 

In this work, steam generation is studied using natural gas or rumen as energy sources in a slaughter plant that sacrifices 7500 cattle per month, with a consumption of 4560 lb / h (0.5749 kg / s) of saturated steam at 624 kPa. For slaughtered cow, 10.5 kg of rumen can be obtained after being dried outdoors, for its final disposal the slaughter plant has to bear the costs of USD 7.2 per ton of rumen. In the study exergy and exergoeconomic performances were compared by generating steam with a natural gas boiler with those of steam generation with a rumen boiler. When using rumen as an energy source, capital investment is required in a pelletizing machine and in a biomass boiler. From this, combustion analysis, energy efficiency, exergy destruction, exergy efficiency, exergy destruction costs and the cost of generating one kg of steam from the two boilers were evaluated. The results of the study showed that the generation of steam with rumen is less efficient than with natural gas, since it presents destruction of exergy 1175.9 kW and exergy efficiency 26.83%. While that the generation of steam with rumen boiler is obtained a exergy destroyed 1419.9 kW and exergy efficiency 23.29%, but both process have lower exergy efficiency compare to those reported in the literature, which reaches values between 30-33% of exergy efficiency to biomass and natural gas boiler, respectively. However although the costs of destruction of exergy and the cost of generating a kg of steam using rumen was of \$/hr 7821 and \$ 0.0073/ kg, of steam, respectively. Although the generation of steam with natural gas present the costs of destruction of exergy of \$/hr 26285 and the cost of generating a kg steam \$ 0.021, that indicators are higher using natural gas as fuel that with rumen pellets. The energetic and exergetic performances were also studied and the results showed that by setting combustion process in the boiler with an excess of 60% air and reducing the moisture content from 12 to 1% in the rumen. In addition, it is analytically determined heat value is increased by 1062.76 kJ / kg of rumen pellets as the moisture content decreases from 12 to 1%, increases the capacity of steam production with rumen from 114.6 to 132.8 hours. Which means that by generating steam with rumen that 1% moisture, natural gas consumption costs was reduced by \$ 634.1. Also, found that exergy efficiency increased 0.53 percentage points and that exercise destruction decreased 2.96%. From this, it can be seen that the decrease of the moisture content in the rumen pellets are not economically viable, due to which the drying costs of the rumen would not be compensated.


Thermal Energy Replacement Potential in a Slaughter Plant From Rumen Pellets

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace, Bioengineering, Applied Mechanics, Design Engineering Division, Advanced Energy Systems, Manufacturing Engineering Division, Noise Control and Acoustics, Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (NDPD), Nuclear Engineering Division, Process Industries Division, Fluids Engineering, Heat Transfer, Materials, Microelectromechanical Systems, Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Computers & Information in Engineering


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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