Effect of the particle size argan nut shell (ANS) biomass on combustion parameters in stirling engine in Morocco

Abstract

Morocco is the only country in the world rich on argan tree and reject about 60.000 tons per year of Argan nut shell (agricultural waste of argan tree) which can lead to damage the environment especially water table. In order to resolve this problem, and because this agricultural waste has a significant value of high heat value, this project aims to valorize this natural resource by using it as combustible to produce heat and empower the heater of Stirling engine to generate electricity without impacting environment. A second objective of this project is to validate a numerical CFD models basing on previous experience. For this end, this project Investigate the size effect of argan nut shell on the combustion parameters in a 3 d furnace chamber. The ANS particle are injected through a hole perpendicularly to the air inlet. Two sizes of particles are selected in this study (S1, S2). The numerical approach is based on Reynold average Navier Stokes (RANS) method the Realizable k-ϵ to model the turbulence, a non-premixed model is used for gas phase, and Lagrangien approach to model the discrete second phase. For the two cases, the distribution of temperature, CO2, CO, NOx gas emissions are obtained and the results demonstrate that the small particle size (S2) is optimal and more suitable for combustion.