ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Performance of an Intelligent Biomass Fuel
Burner as an Alternative to Coal-Fired Heating
for Tobacco Curing
More details
Hide details
1
College of Tobacco Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450002, China
2
China National Tobacco Corporation Henan Provincial Company, Zhengzhou, Henan 450046, China
3
Xuchang Tobacco Company, Xuchang, Henan 461000, China
Submission date: 2020-02-12
Final revision date: 2020-05-02
Acceptance date: 2020-05-07
Online publication date: 2020-09-07
Publication date: 2020-10-05
Corresponding author
Jian-An Wang
College of Tobacco Science, Henan Agricultural University, NO. 95, Wenhua road, 450002, Zhengzhou, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(1):131-140
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
As an alternative to fossil fuels, biomass burning represents a feasible way of greening the tobacco
flue-curing-drying process, especially when it is self-produced. In this work, a biomass briquette fuel
(BBF) burner used for flue-curing tobacco was designed and assembled using modern and mature
electromechanical technologies, while also making use of its own structure to prevent high-temperature
damage to the photoelectric elements during fuel combustion, and deploying an intelligent tobacco
controller (ITC) to ensure orderly heating. A comparison between this new burner and a traditional
coal-fired heating furnace revealed that when ITC was in operation, the BBF could meet the heating
needs for tobacco curing, and the temperature difference between the target and the actual dry-bulb
temperature (DBT) in the bulk curing barn was well controlled within a range of ±0.5ºC. Additionally,
the BBF burner fully used the biomass briquette and reduced the cost per kilogram of dry leaf curing.
Furthermore, non-manual management heating modes could be realized during firing. Considering that
the structure of the new device is similar to gas or oil burners, in terms of heating via connecting
sockets, it can also potentially be used in small-scale boilers if the ITC programming chip is changed.