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Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 1109 – 1115

The 8th International Conference on Applied Energy – ICAE2016

Mechanism Study of Waste Heat Recovery from Slurry by

Surface Scraped Heat Exchanger
Jingjing Chena, Chuanyan Maa, Xiaoyan Jib, Xiaohua Lua, Changsong Wanga**
a
State Key Laboratory of Material-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, P. R. China 210009
b
Division of Energy Science, Luleå University of Technology, 97187, Luleå, Sweden

Abstract

Waste-heat recovery from discharged slurries can improve the net raw biogas production in bio-
methane process in order to meet the demand of a new generation of anaerobic digestion. In order to
achieve a high efficient waste-heat recovery, in this work, a mathematical model of waste-heat recovery
process with surface scraped heat exchanger (SSHE) was proposed with the consideration of the shear
rate and temperature-dependent rheological behaviour. The convective heat transfer performance of
SSHE was calculated numerically where slurry was considered. The contribution of waste heat recovery
from the slurry to biogas production by SSHE and general shell-and-tube heat exchanger (STHE) were
firstly calculated quantitatively, and the increase of net raw biogas production could be over 13.5% by
SSHE with need of heat exchange area less than a quarter of STHE’s, which showed a great potential to
increase the net raw biogas production in bio-methane process with low equipment investments and more
compactible structure.

Keywords: biogas production; scraped surface heat exchanger; CFD; waste heat recovery; slurry

1. Introduction

With increasing demand of renewable energy and environmental protection, anaerobic digestion (AD)
to produce biogas has attracted more attention. The main goal of the new generation AD is to enhance the
methane production [1]. It has been reported that the rate of biogas production can increase 41-144% by
thermophilic fermentation [2], but there is a high demand of reaction heat accounting for 70-80% of the
total energy utilization [3]. For the bio-methane processes especially those without any thermogenesis
such as cogeneration process, it is hard to integrate other heating systems and very common to provide
process heat from the burning the produced biogas. As a result, it is crucial to use the waste-heat
effectively in order to decrease the amount of the burnt biogas and then improve the net raw biogas

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-139-5189-7581; fax: +0086(25)-83588063.

E-mail address: wcs@njtech.edu.cn.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 8th International Conference on Applied Energy.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.474
1110 Jingjing Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 1109 – 1115

production (NRBP). And considerable energy could be recovered with feed preheated by effluent slurries
[4, 5]. But the quantitative contribution of waste heat recovery process from slurries to NRBP was unclear.
In order to enhance the waste-heat utilization, a heat exchanger is generally used with an external
heating process for AD system. The heat transfer efficiency of such external heating is relatively high
compared to the internal heating (heat exchange coil). Heat exchangers and the corresponding external
circulation units have been designed for the full-scale biogas plants. However, the fouling, blocking and
low efficiency as well as the high investment-cost for the heat exchanger still remain the problems duo to
that the conventional heat transfer cannot fulfil the requirements of the AD slurry with special properties
[6]. The viscosity, or more exactly so-called the rheological properties, of AD slurries can be very
different compared to the normal working fluids. The viscosity of slurries depends on not only
temperature but also shear rate, which can be 30-700 times higher than the viscosity of water at
temperatures from 8 to 60 qC when the total solid (TS) of slurries is over 7% [7]. Therefore, special
consideration needs to be considered in order to design or improve the heat-transfer systems for such
special complex rheological slurries with high potential of fouling.
Surface scraped heat exchanger (SSHE) have been widely used to conduct the heat exchange for the
fluid with high apparent viscosity and fouling problem in pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries
[8]. The SSHE consists of two coaxial cylinders with different diameters, between which the heat transfer
medium flows, and a rotating shaft with two or more blades is set inside the internal cylinder. The
rotation of the blades overcomes or weakens the fouling problems and enhances the mixing of flows from
the boundary layer with those in the bulk in the internal cylinder, resulting in an efficient convective heat
transfer. The mechanisms of the flow and heat transfer in SSHE were first presented by Trommmelen [9],
and then the experimental studies were carried out to find correlations of Nusselt number (Nu) and Taylor
number (Ta), Reynolds number (Re) and Prandtl number (Pr) [10-12]. Meanwhile, numerical methods
were applied to understand in detail the effect of the geometry and flow pattern on the heat transfer in
SSHE [13-15] with “model” fluids. However, to the best of our knowledge, the SSHE models have never
been applied to study the waste-heat recovery from slurry with complex rheological properties.
In the current work, the heat transfer of slurries with different TS in SSHE was studied numerically for
the first time. The modelling results will be used to calculate the contribution of waste heat recovery
process from slurries to NRBP and illustrate the potential of using SSHE to increase the NRBP.

