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Value‐added products from unburned carbon in bagasse fly ash
Author(s) -
Batra Vidya S.,
Varghese Anna Ria,
Vashisht Pooja,
Balakrishnan Malini
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.536
Subject(s) - bagasse , fly ash , pulp and paper industry , heat of combustion , pellets , waste management , environmentally friendly , carbon fibers , boiler (water heating) , environmental science , sugar , chemistry , pellet , materials science , combustion , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering , ecology , composite number , biology
Sugar factories in India commonly use bagasse, the residue after sugarcane juice extraction, as a boiler fuel. This leads to generation of large amounts of fly ash containing 16–33% unburned carbon, which poses a disposal problem. In this study, different separation methods have been examined to separate the unburned carbon. The separated carbon has been modified for different applications and characterized. Simple methods like sieving yielded high carbon fractions. The carbon content could be increased further by treatment with acid to remove the ash present. Pellets formed from unburned carbon had calorific values ranging between 20 920 and 25 104 kJ kg −1 . Activation in steam led to increase in surface area from 90–100 m 2 g −1 to more than 500 m 2 g −1 . These results indicate that there is potential for multiple and environmentally friendly utilization of unburned carbon in bagasse fly ash. Copyright © 2010 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.