Incineration of Distillery Waste Using Fluidized Bed Incinerator

摘要

Distillery produces effluent containing dissolved and suspended solids consisting of organic and inorganic matters generally known as spent wash. Effluent generated is ten to fifteen times the volume of rectified spirit (R.S) produced and poses severe disposal problem for surface water bodies and soil contamination. Recently statuary authorities have imposed a zero-discharge policy for distillery effluent. Incineration is one of the main processes for achieving this norm. Incineration allows the possibility of energy generation in addition to waste disposal with minimum pollutant emission. About 80-90% of the total solid content in the raw effluent is volatile and has high heat of combustion; hence the incineration of distillery effluent is a feasible technique and self-sustaining in terms of energy. Among the incinerators, fluidized bed incinerator offers the advantage of higher combustion efficiency due to large active surface area and higher rate of combustion. Thus, fluidized bed incinerator was selected for performing the experimental studies. The combustion efficiency and the characteristics of combustion of spent wash were studied in a fluidized bed incinerator with sand as fluidized medium. The combustion was examined as a function of the operating parameters such as feed rate, bed temperature, gas velocity and excess air. The pressure-drop across the bed was measured to study the bed behavior. The combustion efficiency was computed at different operating conditions and was found to increase with increase in air flow rate, as well as operating temperature at a constant air and feed rate. CO emission was found to decrease with an increase in operating temperature.