By Aminu Owonikoko
Brave future is ahead of us in the world if we can adopt the use of agricultural residues (such as corn and sorghum stovers, rice straw and wheat straw) collectively as raw materials to generate green technology. The roadmap to the green technology adoption is difficult because the second generation raw materials which are majorly agricultural residues the industry use to generate green products e.g. Combined Heat and Power (CHP), bioethanol and bio-chemicals like fertilizer are very difficult to handle especially when they are in bulk state and subjected to stress. Both my previous research investigations at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Warwick University in the UK and Wolfson Center for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, Greenwich University in the UK respectively and my current research activities at the Center for Bulk Solids and Particulates Technologies (CBSPT), University of Newcastle in Australia have identified the key parameters (such as stress-strain) that make this special material to be stubborn and troublesome during storage, transportation, feeding and conveying in the process plant.
In natural form, agricultural residues are extreme/irregular in shape and low in bulk density (that is, mass/volume relationship) which makes them to be stress phobic in nature and unable them to discharge reliably from storage under gravity (that is, under their own weight). As a result of this inherent behaviour, they require “soft/gentle” handling and not “hard” handling during processing.
SOFTH Framework has been identified, selected and developed as the potential solution to the agricultural residues handling issue. SOFTH is an acronym for: stress-strain (S), outlet dimension (O), filling procedure (F), tensile strength (T) and height of residues bed during handling (H). Furthermore, SOFTH handling approach is the certitude to tackle agricultural residues handling issue in the bio-refinery whole stream (i.e. up-stream, mid-stream and down-stream).
SOFTH framework has been identified during the research progress as an instructive platform and antidote to agricultural residues characterisation problem (such as Rat-hole and interlocking formations as depicted in figure 1 below) which can serve as enabler to produce holistic data which can be used to design reliable industrial process equipment.
