Energy and exergy analyses of an industrial wood chips drying process

In this study, a comprehensive thermodynamic investigation through energy and exergy analyses is conducted to assess the performance of an industrial chips drying process and study how its operating conditions and efficiency can be improved further. In this regard, energy and exergy efficiencies are evaluated with the actual thermodynamic data available, as obtained from the factory, in Turkey. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the drum drying system (DDS) are found as 34.07% and 4.39%, respectively. The analysis results show that exergy efficiency is less than energy efficiency. The main reason of this low exergy efficiency for this drying process is high exergy destruction, as 41.5% of input exergy value. Energy can be recovered via an economizer from hot moist air leaving from the system. If stack gas temperature decreases from 130 to 90°C, regain energy and exergy values are to be 51 976 and 8162 kW, respectively. These recovered potentials can be used for district heating system in winter season and for district cooling system in summer season by using absorption cooling system. Energy and exergy efficiency values can be increased to 93.15 and 43.08%, respectively, by incorporating a heat exchanger into the system. Copyright The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.