Eduardo Arroyo Dagobeth earns his PhD in Energy Engineering
Universidad de la Costa awarded the degree for the thesis on energy valorisation through small-scale co-gasification of pelletised rice husk and corncob, co-supervised by Daniel Otero Meza and granted the laureate distinction. It is the group's first doctoral thesis.
Eduardo Arroyo Dagobeth, deputy director of INGEBIR, defended online his doctoral thesis on energy valorisation through small-scale co-gasification of pelletised rice husk and corncob, in the PhD programme in Energy Engineering at Universidad de la Costa. The thesis, co-supervised by Daniel Otero Meza, received the laureate distinction.
Rice husk and corncob are left in large quantities after every harvest, but they are light and bulky and, when gasified as they come from the field, produce a poor gas. The thesis assessed whether turning them into pellets, alone or blended, improves syngas quality in a small-scale gasifier.
With the raw biomass, the gas reached a lower heating value of about 2.8 MJ/Nm³. With pellets it rose to between 4.0 and 4.2 MJ/Nm³, roughly 45% higher, and hydrogen went from about 7% to about 11%. Blends of the two residues gave results very close to those of each one alone, so the process can run on whichever residue is available in each season.
It is the group's first doctoral thesis. Its line of work continues at INGEBIR in the undergraduate theses on corncob biochar and co-pyrolysis of agro-industrial residues supervised by Eduardo Arroyo Dagobeth.
