Utilization of waste biomass from post–harvest lines in the form of briquettes for energy production
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Material Science and anufacturing Technology, Kamýcká 129, CZ165 00 Prague, Czech Republic *Correspondence:brunerova@tf.czu.cz
Abstract:
A great amount of herbal waste biomass is produced nowadays during agriculture crop processing; also during ‘post–harvest lines’ operations. Such waste biomass occurs in the bulk form, thus, is not suitable for direct combustion; it can be improved by using of briquetting technology. Therefore, present paper provides chemical, mechanical and microscopic analyses of waste biomass originating from post–harvest lines and briquettes produced from it. Namely, waste biomass originated from production of oat (Avena sativa) – husks, wheat (Triticum spp.) – husks and poppy (Papaver somniferum) – straw and seed pods and mixture of all mentioned were investigated. Unprocessed materials were subjected to microscopic and chemical analysis and subsequently produced briquette samples were subjected to determination of its mechanical quality. A satisfactory level of moisture and ash content was observed, as well as, materials energy potential; oat – 17.39 MJ kg-1, wheat – 17.04 MJ kg-1, poppy – 14.48 MJ kg-1. Also microscopic analysis proved suitability of all feedstock materials within evaluation of geometrical shapes of their particles. However, evaluation of briquette mechanical quality unsatisfactory results. Process of briquetting revealed unsuitability of oat feedstock for briquette production; other materials proved following values of volume density and mechanical durability (in sequence): wheat – 1,023.19 kg m-3, 89.1%; poppy – 1,141.43 kg m-3, 94.7%; mixture – 972.49 kg m-3, 62.7%. In general, only poppy briquettes achieved requested mechanical quality level for commercial briquette production. However, undeniable advantage of investigated materials is the form they occurred in; no further feedstock preparation (drying, crushing) was needed.
Key words:
calorific value, cereal husk, mechanical durability, renewable energy, solid biofuels