Heat transfer and engineering design
Project detail
Hello, I need someone to do heat transfer calculations and give me advice.
I am considering building an activated charcoal production machine.
I have attached a concept illustration of key components. Basically, there will be a steel pipe that will be rotating all the time and the inside of this pipe will be filled with the woodchip. The woodchip will be fed from one end and charcoal will come out from the other end. The gas burners will be run on propane to start the machine and once it is running, it will be switched over to Wood gas that is going to come out from the wood inside of the tube. The woodchip needs to be heated to 900C so that all fractions can be cooked out of it. The rate of heat growth of 40C per minute is desirable. In an ideal world, i would like to be able to produce 1T of charcoal per 24 hours (desirable, not critical more is better) and have pipe length no more than 10meters (critical)
I need advice on the following.
1. What diameter and the wall thickness of the pipe should I use as my main retort pipe?
2. What would be the right travel speed (“flow”) for the movement of wood mass inside of the pipe?
3. What length of pipe should be allocated for the heating section with gas burners?
4. What quantity size and thickness of heat absorption rings do I need?
5. Woodchip temperature prediction for the inside of the retort pipe during production in relation to the location of the woodchip in the retort tube.
If you have any questions, just ask.