Performance of a Pilot-scale Rice Husk Incinerator

This study was conducted to find possible application areas of the by-products generated from the incineration of rice husk. To this end, a pilot-scale rice husk incinerator system was constructed and its performed test was carried. Major findings are summarized as follows. 1. The rice husk incinerator system developed in this study performed satisfactory in terms of thermal efficiencies. At the optimum operating conditions, thermal conversion efficiency and heat exchanger efficiency was 97% ad 60%, respectively, while overall thermal efficiency of the system was 58%. Under all conditions tested, temperatures in the combustion chamber were quite uniform and crystallization of SiO$_2$ in the ash was negligible. 2. NOx and SOx content in the flue gas was well below the legal limit but the CO concentration was around the legal limit. 3. Thermal energy from combustion was successfully recovered by a heat exchanger to provide hot water, ash was found a good supplementary cementing m terial, and the flue gas also was an acceptable $CO_2$ supplier to greenhouses.