Pneumatic Conveying Study of Rice Husk Based on Laboratory Trails and its Assessment

Abstract

A conveying system of any kind is used to transport a material from one source place to destination or receiving place. For the chosen method of pneumatic conveying, air is used as the transport medium. It is applicable to most fine powder to granular materials, be they in that form naturally or have to be pulverised or crushed. In this system, energy is needed to accelerate the material from rest, to lift it as required and to overcome the losses due to friction. Rice husk is by-product which results from paddy, the husk is removed by friction as the paddy grains pass between two abrasive surfaces that move at different speeds. It has been used as building material, fertilizer, insulation material, or fuel. Combustion of rice hulls produces rice husk ash (RHA) which is a potential source of amorphous reactive silica. Most of the ash is used in the production of Portland cement. The ash is a very good thermal insulation material. Rice husk though been not easily transportable material, however, certain operational sequences, precautions at feeding zone and with sufficient motive force (flow and pressure) rice husk can be transported which was resulted in Conveying Flow lab tests. Rise husk has high silica content and is abrasive, the conveying velocities are keen to investigate. This paper explains the setup used for this trials, characterization of material used as feed, conveying parameters achieved.