Nomenclature

ᇞTm logarithmic mean temperature difference, qC
ᇞcHCH4 combustion heat of methane, 890.3 kJ/mol

2. Properties and Numerical methods

2.1. Physical properties of manure slurries

In this work, animal manure was considered as a typical example of slurry due to the available
rheological properties as well as other properties including density, specific heat and thermal conductivity
[7, 16].

2.2. Mathematical model

A finite thermal resistance was considered when modelling the heat transfer inside the tube wall. The
governing equations were solved including continuity, momentum and energy equation with the gravity
 Jingjing Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 1109 – 1115 1111

considered. In modelling conducted in this work, the following assumptions were made: the fluid flow
was incompressible; the specific heat and the thermal conductivity were independent with temperature
due to the narrow range of temperatures studied (8-55 qC).
The SSHE selected in this work was modelled with the similar method proposed by Mourad
Yataghene et al. [15]. The geometrical characteristics are shown in Fig. 1. The boundary and initial
conditions were selected as shown in Fig. 1. (a) in order to solve the governing equations. The inlet
conditions were in temperature of 55 qC. Since only internal convective heat transfer performance Ki was
considered, the heat transfer surface was set to be a thermostatic wall with a temperature of 15 qC. The
scraping blades rotate with rotating shaft in the central line of SSHE was set to be in the range of 60-300
rounds per minute (RPM) which is low enough to make sure that the Ta [14]was below 40. Therefore, the
flow inside SSHE can be described by the laminar model.
a. b. c.

Fig. 1. (a) 3D representation of the computational domain of SSHE and boundary conditions for numerical
computation; (b) Computational mesh of cross section; (c) Mesh details near the clearance between blades and stator

The CFD simulation of SSHE was conducted with ANASYS 12.0. To carry out the simulations, the
pressure-based model, the segregated algorithm, the second order upwind discretization scheme for
solving the momentum and energy equations, the standard scheme for the pressure correction equation
and the SIMPLE algorithm were selected in Fluent.
The selected model of SSHE was rebuilt with a suitable tetrahedral grid. The sensitivity of simulation
results to mesh density (tetrahedral grid) was detected with five different volumes (1, 4, 8, 15, 30 million).
As a result, the case with 8 million volumes of mesh was selected considering both the computational
complexity and the accuracy, of which the mesh of cross section was shown in Fig. 1. (b). In addition, the
mesh details near the clearance between blades and stator were shown in Fig. 1. (c).

2.3. Validation of SSHE models

The model results were validated with the experiments conducted in the previous work [15]. As shown
in Table 1, the average error of the internal convective heat transfer coefficient Ki between the numerical
results calculated in this work and the experimental results by others is 9.1% with a maximum value of
16%, indicating the numerical methods used in this work were accurate enough for engineering
calculations.
Tab.1 Validation of model with previous studies.

Ki (W·m-2·K-1)
RPM Error
Experiment[15] This Work
180 198.0210 229.4457 0.16
360 303.0126 328.4322 0.084
600 368.7654 379.5639 0.029

2.4. Waste heat recovery from slurry in biogas plant

1112 Jingjing Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 1109 – 1115

The waste heat recovery process (WHRP) adopted by Sunderland Dairy Digester System (SDDS) [17]
and biogas plant in Boden and Borås of Sweden [18] was selected to compare the results of WHRP by
SSHE with a heat exchange area A of 10 m2 and general shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHEs) with A
of 10 m2 and 45m2 as shown in Fig. 2. Here, thermophilic fermentation (55qC) process in Boden with a
volume of 1300m3 and a gas production rate of 2.32 m3/m3·day was selected. Accordingly, the mass flow
rates of slurry Qw were in range of 3 to 6 kg/s (Reg˘2600 in both SSHE and STHE) considering both
proper operation time (3-6 h/day) and flow rate for easy fouling fluid in STHE. And the increased ratio of
NRBP (δNRBP) was calculated by equation 1 and 2 in order to quantitatively describe the result of WHRP.
Additionally, the CHTP of STHE with flow of TS7.5% slurry (pig and cattle manure mainly) was
measured. And the average values of Nu (the experiment was repeated at least 3 times with a deviation
less than 5% for each point of Nu) were correlated with Reg [19] as equation 3.
Ki A'Tm /  65%' c H CH 4 
G NRBP
VCH 4 (1)
q Ki A'Tm c pQw Ts ,in  Ts ,out 
 (2)
Nu 2.784Reg0.3933 , R 2 0.984
(3)

