ThaiScience
ThaiScience
ENGINEERING JOURNAL CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY
Volume 25, No. 02, Month AUGUST, Year 2018, Pages 106 - 112
The moisture reduction of biomass fuel in the drying process by six sixma approach
Sararath Chaleekan and Jeerapat Ngaoprasertwong
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The drying process of biomass fuel helps to increase the thermal energy of fuel through the utilization of low pressure steam obtained from a power plant ( 37.15 MW) in the drying process (production capacity: 400 tons per day). Fuels used were mixed fibers (including palm fruit bunch, coconut shell and bark) and wood chips with moisture percentage before steaming about 40-60%. To improve the moisture of biomass fuel and reduce the cost of drying process, this research applied the theory of Six Sigma consisting of the following methods: the definition of problem (Define), the measurement to find the cause of problem (Measure), the analysis on the cause of problem (Analyze), the improvement and solution of process (Improve) and the controlling of variables (Control) [DMAIC]. Additionally, methods of Cause and Effect Diagram, Cause and Effect Matrix and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) were also exploited to select factors affecting moisture percentage. Furthermore, the 3k Factorial Design was also applied to search for factors significantly affecting the moisture of fuel. The result presented the reduction of moisture percentage from 10% to 23% (the moisture percentage before improvement was calculated from the difference between the average input moisture of 55% and the average output moisture of 45% while the moisture percentage after improvement was calculated from the difference between the average input moisture of 56% and the average output moisture of 33%) causing the increase of fuel heat for 4,028 MJ per ton per month. The cost of drying process was averagely decreased from 0.147 Baht per MJ to be 0.122 Baht per MJ or the cost to be saved was at 4,583,028 Baht per year.
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Published by : Faculty of Engineering Chiang Mai University
Contributions welcome at : http://researchs.eng.cmu.ac.th/?name=journal
