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As a solid energy carrier, biomass generally has a few disadvantages, which limits its use for coal replacement and as a feedstock for entrained flow gasification. The hydrophilic and fibrous nature, the low calorific value and low bulk energy content imply high accumulated costs in the whole supply chain and severe challenges in more advanced conversion systems. By thermally pretreating the biomass by torrefaction, these properties may be significantly improved. A continuous torrefaction rotary drum reactor was designed, constructed and evaluated to enable an accurate process control and allow a homogeneous well-defined high quality product to be produced. The combined effects of torrefaction temperature (260–310 °C) and residence time (8–25 min) on a large number of product properties (> 25) were determined for Norway spruce. The resulting mass and energy yields were 46–97% and 62–99%, respectively. Exothermic reactions were evident both at low (260 °C) and high temperatures (310 °C) but with no thermal runaway observed. Increased torrefaction severity resulted in decreased milling energy consumption, angle of repose, mass and energy yield, content of volatile matter, hydrogen, cellulose and hemicellulose. Hydrophobicity, heating value, carbon and fixed carbon contents increased. For all responses, the effect of torrefaction temperature was larger than the effect of residence time. Substantial interaction effects were present for mass and energy yields, volatile matter and hydrogen content. Another correlation found was the relationship of hemicellulose degradation and the brittleness of the torrefied product. Data also suggest secondary char forming reactions during the torrefaction process, resulting in higher fixed carbon content in the torrefied material than expected. The results also suggest torrefaction temperature and residence time not to be totally interchangeable.

In this work, four different fuels were gasified in a pressurized entrained flow pilot plant gasifier at approximately 270 kW(th). The different fuels were; two torrefied wood residues, one raw wood residue and one torrefied stem wood. The system pressure and oxygen equivalence ratio (lambda) were held constant for all four gasification experiments. It was found that the torrefaction pretreatment significantly reduced the milling energy consumption for fuel size reduction, which in turn contributed to increased gasification plant efficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that the carbon conversion efficiency may be enhanced by an intermediate torrefaction pretreatment, whereas both less severe torrefaction and more severe torrefaction resulted in reduced carbon conversions. The results also indicate that the CH4 yield was significantly reduced for the most severely torrefied fuel.

Visible and near infrared imaging techniques for analysing characteristics of torrefied biomass were evaluated for possible use in future online process control. The goal of such a control system is to identify products with the desired properties and reject products outside the specification. Two pushbroom hyperspectral cameras with different wavelength regions and a commercial digital colour camera were evaluated. The hyperspectrat cameras, short wave infrared (SWIR) and visible-near infrared (VNIR), covered the ranges of 1000-2500 nm and 400-1000 nm, respectively. The biomass was produced according to an experimental design in a torrefaction pilot plant at different temperatures, residence times, and nitrogen and steam flow rates to obtain a wide range of different characteristics and qualities of torrefied material. Chemical characteristics, heating values and milling energy of the different torrefied materials were analysed or calculated using standardized procedures and were used for calibration. For the hyperspectral images, a principal-component analysis was performed on the absorbance spectra. The score plots and score images were used interactively to separate background, outlier pixels and shading effects from sample signal. Averaged spectra of individual torrefied woodchips were used. Partial least-squares regression was used to relate average spectra to heating values and chemical characteristics of the torrefied biomass. Owing to the small size of the data sets, cross-validation using leave-one-out validation was used for testing the models. The ratio of standard error of prediction to sample standard deviation (RPD) values were used for comparing the imaging techniques. For ROB images, all RPD values were 4 or lower. The RPD values for the VNIR technique were all below 5, while the SWIR images produced RPD values above 5 for eight of the 13 properties. The promising results of the SWIR technique strongly suggested that the torrefied biomass undergoes changes to chemical structures, which are not necessarily manifested as changes to the colour of the material.

The objective of the present work was to develop a techno-economic system model to evaluate how logistics and production parameters affect the torrefaction supply chain costs under Swedish conditions. The model consists of four sub-models: (1) supply system, (2) a complete energy and mass balance of drying, torrefaction and densification, (3) investment and operating costs of a green field, stand-alone torrefaction pellet plant, and (4) distribution system to the gate of an end user. The results show that the torrefaction supply chain reaps significant economies of scale up to a plant size of about 150-200 kiloton dry substance per year (kton(DS)/year), for which the total supply chain costs accounts to 31.8 euro per megawatt hour based on lower heating value ((sic)/MWLHV). Important parameters affecting total cost are amount of available biomass, biomass premium, logistics equipment, biomass moisture content, drying technology, torrefaction mass yield and torrefaction plant capital expenditures (CAPEX).

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.

The pre-treatment method torrefaction has been shown to significantly improve biomass fuel characteristics such as energy density, moisture content, milling energy, feeding and hydrophobic properties. These improvements establish torrefaction as a key process in facilitating an expanding market for biomass raw materials. Most of the previous work has focused on evaluating and optimizing the torrefaction process alone. However, to fully explore the maximum energy/exergy and cost efficiency of biomass torrefaction, the entire fuel supply chain and site specific systems must be considered; including logistics, scale and integration with other processes. The present work in progress aims to develop a model that incorporates optimization of the biomass supply chain and process integration systems together with the torrefaction process in order to avoid sub-optimization.

A compilation was made of the composition of peat from different areas in Sweden, or which a selected But was characterized anal co-combusted with forest residue ill controlled fludized-bed agglomeration tests with extensive particle sampling, The variation in ash-forming elements in the different peat samples was large; thus, eight peat samples were selected from the compilation to represent the variation in peat composition in Sweden. These samples were characterized in terms of botanical composition, analyzed for ash-forming elements, and oxidized using a low-temperature ashing procedure, followed by characterization using scanning electron microscopy/electron-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The selected peat samples had in common the presence of Et small fraction of crystalline phases, such as quartz, microcline, albite, and calcium sulfate. The controlled fluidized-bed agglomeration tests that co-combusted forest residue with peat resulted ill a significant increase it) agglomeration temperatures compared to combusting forest residue alone. Plausible explanations for this were in increase of calcium, iron, Or aluminum in the bed particle layers and/or the reaction of potassium with clay minerals, which prevented the formation of low molting bed particle layers, The effects oil particle and deposit formation during co-combustion were reduced amounts of rule particles and all increased number of coarse particles, The mechanisms for the positive effects were a transfer and/or removal of potassium ill the gas phase to it loss reactive particular form via sorption and/or it reaction with the reactive peat ash (SiO2 and CaO), which in most cases formed larger particles (> 1 mu m) containing calcium silicon and Potassium.

When producing ethanol from lignocellulosic material using hydrolysis combined with fermentation, a large amount of residue consisting of mainly lignin is generated. A significant amount of energy is retained in this residue which may be utilised as a measure for the process to become economically viable. One possibility is as fuel in a gasification process for synthesis gas production, improving the fuel yield and the overall plant efficiency. Furthermore, the pre-treatment method torrefaction has been shown to significantly improve biomass fuel characteristics such as energy density, moisture content, feeding and hydrophobic properties, as well as significantly facilitate particle size reduction. Therefore, the process chain from hydrolysis residue to synthesis gas was investigated and demonstrated in the present work through bench-scale experiments in a batch torrefaction reactor and a bubbling fluidised bed gasifier. The results from the torrefaction work confirmed the improved fuel characteristics and the effects of process variables were evaluated by factorial designed experiments. The torrefaction residence time was identified as the most influential variable. The results from reactivity tests and gasification experiments indicate that hydrolysis residue and corresponding torrefied residue are suitable for synthesis gas production, with some improved feedstock handling characteristics for the latter.