Impact of Torrefaction on Vine Pruning’s Fuel Characteristics
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 3
Abstract
Agricultural and waste-derived solid biomass fuels are available in vast amounts for the generation of sustainable energy. Since these fuels usually have rather low heating values, low bulk densities and are disadvantageous concerning their storage behavior, the torrefaction of such materials (low-temperature pyrolysis between 200°C and 320°C) represents an interesting procedure to improve their fuel properties. After the torrefaction of vine prunings for 30 min at 200°C and 220°C was performed in a pilot hearthtype reactor located in Ptolemais-Greece, the lower heating value (LHV) was increased by 3.7% and 10.5%, respectively, leading to important cost reductions during transport and storage. A comparative analysis of chemical properties between raw material and torrefied material is presented followed by calculating fuel-specific indices concerning corrosion risk, aerosol formation, and slagging tendency. Based on the emission index, a lower conversion was predicted for the torrefied fuel than for the untreated fuel. High aerosol emissions are expected for raw fuel, even higher aerosol emissions for the torrefied fuel. According to the measured ash melting temperatures and calculation of the index, raw fuel and torrefied fuel at 200°C present medium trend for deposit formulation, whereas there is a high trend for deposit formulation in the case of torrefied fuel at 220°C.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The raw vineyard prunings used for the torrefaction experiments were collected during a demonstration activity of the uP_running project (“Take-off for sustainable supply of woody biomass from agrarian pruning and plantation removal”), which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 691748. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of VAENI Naoussa cooperative and INASO-PASEGES in the implementation of the demonstration.
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 3 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 24, 2019
Accepted: Oct 22, 2019
Published online: Mar 11, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 11, 2020
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