IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i20p3844-d275328.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Product Characteristics of Torrefied Wood Sawdust in Normal and Vacuum Environments

Author

Listed:
  • Yi-Kai Chih

    (Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan)

  • Wei-Hsin Chen

    (Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 411, Taiwan
    Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan)

  • Hwai Chyuan Ong

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Pau Loke Show

    (Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan, Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia)

Abstract

To investigate the efficacy of torrefaction in a vacuum environment, wood sawdust was torrefied at various temperatures (200–300 °C) in different atmospheres (nitrogen and vacuum) with different residence times (30 and 60 min). It was found that the amount of biochar reduced at the same rate—regardless of atmosphere type—throughout the torrefaction process. In terms of energy density, the vacuum system produced biochar with better higher heating value (HHV, MJ/kg) than the nitrogen system below 250 °C. This was the case because the moisture and the high volatility compounds such as aldehydes diffused more easily in a vacuum. Over 250 °C, however, a greater amount of low volatility compounds evaded from the vacuum system, resulting in lower higher heating value in the biochar. Despite the mixed results with the solid products, the vacuum system increased the higher heating value of its liquid products more significantly than did the nitrogen system regardless of torrefaction temperature. It was found that 23% of the total energy output came from the liquid products in the vacuum system; the corresponding ratio was 19% in the nitrogen system. With liquid products contributing to a larger share of the total energy output, the vacuum system outperformed the nitrogen system in terms of energy density.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi-Kai Chih & Wei-Hsin Chen & Hwai Chyuan Ong & Pau Loke Show, 2019. "Product Characteristics of Torrefied Wood Sawdust in Normal and Vacuum Environments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:20:p:3844-:d:275328
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/20/3844/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/20/3844/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Long, Huiling & Li, Xiaobing & Wang, Hong & Jia, Jingdun, 2013. "Biomass resources and their bioenergy potential estimation: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 344-352.
    2. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Kuo, Po-Chih, 2011. "Torrefaction and co-torrefaction characterization of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin as well as torrefaction of some basic constituents in biomass," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 803-811.
    3. Chew, J.J. & Doshi, V., 2011. "Recent advances in biomass pretreatment – Torrefaction fundamentals and technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4212-4222.
    4. Song, Xiaoxu & Yang, Yang & Zhang, Meng & Zhang, Ke & Wang, Donghai, 2018. "Ultrasonic pelleting of torrefied lignocellulosic biomass for bioenergy production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 56-62.
    5. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Liu, Shih-Hsien & Juang, Tarng-Tzuen & Tsai, Chi-Ming & Zhuang, Yi-Qing, 2015. "Characterization of solid and liquid products from bamboo torrefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 829-835.
    6. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Cheng, Wen-Yi & Lu, Ke-Miao & Huang, Ying-Pin, 2011. "An evaluation on improvement of pulverized biomass property for solid fuel through torrefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 3636-3644.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kongto, Pumin & Palamanit, Arkom & Chaiprapat, Sumate & Tippayawong, Nakorn & Khempila, Jarunee & Lam, Su Shiung & Hayat, Asif & Yuh Yek, Peter Nai, 2023. "Physicochemical changes and energy properties of torrefied rubberwood biomass produced by different scale moving bed reactors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P2).
    2. Adrian Knapczyk & Sławomir Francik & Marcin Jewiarz & Agnieszka Zawiślak & Renata Francik, 2020. "Thermal Treatment of Biomass: A Bibliometric Analysis—The Torrefaction Case," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-31, December.
    3. Joseph I. Orisaleye & Simeon O. Jekayinfa & Ralf Pecenka & Adebayo A. Ogundare & Michael O. Akinseloyin & Opeyemi L. Fadipe, 2022. "Investigation of the Effects of Torrefaction Temperature and Residence Time on the Fuel Quality of Corncobs in a Fixed-Bed Reactor," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Andrzej Bryś & Agnieszka Kaleta & Krzysztof Górnicki & Szymon Głowacki & Weronika Tulej & Joanna Bryś & Piotr Wichowski, 2021. "Some Aspects of the Modelling of Thin-Layer Drying of Sawdust," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lu, Ke-Miao & Lee, Wen-Jhy & Chen, Wei-Hsin & Lin, Ta-Chang, 2013. "Thermogravimetric analysis and kinetics of co-pyrolysis of raw/torrefied wood and coal blends," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 57-65.
