Title:
Particle Properties and Feeding Characteristics of Biomass Powders
Author(s):
Falk, J., Larsson, S.H., Broström, M.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
Milling of biomass is a necessary step in the use of fuel powders and also in fuel pre-treatment. Milled biomass powders are often cohesive, have low bulk density and have poor flowability leading to costly problems in fuel handling. In this study, two different milling methods (knife mill and hammer mill) and four different biomass powders (Norway spruce, torrefied Norway spruce, charcoal and reed canary grass) were tested in order to find correlations between particle properties and feeding characteristics. The powders were analyzed for size distribution using both mechanical and optical sieveless particle size analysis. Loose and tapped bulk densities were measured to calculate the Hausner ratio, an indicator of flowability. The different powders were tested for feeding characteristics in a screw feeder at constant rpm. Hammer milling produced powders with more fines and lower densities than knife milling. Feeding performance varied between materials with two materials better when hammer milled and two better when knife milled. However, hammer milled materials had better initial feeding stability. Due to large differences in bulk density there was a large difference in feeding rates. Also, two fuels showed good agreement with the theoretical feeding rate when assuming feeding at loose bulk density while the other two showed better agreement with a flow calculated at tapped bulk density indicating different packing behaviors.
Keywords:
charcoal, feeding systems, reed canary grass, torrefaction, wood
Topic:
R&D on Biomass Conversion Technologies for Heating, Electricity and Chemicals
Subtopic:
Solid biofuel combustion for small and medium scale applications
Event:
21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
2DV.3.38
Pages:
1160 - 1163
ISBN:
978-88-89407-53-0
Paper DOI:
10.5071/21stEUBCE2013-2DV.3.38
Price:
FREE
