Expedient Prediction of the Fuel Properties of Carbonized Woody Biomass Based on Hue Angle

Yuta Saito, Kiyoshi Sakuragi, Tetsuya Shoji and Maromu Otaka
Additional contact information
Yuta Saito: Hokuriku Electric Power Company, 15-1 Ushijimacho, Toyama 930-8686, Japan
Kiyoshi Sakuragi: Energy Engineering Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 2-6-1 Nagasaka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 240-0196, Japan
Tetsuya Shoji: Energy Engineering Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 2-6-1 Nagasaka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 240-0196, Japan
Maromu Otaka: Energy Engineering Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 2-6-1 Nagasaka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 240-0196, Japan

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-8

Abstract: Woody biomass co-firing-based power generation can reduce CO 2 emissions from pulverized coal boilers. Carbonization of woody biomass increases its calorific value and grindability, thereby improving the co-firing ratio. Carbonized biomass fuel properties depend on moisture, size and shape of feedstock, and carbonization conditions. To produce carbonized biomass with stable fuel properties, the carbonization conditions should be set according to the desired fuel properties. Therefore, we examined color changes accompanying woody biomass carbonization and proposed using them for rapid evaluation of fuel properties. Three types of woody biomasses were carbonized at a test facility with a capacity of 4 tons/day, and the fuel properties of the obtained materials were correlated with their color defined by the L * a * b * model. When fixed carbon, an important fuel property for carbonization, was 25 wt % or less, we observed a strong negative correlation, regardless of the tree species, between the hue angle, h ab , and fixed carbon. The h ab and fixed carbon were correlated even when the fixed carbon exceeded 25 wt %; however, this correlation was specific to the tree species. These results indicate that carbonized biomass fuel properties such as fixed carbon can be estimated rapidly and easily by measuring h ab .

Keywords: carbonization; woody biomass; color analysis; fuel properties; fixed carbon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/5/1191/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/5/1191/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:5:p:1191-:d:145257

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().