Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Exhibit Hall
An approach to enhance the utilization of biomass depends on an applicable raw materials preparation. Direct use of biomass from agricultural residues as fuel is usually difficult because they have poor energy characteristics e.g. high moisture content, low density and irregular size. Pelletizing is one such an important process in support of capability of energy production including storage and transportation. The present study aims to characterize pertinent physical properties of pellets from five different agricultural residues i.e. eucalyptus bark, rice straw, corn cob, corn stalk and cassava rhizome. Physical characterization includes bulk density, durability index, angle of repose, space demand and moisture content. The results showed that pellets made from corn cob and from cassava rhizome had the highest (682 kg/m3) and lowest (552 kg/m3) bulk density, respectively. The pellet from corn stalk had the highest durability of 98.1%, the one from eucalyptus bark had the lowest durability of 93.3%. The ranges of the angle of repose and the space demand of the pellets were 30.6-36.3° and 0.9-1.0 m3/ton, respectively. The range of moisture content of all pellets was 10-12% wb which was not fall within the fuel grade requirements from Pellet Fuels Institute Standards.