Overview
Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.
Bagasse is what remains of sugar cane after the cane has been milled and the sugars have been extracted. It is an important biocommodity for Queensland and it used to generate 'environmentally clean' electricity. Bagasse is stored in huge stockpiles, of up to 80,000 tonnes per stockpile, which regularly self combust causing safety concerns for workers, environmental damage and the loss of a useful resource. At the heart of this combustion is the evaporation and condensation of liquid water which forms as a thin film on the surface of individual bagasse elements.
In this project we will develop a mathematical model for this evaporation and condensation process. Analytic and numerical methods will be used to solve this model and the results of the model will be validated against available evaporation and condensation data collected at QUT at the bagasse element scale. This project is motivated by a current industrial research collaboration with the Australian sugar industry and students working on this project will have the opportunity to interact with a team of researchers at QUT as well as industrial partners from the sugar industry.
- Study level
- Honours
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Science and Engineering Faculty
- Research area
- Contact
- Please contact the supervisor.
Associate Professor Troy Farrell
