Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The major goal of this project is to create a Dryer Design Application (DDA). A key component to generating the datasets necessary for the DDA is and Advanced Research Drying Apparatus (aRDA) which is also being created under this project. The users of the DDA and aRDA range from university labs involved in biomass research to dryer manufactures to dryer end users. Forest Concepts is in contact will all levels of potential technology customers on a regular basis. During this reporting period, we have engaged in a collaborative bid with a Norris Thermal (a dryer manufacturer) to design a control system for a specific dryer end user. The outcomes of this project are of keen interest to the Norris Thermal and the customer. We have also had many informal discussions with our research partners at several universities and national labs who are directly or indirectly investigating biomass drying. One unexpected audience reached is a research group at U.C. Davis that is exploring drying using desiccants. They have expressed interest in the aRDA device as it would enable them to compare the properties of various desiccants to better optimize their system. Changes/Problems:With the minor mechanical revisions listed in the '"What was accomplished under these goals" section, the aRDA is a sophisticated apparatus with potential application well beyond the biomass energy market. On the data analysis side, a first-of-kind Particulate Biomass Drying Model has been fully implemented and validated against full-scale moving bed dryer. The underlying energy, material throughput, and sizing values are calculated. The complexity in calculating the underlying values proved to be greater that expected at the time of proposal. We continue to work with our partners to convert those values to current monetary units. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Project engineers have engaged with dryer manufacturers to better understand their thought processes and design philosophies. This engagement helps inform the design language used in the products we are developing. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project leaders have attended and presented posters and/or papers at several technical conferences including ASABE annual meetings and the Thermo-Chemical Biomass Symposium in 2022. A draft journal article has been written fully detailing the Particulate Biomass Drying Model developed under this project which will be submitted in 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? There are series of tasks to design and build a new research device. Development of the device was originally expected to comprise approximately 1/3 of the overall project effort. However, as we got into the details of the design work, some components proved more challenging to overcome than anticipated. Nonetheless, the mechanical and electrical design is complete. We hired a new engineer to develop and implement the control and data acquisition system utilizing MATLAB® to better facility the long-term goal of integrating the aRDA control and data collection with the aRDA data analysis and DDA programs. The end-to-end data life will reside in the MATLAB environment instead of the previous implementation which required data to be passed from LabView to Excel to MATLAB. This transition has cost additional time as the entire control system has to be implemented from scratch rather than simply updated for the new hardware and new mechanical configuration. We anticipate this extra work to save time in the long run as the entire software system is now easily maintainable and adaptable to future upgrades because many of the functions and procedures used in the control system are now portable and can be used in the data analysis and DDA programs. The aRDA is comprised of a set subsystems: Air handling, Sample mass/pressure balancing, Hot swappable sample chamber, Main Heating, Recirc Heating, User interface, Data Acquisition, Sensor systems, Steam generation, and Steam injection. Of these, all but three are fully functional and operate as intended. All remaining deficiencies are minor. Specifically, a central probe was selected for measuring temperature throughout the bed of material, however, the presence of the probe also produced a channel for the drying air which defeats the purpose of multi-point sensing. An alternative design using multiple side-entry probes will be implemented in a future update. Measuring the mass of sample in real-time while unstable air is forced through the sample over a wide range is temperatures is challenging. A mechanism was devised to isolate the mass sensor from the high-temperature, high-humidity air while also balancing the air pressure so only the sample itself is measured. As it turns out, silicone sheet material used to suspend the mechanism changes stiffness over the temperature ranges of interest. Swapping the flat sheet membrane with a bulb shaped membrane (will resolve the temperature-change influence on the mass measurement. The steam generation and steam valve control work as intended. However, some steam is condensing on the cold pipe between the steam valve and where it is injected into the hot air stream. The condensation causes a pulsing in humidity destined for the sample. Wrapping the short pipe in heat tape in the same way as the recirculation pipe will eliminate this problem. The aRDA is a major update and greatly improved upon the original RDA. The response of all the systems is much faster which enables collection of data in a much more tightly controlled environment. It also greatly improves on the user interface, both in the ergonomic and in the data management aspects. We have also made substantial progress on implementation of the DDA program with complete implementation of the simulation component of the DDA. The simulation is based on Whitakers model which provides a framework for simultaneous heat energy, air mass, and moisture mass balancing. The framework has been extended to enable simulation of beyond mass and energy balance within individual particles to include a multi-layered bed of particles. It has been implemented in the form of a MATLAB object for standalone utilization and flexible integration into the overall DDA framework. Utilizing the simulation output, a set of functions were created to fully define the mass and energy balances in a fully scale belt dryer. The secondary analysis can be used to create and sizing and efficiency map which, in turn, allows dryer designer or operators to select the optimal conditions based on their specific optimization criteria. The simulation results and optimization output have been validated through comparison with actual moving-bed dryer air characteristics and efficiencies. We continue to engage with our dryer manufacturing partners to determine the impact of size on monetary valuation of the equipment. Costs of energy, both electric and heat, are implement as dynamic values that can be adjusted to match local conditions.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Dooley, J. H. (2022, April 19-21, 2022). Decarbonizing Biomass Drying by Incorporating a RF Preheating Module into Convection Dryer Systems (Poster) [Poster]. TC Biomass - The International Conference on Thermochemical Conversion Science, Denver, CO.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Lanning, C. (2022, July 17-22, 2022). Adapting Whitakers Drying Model to Bulk Particulate Biomass Materials  Conservation Equation Details [Presentation]. ASABE Annual International Meeting, Houston, TX.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Lanning, C. J. (2022, July 17-21, 2022). Adapting Whitakers Drying Model to Bulk Particulate Biomass Materials  Application Overview [Poster]. ASABE Annual International Meeting, Houston, TX.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lanning, C. J., Kirkland, M., Meisner, D., & Dooley, J. H. (2023). Bulk Particulate Biomass Drying Model [Manuscript].

