Abstract

GOLATO, Marcos et al. Fusibility characteristics of ash from bagasse and sugarcane harvest residues (RAC), at Tucumán, Argentina. Rev. ind. agric. Tucumán [online]. 2021, vol.98, n.2, pp.21-27. ISSN 1851-3018.

Ash melting temperature of a fuel is a critical parameter linked to its quality and it is essential to assess its behavior inside the home of a steam boiler. This parameter is a characteristic of the physical state acquired by ashes of a biomass used as fuel when subjected to progressive heating under certain conditions and is related to the type of biomass, the chemical composition and surrounding atmosphere. It is a measure of the potential of combustible materials to form slags, which eventually generate undesirable plugging and encrustation on the interior surfaces of the boiler hearth, including combustion chamber cooling tubes and radiant walls, air passages in grids, between superheater tubes and convective beam, etc. We studied ash fusibility characteristics from bagasse and RAC of LCP-85-384 sugarcane variety at Tucumán, Argentina. According to ASTM D 1857, we used automated ash fusibility analyzer equipment operating under controlled atmospheres. Twenty bagasse samples and 20 RAC samples were processed at our Industrial Measurements and Testing Laboratory (LEMI), and analyzed in both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres. Results indicated that average melting start temperatures (SD) for bagasse ashes didn`t show significant differences when heating in oxidizing or reducing atmospheres. A similar behavior was observed in RAC ashes. In addition, DT temperatures were significantly lower in RAC than in bagasse for both atmospheres (1054.4 ºC vs. 1081.1 ºC, for reducing atmosphere; and 1058.0 ºC vs. 1110.0 ºC for oxidizing atmosphere, respectively).

Keywords : biomass; ash; fuel; steam boilers; energy.

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