Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Effects of moisture content, torrefaction temperature, and die temperature in pilot scale pelletizing of torrefied Norway spruce
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Unit of Biomass Technology and Chemistry.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Unit of Biomass Technology and Chemistry.
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Energy Technology and Thermal Process Chemistry. (Anders Nordin)
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Energy Technology and Thermal Process Chemistry. (Anders Nordin)
Show others and affiliations
2013 (English)In: Applied Energy, ISSN 0306-2619, E-ISSN 1872-9118, Vol. 102, p. 827-832Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Pilot scale pelletizing of torrefied Norway spruce was performed in a factorial design with controlled factors at two levels: material moisture content (11% and 15%) and torrefaction temperature (270 and 300 °C), and die temperature as an uncontrolled factor (60–105 °C). Compared to commercial wood pellets, produced pellets had comparable bulk densities (630–710 kg/m3) but lower pellet durability (80–90%). Energy consumption for pelletizing of torrefied materials was approximately 100% higher than for softwood pelletizing, despite using a much shorter die channel length (35 vs. 55 mm:s), and the amounts of fines were high (10–30%). Die temperature showed a strong positive correlation with pellet production rate. Material moisture content had little influence on pellet quality and production rate, but addition of water created handling problems due to bad flow behavior.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 102, p. 827-832
Keywords [en]
Torrefied biomass, Pellet quality, Energy consumption, Bulk density, Bulk density, Compaction
National Category
Energy Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-62289DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.08.046ISI: 000314624200008Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84870753624OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-62289DiVA, id: diva2:577101
Available from: 2012-12-14 Created: 2012-12-14 Last updated: 2023-03-23Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. From torrefaction to gasification: Pilot scale studies for upgrading of biomass
Open this publication in new window or tab >>From torrefaction to gasification: Pilot scale studies for upgrading of biomass
2015 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[sv]
Från torrefiering till förgasning : Experiment i pilotskala för förädling av biomassa
Abstract [en]

Increasing the share of biomass, preferably by replacing fossil fuels, is one way to mitigate the present climate change. Fossil coal can be directly replaced by co-combustion of coal and biomass and fossil engine fuels (gasoline and diesel) could potentially partly be replaced by synthetic renewable fuels produced via entrained flow gasification of biomass. The use of biomass in these processes is so far limited, partly because of the fibrous and hygroscopic nature of biomass which leads to problem in storing, transportation, handling and feeding.

This thesis demonstrates how the challenging characteristics of raw biomass are mitigated by the pretreatment method torrefaction. Torrefaction is a process where biomass is heated in an oxygen deficient atmosphere to typically between 240 and 350°C for a time period of 2 minutes to 1 hour. Most of the torrefaction R&D in the literature have so far been performed with bench-scale batch reactors. For the purpose of carefully studying continuous torrefaction, a 20 kg/h torrefaction pilot plant was therefore designed, constructed and evaluated.

The overall conclusion from this thesis is that the many benefits of torrefied biomass are valid also when produced with a continuous pilot plant and for typically Swedish forest biomasses. Some of the documented improved biomass properties are increased heating value, increased energy density, higher friability (lower milling energy) and less hydrophilic biomass (less moisture uptake). Most of the improvements can be attributed to the decomposition of hemicellulose and cellulose during torrefaction.

The most common variables for describing the torrefaction degree are mass yield or anhydrous weight loss but both are challenging to determine for continuous processes. We therefore evaluated three different methods (one existing and two new suggestions) to determine degree of torrefaction that not require measurement of mass loss. The degree of torrefaction based on analyzed higher heating value of the raw and torrefied biomass (DTFHHV) predicted mass yield most accurate and had lowest combined uncertainty.

Pelletizing biomass enhance transportation and handling but results from pelletization of torrefied biomass is still very limited in the literature and mainly reported from single pellet presses. A pelletization study of torrefied spruce with a ring die in pilot scale was therefore performed. The bulk energy density was found to be 14.6 GJ/m3 for pelletized torrefied spruce (mass yield 75%), a 40% increase compared to regular white pellets and therefore are torrefied pellets more favorable for long distance transports. More optimization of the torrefied biomass and the pelletization process is though needed for acquiring industrial quality pellets with lower amount of fines and higher pellet durability than attained in the present study.

Powders from milled raw biomass are generally problematic for feeding and handling and torrefied biomass has been proposed to mitigate these issues. The influence of torrefaction and pelletization on powder and particle properties after milling was therefore studied. The results show that powder from torrefied biomass were enhanced with higher bulk densities, lower angle of repose as well as smaller less elongated particles with less surface roughness. Even higher powder qualities were achieved by pelletizing the torrefied biomass before milling, i.e. another reason for commercial torrefied biomass to be pelletized.

Entrained flow gasification (EFG) is a promising option for conversion of biomass to other more convenient renewable energy carriers such as electricity, liquid biofuels and green petrochemicals. Also for EFGs are torrefied fuels very limited studied. Raw and torrefied logging residues were successfully gasified in a pilot scale pressurized entrained flow biomass gasifier at 2 bar(a) with a fuel feed corresponding to 270 kWth. Significantly lower methane content (50% decrease) in the syngas was also demonstrated for the torrefied fuel with mass yield 49%. The low milling energy consumption for the torrefied fuels compared to the raw fuel was beneficial for the gasification plant efficiency.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2015. p. 58
Keywords
Torrefaction, biomass, pilot scale, continuous reactor, grindability, entrained flow gasification, degree of torrefaction, biomass powder
National Category
Chemical Process Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-103046 (URN)978-91-7601-287-1 (ISBN)
Public defence
2015-06-10, N450, Naturvetarhuset, Umeå universitet, Umeå, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2015-05-20 Created: 2015-05-18 Last updated: 2018-06-07Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Nordwaeger, MartinOlofsson, Ingemar

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Nordwaeger, MartinOlofsson, Ingemar
By organisation
Energy Technology and Thermal Process Chemistry
In the same journal
Applied Energy
Energy Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 776 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf