Impact of process conditions on the density and durability of wheat, oat, canola, and barley straw briquettes
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Impact of process conditions on the density and durability of wheat, oat, canola, and barley straw briquettes J. S. Tumuluru & L. G. Tabil & Y. Song & K. L. Iroba & V. Meda
Published online: 10 September 2014 # The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The present study is to understand the impact of process conditions on the quality attributes of wheat oat, barley, and canola straw briquettes. Analysis of variance indicated that briquette moisture content and initial density immediately after compaction and final density after 2 weeks of storage are strong functions of feedstock moisture content and compression pressure, whereas durability rating is influenced by die temperature and feedstock moisture content. Briquettes produced at a low feedstock moisture content of 9 % (w.b.) yielded maximum densities >700 kg/m3 for wheat, oat, canola, and barley straws. Lower feedstock moisture content of 110 °C and compression pressure >10 MPa minimized the briquette moisture content and maximized densities and durability rating based on surface plots observations. Optimal process conditions indicated that a low feedstock moisture content of about 9 % (w.b.), high die temperature of 120–130 °C, medium-to-large hammer mill screen sizes of about 24 to 31.75 mm, and low to high compression pressures of 7.5 to 12.5 MPa minimized briquette moisture content to 700 kg/m3. Durability rating >90 % is achievable at higher die temperatures of >123 °C, lower to medium feedstock moisture contents of 9 to 12 % (w.b.), low to high compression pressures of 7.5 to 12.5 MPa, and large hammer J. S. Tumuluru (*) Biofuels and Renewable Energy Technologies Department, Energy Systems and Technologies Division, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-2025, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. G. Tabil : K. L. Iroba : V. Meda Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N 5A9 Y. Song College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
mill screen size of 31.75 mm, except for canola where a lower compression pressure of 7.5 to 8.5 MPa and a smaller hammer mill screen size of 19 mm for oat maximized the durability rating values. Keywords Agricultural straws . Briquettes . Unit density . Durability rating . Response surface models . Optimization . Genetic algorithm
Introduction Lignocellulosic biomass includes agricultural residues, hardwood, and softwood, as well as dedicated biomass crops. According to Kim and Dale [1], the estimated residue from crops such as corn, wheat, oats, rice, sorghum, and sugarcane throughout the world is approximately 1.5 billion metric tonnes. These residues also constitute one of the most important biomass feedstocks in Canada due to its vast agricultural base. Major cereal crops (such as wheat, barley, and oats) are grown on the Canadian prairies. The total straw available for industrial use after soil and livestock requirements is approximately 15 Mt [2]. The S
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