Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2017
24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Mathematical Modelling and Simulation of Microalgae Biomass Drying Process
Submission Author:
Fernanda Perazzolo Disconzi , SC
Co-Authors:
Fernanda Perazzolo Disconzi, Wellington Balmant, JOSÉ VIRIATO COELHO VARGAS
Presenter: Fernanda Perazzolo Disconzi
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2017.COB17-6491
Abstract
Microalgae cultivation have been increased considerably in the last decades due to the interest in the use of biomass as a source of clean energy generation like the biofuels and in the order to feedstock like animal feed, pigments and antioxidants, applied widely in the industry. Among the steps to obtain these products, usually, the biomass drying process is necessary to extend its shelf life and to increase the lipid extraction. However, the biomass drying process has a high-energy expenditure that raises the production costs and in this way, it is necessary to improve the drying process, leading to an energy consumption reduction. The objective of this work was to develop a mathematical and computational modelling focused on the microalgae biomass drying process, considering the system defined by two phases, the solid and gas phases. In this context, the gas phase is a hot air flowing parallel over the solid phase, in which it is the wet biomass. The mass and thermal energy balance have been done for each of the phases, as well as a balance of energy in the electric resistance of the oven. The computational analyses were performed to predict the biomass drying time, focusing on the reduction of energy.
Keywords
mathematical modelling, drying, microalgae
