Autoclave pre-treatment of foliage – Effects of temperature, residence time and water content on solid biofuel properties

Tim Kulbeik, Marvin Scherzinger, Isabel Höfer and Martin Kaltschmitt

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 171, issue C, 275-286

Abstract: Foliage is a biogenic material occurring outside the tropical areas typically in autumn. This material is mostly not used for the production of energy because foliage is often characterized by a very high moisture and ash content as well as adhering impurities. Cleaning and drying are very energy-intensive; i.e. the additional energy used for drying is often in no relation to the possible energy yield. In such cases, heat-induced autoclave pre-treatment could be used to improve the solid biofuel properties of the foliage with regard to a subsequent energetic utilization. Here the effects of temperature, residence time and initial water content during autoclave pre-treatment were determined for foliage. The results show that such an autoclave pre-treatment can significantly improve higher heating value by 15 %, grindability, drying behaviour and concurrently reduces moisture content up to 30 wt% and equilibrium moisture content over 40 wt%. Thereby, the investigated effects can only insignificantly reduce the amount of inorganic components and should be separated before autoclave pre-treatment. The optimum operating conditions identified in this study also indicate that temperatures of 170 °C, at residence times of 3 h and an initial water content of the foliage of 50 wt% lead to an improvement of the solid biofuel properties.

Keywords: Autoclave pre-treatment; Thermochemical conversion; Foliage; Solid biofuel; Energetic utilization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:171:y:2021:i:c:p:275-286

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.02.090

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