Waste to Carbon: Biocoal from Elephant Dung as New Cooking Fuel

Paweł Stępień, Kacper Świechowski, Martyna Hnat, Szymon Kugler, Sylwia Stegenta-Dąbrowska, Jacek A. Koziel, Piotr Manczarski and Andrzej Białowiec
Additional contact information
Paweł Stępień: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 37a Chełmońskiego Str., 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland
Kacper Świechowski: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 37a Chełmońskiego Str., 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland
Martyna Hnat: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 37a Chełmońskiego Str., 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland
Szymon Kugler: Polymer Institute, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, 10 Pułaskiego Str., 70-322 Szczecin, Poland
Sylwia Stegenta-Dąbrowska: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 37a Chełmońskiego Str., 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland
Jacek A. Koziel: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3270, USA
Piotr Manczarski: Department of Environmental Engineering, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Building Services, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-661 Warszawa, Poland
Andrzej Białowiec: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 37a Chełmońskiego Str., 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-32

Abstract: The paper presents, for the first time, the results of fuel characteristics of biochars from torrefaction (a.k.a., roasting or low-temperature pyrolysis) of elephant dung (manure). Elephant dung could be processed and valorized by torrefaction to produce fuel with improved qualities for cooking. The work aimed to examine the possibility of using torrefaction to (1) valorize elephant waste and to (2) determine the impact of technological parameters (temperature and duration of the torrefaction process) on the waste conversion rate and fuel properties of resulting biochar (biocoal). In addition, the influence of temperature on the kinetics of the torrefaction and its energy consumption was examined. The lab-scale experiment was based on the production of biocoals at six temperatures (200–300 °C; 20 °C interval) and three process durations of the torrefaction (20, 40, 60 min). The generated biocoals were characterized in terms of moisture content, organic matter, ash, and higher heating values. In addition, thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry analyses were also used for process kinetics assessment. The results show that torrefaction is a feasible method for elephant dung valorization and it could be used as fuel. The process temperature ranging from 200 to 260 °C did not affect the key fuel properties (high heating value, HHV , HHV daf , regardless of the process duration), i.e., important practical information for proposed low-tech applications. However, the higher heating values of the biocoal decreased above 260 °C. Further research is needed regarding the torrefaction of elephant dung focused on scaling up, techno-economic analyses, and the possibility of improving access to reliable energy sources in rural areas.

Keywords: torrefaction; biorenewable energy; biowaste; biocoal; alternative fuel; waste management; manure; thermal valorization; thermogravimetric analysis; differential scanning calorimetry (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: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4344/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4344/ (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:12:y:2019:i:22:p:4344-:d:287094

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 ().