Design, Construction And Performance Evaluation Of A Furnace Using Groundnut Shell Briquettes As A Means Of Firing Process For Melting Aluminum

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                       INTRODUCTION

1.1                                               BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Heat treating is the controlled heating and cooling of a material to achieve certain mechanical properties, such as hardness, strength, flexibility, and the reduction of residual stresses. Many heat treating processes require the precise control of temperature over the heating cycle. Heat treating is used extensively in metals production, and in the tempering and annealing of glass and ceramics products. Typically, the energy used for process heating accounts for 2% to 15% of the total production cost. Thermal efficiencies can range from over 90% for condensing boilers to under 10% for small, batch operated; high temperature furnaces like heat treat furnaces. In order to improve the energy efficiency and optimize the load throughput, it’s vital to have numerical modeling capability to accurately simulate the heat treatment processes. Currently there are plenty of commercial solutions for modeling the heat transfer and material properties for a single workpiece but none of them have a furnace model for simulating the thermal profile of the entire load. A comprehensive furnace model for different kinds of furnaces is crucial to accurately simulate the temperature of the load (Onuegbu et al., 2016).

Different sources of fuel for firing process of a furnace have existed in the past with numerous limitations/disadvantages such as; there is decreasing availability of fuel wood, ever-rising prices of kerosene and gas used in furnace in Nigeria. Theuseoffuelwoodforfurnace firing processhashealthimplications especially on the operator who aredisproportionatelyexposedtothesmokeapartfromenvironmental effects. Also, Globalwarming has become an international concern. Globalwarming is caused by greenhouse gasses which carbondioxide is among the major contributors (Onuegbu et al., 2010).

Biomass, particularly agricultural residues seem to beoneofthemostpromisingenergyresourcesfordeveloping countries (Patomsok, 2018). Agro waste is the most promising energy resource fordevelopingcountrieslikeours.Thedecreasingavailability of fuel woods has necessitated that efforts bemade towards efficient utilization of agricultural wastes.These wastes have acquired considerably importance asfuelsforfurnace operationpurposes.

Biomass briquettes have been shown tohavethehighestpotentialforuseassuitablealternative to coal/ fuel wood in industrial furnace operation. It was shownthat increased emissions of CO2 have been drasticallyreduced owing to the fact that the rate of deforestation ishigher thantheafforestationeffortinthecountry(Onuegbu et al., 2016).

1.2                                                         STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The decreasing availability of fuel wood, coupled withthe ever-rising prices of kerosene and gas inNigeria,drawattentiontotheneedtoconsideralternative sources of energy used in furnace for firing process. Such energy sourcesshould be renewable and should be accessible to poor. Atransitiontoasustainableenergysystemisurgentlyneeded in the developing countries such as Nigeria. Thisshould,ofnecessity,becharacterizedbyadeparturefrom the present subsistence level energy usage levelsbased on decreasing firewood resources, to a situationwhere human and farming activities would be based onsustainableanddiversifiedenergyforms (Akinyosoye, 2013). In this case a biomass, particularly agricultural residues seem to beoneofthemostpromisingenergyresourcesfordeveloping countries (Patomsok, 2018). Groundnut shell is used as the source of energy or that meets those requirements. The groundnut shell briquettes is used as a means of firing process for melting aluminium which overcomes the problems of using fuel wood and ever-rising prices of kerosene and gas inNigeria faced by early designed furnace.

1.3                                        AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The main aim of this study is to design and carry out a performance evaluation of a furnace using groundnut shell briquettes as a means of firing process for melting aluminum. The objectives of the study are:

1. To carry out a performance evaluation of a furnace when groundnut shell briquettes is used as source of fuel for firing process.
2. To study how groundnut shell briquettes is been carried out.

• To study the advantages of using groundnut shell briquettes over other sources of furnace fuel.

1. To investigate the effect of the use of groundnutshell ontheproperties of coalbriquettes.

1.4                                         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

This furnace is apply to the heat treatment which requires high temperature accuracy and high-grade atmosphere such as oxidization, reduction, degreasing, carbonization and baking for functional materials of the electrode material, the magnetic material and the fluorescent substance. Using groundnut shell briquettesas the source of heat will serve as means of reducing emissions of CO2. This study will also serve as a means of reducing the cost of operating furnace.

1.5                                                 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The scope of this work covers building and carrying out a performance evaluation of a furnace that uses  groundnut shell briquettes as a means of firing process for melting aluminum. In this research work, briquettes of groundnut shell were produced. The different briquette of groundnutshell was produced by bending.

1.6                                        PROJECT WORK ORGANISATION

The various stages involved in the development of this project have been properly put into five chapters to enhance comprehensive and concise reading. In this project thesis, the project is organized sequentially as follows:

Chapter one of this work is on the introduction to this work. In this chapter, the background, significance, objective limitation and problem of this work were discussed.

Chapter two is on literature review of this work. In this chapter, all the literature pertaining to this work was reviewed.

Chapter three is on design methodology. In this chapter all the method involved during the design and construction were discussed.

Chapter four is on testing analysis. All testing that result accurate functionality was analyzed.

Chapter five is on conclusion, recommendation and references.