construction is based on a key feature of the bubbling fluidized bed: a fuel-rich (endogenous) bubble is generated at the fuel injection point, travels inside the bed at constant pressure and undergoes chemical conversion in presence of mass transfer with the emulsion phase and of coalescence with air (exogenous) bubbles formed at the distributor and, possibly, with other endogenous bubbles. The model couples a fluid-dynamic sub-model based on the two phases theory of fluidization with a sub-model of gas phase oxidation. To this end, model development takes full advantage of a detailed chemical kinetics scheme, which includes both the low and high temperature mechanisms of hydrocarbon oxidation and accounts for about 200 molecular and radical species involved in more than 5000 reactions. Simple hypotheses are made to set-up and close mass balances of the various species as well as enthalpy balances in the bed. First, conversion and oxidation of gaseous fuels (e.g. methane) have been calculated as a test case for the model; then, n-dodecane has been taken into consideration to simply represent a diesel fuel by means of a pure hydrocarbon. Model predictions qualitatively agree with some evidences coming from experimental data reported in the literature. The fate of hydrocarbon species is extremely sensitive to temperature changes and oxygen availability in the rising bubble. A preliminary model validation has been attempted against the results of experiments carried out on a pre-pilot, bubbling combustor fired with underbed injection of a diesel fuel. In particular, model results confirm the trends that the heat release either in the bed or in the freeboard experimentally shows as a function of bed temperature. At lower emulsion phase temperatures many combustible species leave unburned the bed, post-combustion occurs past the bed and freeboard temperature considerably increases; as it is well known, this is an undesirable feature from the viewpoints of practical application and emission control.Copyright