Performance Of Rice Husk Screw Feeder For Fixed Bed Combustion

The accuracy and smoothness of the husk fuel feed in a fixed bed combustion furnace is very important in improving the performance of the husk combustion. In this study, a screw feeder was designed to feed rice husks into the combustion chamber, according to combustion requirements smoothly. The feeding mechanism used is that the husk from the hopper is fed into a screw feeder which is rotated by an electric motor. The husk feeding rate can be regulated by controlling the rotational speed of the electric motor using an inverter. For smooth feeding, a tapered outer diameter screw was used with the screw outer diameter enlarging from 48 mm at the inlet to 69 mm at the outlet. The husk feeding performance was tested in: 1) the non-combustion conditions and 2) the combustion conditions in a fixed bed furnace. The results of the performance test without combustion showed that the feed rate of the husk increased linearly with the increasing of the screw rotating speed. The husk feeding rate at 10-35 rpm screw rotating speed was 2.85-10.91 g/s. In the combustion test, the screw feeder could feed the husks to the combustion chamber smoothly. The temperature of the combustion chamber increased as the husk feed increases. There was no significant increase in temperature in the screw feeder and no burning of husks in the screw feeder.

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