APPLICATION OF DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT TECHNIQUE FOR OPTIMISATION OF LABORATORY SCALE SODA LIME PROCESSING

Abstract

Design of experiments (DoE) is a systematic technique used to ensure the generation of valid, defensible and supportable engineering conclusions. In the DoE method, some statistical-based models can be proposed in the pre-stages of physical models. The statistical / numerical relations are used to predict the behaviour of the investigated systems as a function of various operating parameters. This paper discusses the application of DoE for analysing the influence of four processing parameters, which are hydration time (A), granules size (B), water content (C) and material bulk density (D) on the absorbency efficiency of soda lime material. The effect of these parameters on chemical activity was studied using a two level factorial design. It was found that all the soda lime preparation parameters had significant influence on the absorbency efficiency. Higher hydration time (A = 180 min) and smaller granule size (B = 1 mm) gave a positive effect on the percentage of absorbency efficiency. The presence of high water content (up to 25%) and higher bulk density (1.2 g/cm3) also produced soda lime with higher absorbency efficiency. Soda lime with the best absorbency (29%) can be obtained by combining the optimised processing parameters, which are longer hydration time, high water content, bulk density and low granule size of soda lime materials.
Keywords: Soda lime; design of experiment (DoE); absorbency efficiency; calcium oxide (CaO); carbon dioxide (CO2).

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