Optimization of rice straw pretreatment using hot water for energy generation

Abstract

Using rice straw for combustion in boilers has been quite effective and productive despite the drawbacks created by the ash content, which causes a range of severe ash related problems upon combustion such as slag formation, fouling, sintering and agglomeration. Here, hot water pretreatment of rice straw for ash removal has been studied using response surface methodology (RSM) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) by varying temperature, washing time and water-tobiomass ratio as independent variables. After generating a mathematical model, operating conditions were optimized and the effect of water washing on the calorific value of rice straw was investigated.