• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.94-104
• /
• 2009

It is urgently required to develop the production of fermentation-heat energy from the waste agricultural and forest biomass and its effective heat exchanging system for the supply of warm water to rural households and greenhouses. In this study 3 helical-type and 1 plate-type heat exchangers using 3 different waste biomasses [e.g. hardwood (HW) sawdust (100%), softwood (SW) sawdust : HW sawdust (50 : 50) and HW sawdust : grass (90 : 10)] were applied in order to find out the best heat recovery system. The heat exchanger was basically considered to improve the overall heat recovery efficiency, to minimize heat loss and to simplify manufacturing, assembling and breaking up the fermenting beds. The helical-type heat exchanger (HX-H3) installed in fermenting bed of HW sawdust : grass (90 : 10) showed relatively higher temperature profiles, in particular mid- and upper-parts than lower and surface parts during 45-day fermentation process. The maximum temperature was ranged from $40^{\circ}C$ to $65^{\circ}C$ with average $60^{\circ}C$. The water temperature of tank outlet was ranged to $33{\sim}48^{\circ}C$ during whole measuring periods. By the way plate-type one (HX-P) installed in same biomass compositional fermenting bed showed $64.5{\sim}76.5^{\circ}C$ at center part, and $43{\sim}56^{\circ}C$ and $42{\sim}58^{\circ}C$, water tank and tank outlet temperatures, respectively, during 100 day measurement. It could be concluded that the plate-type heat exchanger (HX-P) provides not only the effective heating for the rural households and greenhouses, but also having the best heat recovery performance, easy manufacturing, assembling and breaking up the systems.