Thermodynamics of Biomass-Based Solid Fuels

Abstract

In this paper, solid fuels made of plant biomass were studied as an alternative to fossil coals. For this purpose, experimental and calculation methods were applied to determine the standard change of internal energy or specific energy of combustion enthalpies of combustion and for individaual components of plant biomass (lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses, extractives, etc.), as well as of some additives of solid biofuels. The experiments were carried out using an oxygen bomb calorimeter, whereas calculations were performed by the equation: is number of atoms C, H and O, respectively, in molecule of organic substance or in repeat unit of polymer. Using the results obtained for individual components, the standard thermodynamic characteristics (TDC), o Y , of various biomasses and their based fuels were found according to additivity rule, as follows: is weight part of the component in the biofuel. The results revealed that calculated TDC the solid fuels were close to experimentally obtained characteristics. The obtained data evidence on adequacy of the additivity rule to evaluate the TDC of solid biofuels. It has been also found that fuel pellets consisting of plant biomass and additive of plastic binders are the most promising solid fuels, since they provide a higher value of thermal energy and increased energy density than the biomass only.