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of WHRP from slurries in biogas plant

3. Results and discussion

10 1000
TS 7.5% Ki=1209.447Q0.327 , R2=0.998
1000 w
Papp-avg(kg·m-1·s-1)

5
TS 9.1%
TS 7.5% 800
Ki(W·m-2·K-1)

TS 12.1%
Ki(W/m2·K)

800
TS 7.5%, Qw=0.43 kg/s
1 TS 9.1% 600
600 TS 7.5%
0.5 TS 12.1% Fitted curve of TS 7.5%
400 400
TS 9.1%
TS 12.1%
0.1 200 200
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0 100 200 300 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Qw(kg/s) RPM Qw(kg/s)

Fig. 3. Average apparent viscosity μapp- Fig. 4. Effect of rotor speed (RPM) to Fig. 5. Effect of influent mass flow Qw
avg of slurries with different total convective heat-transfer coefficient Ki to convective heat-transfer coefficient
solid(TS) in SSHE inside the SSHE at Qw=0.017kg/s Ki inside the SSHE at RPM=60

As shown in Fig. 3, with increasing influent mass flow Qw, the slurries’ apparent viscosity decreased
due to the high shear rate at high speed, and then it decreased slightly with a trend to reach stable values
when the Qw was over 0.4 kg/s. This indicates that a lower limit operational condition for Qw should be
 Jingjing Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 1109 – 1115 1113

considered for the corresponding geometry of SSHE in order to reduce the heat-transfer resistance from
the high viscosity as much as possible.
The convective heat transfer performance (CHTP) for the slurries inside the SSHE was calculated. The
results are shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The influent mass flow rate is a much more positive impact on the heat
transfer coefficient Ki compared to the rotor speed (Fig. 4). Because of this, a relatively low rotor speed
(RPM = 60) was selected to decrease the mechanical power requirements. And as shown in Fig. 5, it was
found that based on the calculated Ki at different Qw, equation 4 can be used to correlate these two
parameters for the case of TS = 7.5% which is generally used in biogas plant.
Ki =1209.44Qw0.327 (4)

For SSHE, the δNRBP could be over 11%, 12%, 13.5% in summer, spring (autumn) and winter as shown
in Fig. 6. a, b and c respectively. Meanwhile, the WHRP with SSHE could be further integrated with
WHRP from upgrading system in biogas plant [20], by which the total δNRBP could reach to range of
18.8% to 30.9% duo to different grade of waste heat. But with the same A=10 m 2, the WHRP of STHE
couldn’t be conducted with δNRBP close to 0 duo to relatively low CHTP (Ki=308-460 W/m2·K).
The results of WHRP were significantly influenced by flow rate of slurry Qw and the operation
conditions of shell pass which can be defined as grade of the recovered heat Tw,out and temperature of heat
transfer medium Tw,in in different seasons. As shown in Fig. 6, the Tw,out had more impact on δNRBP at low
flow rate inside the slurry pass, and to get relatively higher grade of the recovered heat (Tw,out=45 qC) at
Qw=3 kg/s, the δNRBP of process with SSHE decreased to 8.7%, 9.5% and 11.2% in summer,
spring(autumn) and winter respectively, which were still considerable value for the process.
While the A of STHE reached to 45 m2, as shown in Fig. 6, the maximum δNRBP could only reach to
75% of the level of SSHE. As a result, SSHE was much more compactible and might has an advantage in
equipment investment in WHRP from slurry. In addition, the mean mechanical power P of the rotor
inSSHE at RPM=60 was negligible compared with recovered heat according to the literature [21].

Fig. 6. Effect of influent mass flow Qw and conditions of shell pass to the increased ratio of NRBP δNRBP in WHRP with
SSHE (A=10 m2ˈRPM=60) and STHE (A=45 m2), (a) Summer, Tw,in= 20 qC; (b) Spring or autumn, Tw,in= 15 qC; (c)
Winter, Tw,in= 5 qC

4. 4. Conclusions

In this work, a mathematical model of SSHE was proposed based on the previous work and validated
with enough accuracy for engineering calculations. With the SSHE, it was found that over 11%, 12%,
13.5% increase of net row biogas production in summer, spring (autumn) and winter could be achieved
by the waste-heat recovery from slurries with compactible structure, relatively very few import of
mechanical power and potential advantage of lowering the investment of heat exchangers.

Acknowledgements
1114 Jingjing Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 1109 – 1115

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB733501), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21136004, No. 21476106), and the Project of Priority
Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD)

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Biography
Changsong Wang
Associate Professor
His interest is focused on applied thermodynamics, modelling and simulation of
industrial process operations;