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Torrefaction is a treatment which serves to improve the properties of biomass in relation to thermochemical processing techniques for energy generation; for example, combustion, co-combustion with coal or gasification. The topic has gathered interest in the past two decades but further understanding is required for optimisation of the process thus enhancing economic efficiency, which is crucial to...
Straw, sawdust and other herbaceous crops benefit from pelletisation, as the process increases the materials bulk density therefore reducing transportation and storage costs; providing better material feeding with less dust formation. This study investigated a pressure pelletisation method of switchgrass for five types of material preparation: raw cut switchgrass, raw shredded switchgrass, torrefied...
Torrefaction is a way to treat biomass before transportation or thermochemical conversion. It can be used to increase the energy content of wood or to facilitate grinding. The purpose of this paper was to quantify the impact of such a treatment on the behaviour of wood during gasification by steam at high temperature to produce syngas. The aspects of both gas yields and reaction kinetics were considered...
The process of torrefaction alters the physical properties of biomass, reducing its fibrous tenacious nature. This could allow increased rates of co-milling and therefore co-firing in coal fired power stations, which in turn would enable a reduction in the amount of coal used and an increase in the use of sustainable fuels, without the need for additional plant. This paper presents an experimental...
This paper describes the effect of torrefaction on the basic characteristics of agricultural biomass wastes in Malaysia, such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), mesocarp fiber and kernel shell as a potential source of solid fuel. Mesocarp fiber and kernel shell exhibited excellent energy yield values higher than 95%. EFB, on the other hand, exhibited a rather poor yield of 56%.
Biomass is a primary source of renewable carbon that can be utilized as a feedstock for biofuels or biochemicals production in order to achieve energy independence. The low bulk density, high moisture content, degradation during storage and low energy density of raw lignocellulosic biomass are all significant challenges in supplying agricultural residues as a cellulosic feedstock. Torrefaction is...
The injection of biomass in a pressurised entrained flow reactor is challenging. Biomass preparation by torrefaction before gasification could be a suitable option to improve it. Transformation of the material induced by this treatment lead to interesting features: increased brittleness, improved fluidisation properties of the powder, hydrophobicity, higher energy content. The major biomass constituents,...
This experiment proposes a methodology to study the fluidization properties of torrefied biomass. The need for the experiment was highlighted by the impossibility of predicting the behaviour of amorphous, multi-dimensional biomass particles, despite the existence of the kinetic theory of granular flows related to fluidization. The tests were carried out in a cold flow fluidization bed chamber with...
Torrefaction of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), waste products from the palm oil industry, was carried out in a fixed-bed tubular reactor in the presence of oxygen at concentrations ranging from 0% to 15%. The effects of oxygen concentration (0%, 3%, 9% and 15%), temperature (493, 523 and 573K) and biomass size (0.375, 1.5, 3 and 6mm) on the torrefaction mass and energy yields were investigated...
Torrefaction of woody biomass as a thermal pretreatment to increase biomass energy density is prerequisite to many thermochemical conversions. An ionic-liquid (IL) biomass torrefaction route was proposed and investigated as an alternative to conventional dry and wet torrefaction for enhancing the rate of biomass torrefaction and for potentially improving the quality of torrefied solid products. Ionic...
This paper investigates the effect of thermal pretreatment temperatures between 200 and 370°C on the yield and composition of products (bio-charm gasm water and organics) obtained when Douglas-fir wood was subsequently pyrolyzed in an auger reactor at 500°C. The yield of products was reported for the pretreatment and pyrolysis steps separately, and for the two steps added. The maximum yield of bio-oils...
Torrefaction describes a thermal treatment of biomass in order to obtain a solid product with more or less coal-like properties. Therefore a mild pyrolysis in an oxygen-free atmosphere is applied. In this work beechwood was used as feedstock because of its consistent quality in commercially available chips. A parametric study was conducted with a continuously working, indirectly heated reactor having...
The grindability of torrefied biomass materials is a difficult parameter to evaluate due to its inhomogeneous character and non-uniform morphology. However, it is necessary to develop a grinding test that is representative of the wide ranging character of biomass and torrefied biomass materials. Previous research has shown that Resistance to Impact Milling (RIM) can be linearly correlated to thermally...
Torrefaction and densification of British Columbia (BC) softwoods, including pine, fir, spruce, SPF (a mixture of spruce, pine and fir) and pine bark, have been conducted for the production of high quality torrefied wood pellets. A bench-scale fixed bed tubular reactor was used for the torrefaction test at temperatures of 240–340°C. Densification was conducted in a press machine in order to identify...
Torrefaction has been shown to be a viable pre-treatment process for thermally upgrading biomass and making it better suited for use as a fuel. Results are presented here from the torrefaction of two different woody biomass (Mesquite and Juniper) using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Samples were torrefied in two different mediums (Nitrogen and Carbon-dioxide) to investigate the impact of inert...
A novel combination of biomass torrefaction and CO 2 sequestration was explored in which carbonation of mining residues was conducted near ambient temperatures. We report that CO 2 as one of the main gases evolved during torrefaction of lignocellulosic biomass can be trapped using cheap, abundant and already size-reduced mining residues resulting in a carbon-negative torrefaction process...
The gasification performances of three biomass materials, including raw bamboo, torrefied bamboo at 250°C (TB250), and torrefied bamboo at 300°C (TB300), in a downdraft fixed bed gasifier are evaluated through thermodynamic analysis. Two parameters of modified equivalence ratio (ER m ) and steam supply ratio (SSR) are considered to account for their impacts on biomass gasification. The cold...
Miscanthus×giganteus (M×G) was torrefied to improve its thermal and physical properties prior to thermal conversion. Torrefaction was undertaken at a series of temperatures from 230 to 290°C for residence times varying from 10 to 30min and the product biomass was characterized in terms of it is suitability as a feedstock for gasification. The properties of the torrefied M×G were improved following...
Microwave irradiation was used in this study for the torrefaction of wheat and barley straw. The torrefaction effect was studied by varying the microwave power level (200–300W), reaction time (10–20min) and moisture content of biomass (5–15%). Mass yield and energy yield of the torrefied biomass was determined. Fuel properties like H/C and O/C ratio were assessed from elemental composition. Grinding...
Torrefaction is currently of interest for the production of a new generation of fuel pellets suitable for increasing co-firing rates at pulverised-coal power plants. However, few results have been reported on properties of pellets which can currently be produced from torrefied materials. This data is required in order to evaluate the suitability of this fuel for its primary application.The objective...
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