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The major goal of this project is to create a Dryer Design Application (DDA). A key component to generating the datasets necessary for the DDA is and Advanced Research Drying Apparatus (aRDA) which is also being created under this project. The users of the DDA and aRDA range from university labs involved in biomass research to dryer manufactures to dryer end users. Forest Concepts is in contact will all levels of potential technology customers on a regular basis. During this reporting period, we have engaged in a collaborative bid with a Norris Thermal (a dryer manufacturer) to design a control system for a specific dryer end user. The outcomes of this project are of keen interest to the Norris Thermal and the customer. We have also had many informal discussions with our research partners at several universities and national labs who are directly or indirectly investigating biomass drying. One unexpected audience reached is a research group at U.C. Davis that is exploring drying using desiccants. They have expressed interest in the aRDA device as it would enable them to compare the properties of various desiccants to better optimize their system. Changes/Problems:There are no major changes or problems with the project. However, the complete design of the aRDA did take a little long than expected. Nonetheless, we believe the project will still complete on-time because some of the more challenging components related to data analysis and implementation of the DDA have been substantially streamlined. Initially the system would have operated on several software platforms with code implemented in LabView, Excel macros, and MATLAB. We have instead chosen to write all of the code in MATLAB and support with Excel tables. This change enables cod from other related projects to be recycled into all data handling stages of this project thereby significantly reducing the implementation time over the next reporting period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This reporting period has focused on creating the underlying equipment and programs. Toward the end of next period we will purposefully engage with stakeholders to educated them on the technology, in particular some fundamental counter-intuitive aspects drying small particulate biomass and how those aspects play into the DDA outputs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At this stage in the project, there are not yet 'results' per se. However, we have engaged with several interested stakeholders to keep them up to date on the status of the project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The next and final reporting period continues and completes the technical objectives started during this period. Design and construct an Advanced Research Drying Apparatus (aRDA) in order to answer the research questions above and populate DDA modules with critical data. Remaining tasks include assembly and validation of the device. Design a Dryer Design Application (DDA). Remaining tasks include wrapping the core simulation software in a deployable application. Populate DDA with initial material models. The generic cellulosic material model framework exists. Upon completion of the aRDA data will be collected and analyzed to determine parameters for simulation of specific biomass materials. Validate DDA through comparison with real-world measurements of a small commercially operated single-zone belt dryer. The DDA is intended to be a dynamic and general TEA, but more importantly it is intended to guide designers of new equipment and operators of existing equipment in estimating drying parameters and performance based on specific measured material characteristics. This objective is to ensure the DDA works as intended. Documentation and dissemination through technical conferences and utilization of the DDA for scaling (number of zones, bed area, blower sizing, etc.) of a next generation hemp fiber dryer. This objective gives a definitive metric for evaluating project success in the form of a commercially relevant application of the developed technology for a previously unstudied biomass material. The outcome of this objective's efforts feed directly into commercial application of the overall project goal.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? There are series of tasks to design and build a new research device. Development of the device was originally expected to comprise approximately 1/3 of the overall project effort. However, as we got into the details of the design work, some components proved more challenging to overcome than anticipated. Additionally, our controls engineering who had designed the original RDA interface moved to another company. Nonetheless, the mechanical and electrical design is now complete. We hired a new engineer to develop and implement the control system on a different platform (MATLAB® rather than LabView®) to better facility the long-term goal of integrating the aRDA control and data collection with the aRDA data analysis and DDA programs. Now, the end-to-end data life will reside in the MATLAB environment instead of being passed from LabView to Excel to MATLAB. This transition has cost additional time as the entire control system has to be implemented from scratch rather than simply updated for the new hardware and new mechanical configuration. We anticipate this extra upfront work to save time later in the project as many of the functions and procedures used in the control system are now portable and can be used in the data analysis and DDA programs. As of now, the fundamental structure of the control system has been proven using a test rig. The test rig is comprised of a mix of real and table-top surrogate components. As the real control components (DAQ, sensors, blower, etc.) arrive, they are integrated into the test rig for parallel controls/user interface development and mechanical assembly of the device. We have also made substantial progress on implementation of the DDA program with complete implementation of the simulation component of the DDA. The simulation is based on Whitakers model which provides a framework for simultaneous heat energy, air mass, and moisture mass balancing. The framework has been extended to enable simulation of beyond mass and energy balance within individual particles to include a multi-layered bed of particles. It has been implemented in the form of a MATLAB object for standalone utilization and flexible integration into the overall DDA framework.

Publications