Water Resistance of Torrefied Wood Pellets Prepared by Different Methods

Takahiro Yoshida, Katsushi Kuroda, Daisuke Kamikawa, Yoshitaka Kubojima, Takashi Nomura, Hiroki Watada, Tetsuya Sano and Seiji Ohara
Additional contact information
Takahiro Yoshida: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Research and Development Agency Forest Research and Management Organization, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
Katsushi Kuroda: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Research and Development Agency Forest Research and Management Organization, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
Daisuke Kamikawa: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Research and Development Agency Forest Research and Management Organization, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
Yoshitaka Kubojima: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Research and Development Agency Forest Research and Management Organization, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
Takashi Nomura: Fukui Prefectural Green Center, Sakai, Fukui 910-0336, Japan
Hiroki Watada: Fukui Prefectural Green Center, Sakai, Fukui 910-0336, Japan
Tetsuya Sano: Department of Engineering, Tohoku Institute of Technology, Sendai 982-8577, Japan
Seiji Ohara: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Research and Development Agency Forest Research and Management Organization, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: Torrefaction used in combination with pelletization is a promising technology to upgrade solid biofuels and has been demonstrated worldwide. In comparison with normal biomass pellets, which disintegrate under wet conditions, one of the advantages of torrefied biomass pellets is better water resistance. An understanding of the differences in water proof properties for torrefied biomass pellets by different production schemes can promote their further application. In the communication, various torrefied pellets were exposed to indoor and outdoor conditions, and changes in moisture content and diameter were examined. Two production schemes for the torrefied pellets were used for comparison: the torrefaction of wood chips followed by pelletization (pre-torrefaction) and the pelletization of wood chips followed by torrefaction (post-torrefaction). It was found that the post-torrefied pellets had much lower moisture levels than the pre-torrefied pellets in both indoor and outdoor tests. In the outdoor test with no-roof condition, the rate of increase in moisture content for the pre-torrefied pellets was more than double that for the post-torrefied pellets, and the post-torrefied pellets exhibited almost no diameter change. The results on the superior water resistance of post-torrefied pellets were nearly consistent with those reported in previous literature. Torrefied pellets have been considered for industrial use, such as in co-combustion and gasification on a large scale. Taking advantage of the different water resistances, torrefied pellets could also be used by personal and community consumers on a small scale for long-term indoor and outdoor storages as advanced solid biofuels with high waterproof performance, energy density, and lower biodegradation.

Keywords: wood pellets; torrefaction; water resistance; small-scale use (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/6/1618/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/6/1618/ (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:14:y:2021:i:6:p:1618-:d:516994

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 ().