Analysis of Ash Content on Bagasse Drying Agent and the Effect on Combustion at Sugarcane Mill

The sugarcane mill is an industry that processes sugarcane into sugar. Bagasse is a by-product of this process. Bagasse can be used as a solid fuel. Drying bagasse at the first of any processes is essential to reduce the moisture content. The highest moisture content reduction is achieved using higher mass and flue gas temperature. Flue gas can be used as a drying agent and will give an advantage to the mill with attention to the combustion process to handle the distribution of ash content on flue gas. As a drying agent, flue gas makes ash content from the flue gas component trapped at the bagasse feed. The high amount of ash content at bagasse makes the combustion efficiency decrease. This study is focused on discussing the ash production of flue gas and their effect as a drying agent on the bagasse combustion efficiency in sugarcane mills. The answer for the problem is solved by makes a simulation of the energy-generating plant using the software Aspen Plus. The condition of the plant is set with 1000 kg/h bagasse and 50 wt.% dried until 10 wt.% moisture content with one point two equivalence ratio. The result of this works is the decrease of combustion efficiency was reported at around 0.57% per hour periodically.