    2. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Peng, Jianghong & Bi, Xiaotao T., 2015. "A state-of-the-art review of biomass torrefaction, densification and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 847-866.
    3. Singh, Rishikesh Kumar & Chakraborty, Jyoti Prasad & Sarkar, Arnab, 2020. "Optimizing the torrefaction of pigeon pea stalk (cajanus cajan) using response surface methodology (RSM) and characterization of solid, liquid and gaseous products," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 677-690.
    4. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Liu, Shih-Hsien & Juang, Tarng-Tzuen & Tsai, Chi-Ming & Zhuang, Yi-Qing, 2015. "Characterization of solid and liquid products from bamboo torrefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 829-835.
    5. Jau-Jang Lu & Wei-Hsin Chen, 2013. "Product Yields and Characteristics of Corncob Waste under Various Torrefaction Atmospheres," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Wilk, Małgorzata & Magdziarz, Aneta & Kalemba, Izabela, 2015. "Characterisation of renewable fuels' torrefaction process with different instrumental techniques," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 259-269.
    7. Wilk, Małgorzata & Magdziarz, Aneta & Kalemba, Izabela & Gara, Paweł, 2016. "Carbonisation of wood residue into charcoal during low temperature process," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 507-513.
    8. Dai, Leilei & Wang, Yunpu & Liu, Yuhuan & Ruan, Roger & He, Chao & Yu, Zhenting & Jiang, Lin & Zeng, Zihong & Tian, Xiaojie, 2019. "Integrated process of lignocellulosic biomass torrefaction and pyrolysis for upgrading bio-oil production: A state-of-the-art review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 20-36.
    9. Ong, Hwai Chyuan & Yu, Kai Ling & Chen, Wei-Hsin & Pillejera, Ma Katreena & Bi, Xiaotao & Tran, Khanh-Quang & Pétrissans, Anelie & Pétrissans, Mathieu, 2021. "Variation of lignocellulosic biomass structure from torrefaction: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. Batidzirai, B. & Mignot, A.P.R. & Schakel, W.B. & Junginger, H.M. & Faaij, A.P.C., 2013. "Biomass torrefaction technology: Techno-economic status and future prospects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 196-214.
    11. Tran, Khanh-Quang & Luo, Xun & Seisenbaeva, Gulaim & Jirjis, Raida, 2013. "Stump torrefaction for bioenergy application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 539-546.
    12. Po-Chih Kuo & Wei Wu, 2014. "Design, Optimization and Energetic Efficiency of Producing Hydrogen-Rich Gas from Biomass Steam Gasification," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Wu, Keng-Tung & Tsai, Chia-Ju & Chen, Chih-Shen & Chen, Hsiao-Wei, 2012. "The characteristics of torrefied microalgae," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 52-57.
    14. Moya, Roger & Rodríguez-Zúñiga, Ana & Puente-Urbina, Allen & Gaitán-Álvarez, Johanna, 2018. "Study of light, middle and severe torrefaction and effects of extractives and chemical compositions on torrefaction process by thermogravimetric analysis in five fast-growing plantations of Costa Rica," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1-10.
    15. Ping Wang & Bret H. Howard, 2017. "Impact of Thermal Pretreatment Temperatures on Woody Biomass Chemical Composition, Physical Properties and Microstructure," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    16. Jorge Miguel Carneiro Ribeiro & Radu Godina & João Carlos de Oliveira Matias & Leonel Jorge Ribeiro Nunes, 2018. "Future Perspectives of Biomass Torrefaction: Review of the Current State-Of-The-Art and Research Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    17. Singh, Rishikesh Kumar & Sarkar, Arnab & Chakraborty, Jyoti Prasad, 2020. "Effect of torrefaction on the physicochemical properties of eucalyptus derived biofuels: estimation of kinetic parameters and optimizing torrefaction using response surface methodology (RSM)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    18. Bai, Xiaopeng & Wang, Guanghui & Zhu, Zheng & Cai, Chen & Wang, Zhiqin & Wang, Decheng, 2020. "Investigation of improving the yields and qualities of pyrolysis products with combination rod-milled and torrefaction pretreatment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 446-453.
    19. Nocquet, Timothée & Dupont, Capucine & Commandre, Jean-Michel & Grateau, Maguelone & Thiery, Sébastien & Salvador, Sylvain, 2014. "Volatile species release during torrefaction of wood and its macromolecular constituents: Part 1 – Experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 180-187.
    20. Bach, Quang-Vu & Skreiberg, Øyvind & Lee, Chul-Jin, 2017. "Process modeling and optimization for torrefaction of forest residues," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 348-354.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:20:p:3844-:d:275328. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.