Effect of main characteristics of pelletized renewable energy resources on combustion characteristics and heat energy production

A more effective utilization of different renewable energy resources for cleaner and more effective heat energy production is provided by presenting a complex experimental research and comparison of the chemical composition and combustion characteristics for different types of pelletized biomass fuels. Biomass pellets are produced from wood biomass (spruce sawdust), herbaceous biomass (reed canary grass), and their binary mixtures under previously tested different pelletization regimes. The densification of herbaceous biomass with an addition of woody biomass (spruce sawdust) improved the combustion characteristics of the densified herbaceous biomass, providing a faster thermal decomposition of biomass pellets with the increase of the average mass loss rate from 0.125-0.130 g/sec for densified reed canary grass to 0.142-0.144 g/sec for the mixture of reed canary grass and woody spruce (50/50). The addition of woody biomass ensured a more complete combustion of volatiles and decreased the average mass fraction of polluting emissions (CO, NO_x) in the products. The densified biomass mixture of reed canary grass and spruce sawdust (50/50) had a lower ash content, a higher heating value, an increased heat production rate, and total amount of energy in comparison with herbaceous biomass. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the CHISA 2012 - 20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering and PRES 2012 - 15th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction (Prague, Czech Republic 8/25-29/2012).