BIOMASS FUEL-BRIQUETTES AND IMPROVED STOVES IN DINSHO, ETHIOPIA

This report is a study of the development and implementation of a biomass fuel briquette and improved stove project in the highlands of Ethiopia. The primary goal of the project was to determine if the introduction of an improved stove would affect the acceptability of fuel briquettes. The secondary goal was to establish briquette and improved stove manufacturing associations in Dinsho and Rira towns. Two problems encountered during the project were cultural differences in material valuation, and difficulty working with local administrative frameworks and multi-organization communication difficulties. Both briquettes and improved stoves received positive feedback from respondents. Survey data indicated that a price of 0.75 Ethiopian birr per briquette would make them a competitive fuel source against fuelwood. Recommendations for feedstock sourcing and supply, capital investment, labor reduction, estimating cost effectiveness, appropriate technology design, development work setbacks, and valuation paradigms for fuel briquette, improved stove, and development work projects.

Physical and chemical evaluation of furniture waste briquettes

Furniture waste is mainly composed of wood and upholstery foam (mostly polyurethane foam). Both of these have a high calorific value, therefore, energy recovery would be an appropriate process to manage these wastes. Nevertheless, the drawback is that the energy content of these wastes is limited due to their low density mainly that of upholstery foam. Densification of separate foam presents difficulties due to its elastic character. The significance of this work lies in obtaining densified material by co-densification of furniture wood waste and polyurethane foam waste. Densification of furniture wood and the co-densification of furniture wood waste with polyurethane foam have been studied. On the one hand, the parameters that have an effect on the quality of the furniture waste briquettes have been analysed, i.e., moisture content, compaction pressure, presence of lignin, etc. The maximum weight percentage of polyurethane foam that can be added with furniture wood waste to obtain durable briquettes and the optimal moisture were determined. On the other hand, some parameters were analysed in order to evaluate the possible effect on the combustion. The chemical composition of waste wood was compared with untreated wood biomass; the higher nitrogen content and the concentration of some metals were the most important differences, with a significant difference of Ti content.

Briquetting of steel grit recovered from the ornamental rocks cutting waste

This paper presents the results obtained with the production of briquettes from the steel grit found in the residue of ornamental rocks. The grit recovered by magnetic separation was characterized by titrimetric analysis, EDS (Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy) and X-ray diffraction for the analysis of iron concentration in the residue. The size and distribution of particles were obtained by the granulometric analysis method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The process resulted in a concentrate containing 93% metallic iron. The maximum load before fracture of the green briquettes was 1.02kN and of the dry briquettes was 3.59kN.

Research of wood fuel market in Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus

The goal of the present work was to describe the wood fuel market of Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus, to estimate wood fuel potential and to research opportunities of wood fuel trading. Nowadays the wood waste, wood residues and by-products are becoming more and more potential raw materials for energy production. Against the background of unstable prices of traditional energy sources and environmental degradation, European States are planning to get 12% of energy from alternative sources already in 2010. Wastes of wood-working and agricultural productions are such sources. At present time the most popular wood biofuels are wood pellets, briquettes, wood chips and logs. Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus have a rather big potential of wood fuel resources. But wood fuels markets of these countries are on the entry level and quite disorganized. There is almost no domestic usage of wood biofuel. All produced pellets, briquettes as well as wood chips and logs go to the export, but the volumes are not high at present time. Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus have a very suitable geographical location. The most promising directions of wood fuel trading are developed wood fuel markets of Northern countries, Austria, Germany as well as actively developing markets of Poland and Hungary. At the long distance truck and sea transportation are the most appropriate. At a short distance cheap transportation by rail is more suitable. Thereby export is a potential opportunity for development of wood fuel production and in the future for usage in the researched countries.

Research of wood fuel market in North-West of Russia

The main purposes of this study are analyzing of forest sector of North-West and research of potentials of wood fuel market in this region. Research is focused on definition of the most perspective areas for export of wood fuel: logging residues, industrial wood processing residues, pellets and briquettes. Russian wood energy industry is very young in comparison with European countries. Nowadays there are no support and serious attention from the government to this sector. Hence almost all wood fuel market is oriented to the Western Europe. Export of wood fuel is dominated over the internal consumption. Pellet production in North –West is rapidly growing. Despite internal market has been developed the lion's share of pellets goes to export. Part of industrial wood processing residues is used by producers for their own goals, part goes to the export and rest of them is not used at all. Logging residues as raw materials for fuel have great potentials; most of them are left in a forest. Special techniques for their processing are too expensive for Russian entrepreneur. Some parts of North –West, which are situated close to the border with European countries, are potential for export. Political, economical and logistical challenges are complicated facilities for foreign customer to purchase wood fuel in remote parts of North-West. However some decisions for solving this problem exist and Russian manufactures are still interested in export of their products.

BIOMASS SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS WITH DENSIFIED WASTE

ABSTRACT The possibility to vary the energy matrix, thus reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, has amplified the acceptance of biomass as an alternative fuel. Despite being a cheap and renewable option and the fact that Brazil is a major producer of waste from agriculture and forestry activities, the use of these materials has barriers due to its low density and low energetic efficiency, which can raise the costs of its utilization. Biomass densification has drawn attention due to its advantage in comparison to in natura biomass due to its better physical and combustion characteristics. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of biomass densification in distribution and transport costs. To reach this objective, a mathematical model was used to represent decisions at a supply chain that coordinates the purchase and sale of forestry and wood waste. The model can evaluate the options to deliver biomass through the supply chain combining demand meeting and low cost. Results point to the possibility of an economy of 60% in transport cost and a reduction of 63% in the required quantity of trucks when densified waste is used. However, costs related to the densifying process lead to an increase of total supply costs of at least 37,8% in comparison to in natura waste. Summing up, the viability of biomass briquettes industry requires a cheaper densification process.

Knubbved istället för vanlig ved? : slutrapport från projekt Styckeved för småskalig eldning

Chunkwood is a wood fuel with a fuel particle length between 50 and 150 mm, i.e. with a sizebetween wood chips and conventional firewood. Chunkwood can be produced and handled asrational as wood chips and can dry during storage like conventional firewood. This is known sincelong. In project Smallwood for small scale heating we have investigated if chunkwood can be usedin a small scale as a fuel for heating detached houses in conventional firewood boilers as well asautomatically fed to a boiler in a similar way as wood chips. We have also compared completesystems for small scale production, distribution and heating with chunkwood, wood chips andconventional firewood.Storage of chunkwood produced for testing small scale boilers confirmed that chunkwood can dryduring storage at least as good as conventional firewood. Tests in different boilers for detachedhomes showed that chunkwood can be used in conventional firewood boilers as well as in automaticallyfed wood chips boilers. Chunkwood can be delivered to the customer to the same or lowercost as wood chips and firewood, but need much less handling by the customer than conventionalfirewood. However, if chunkwood is used in a conventional firewood boiler, it needs some handlingby shovel and wheelbarrow. Technical development of handling from the storage to the boiler isneeded. In a somewhat larger scale, e.g. a boiler for apartment blocks or a small district heatingsystem, chunkwood should be very interesting as a replacement of fuel pellets or fuel briquettes. Itwould be interesting with some projects, which in this scale demonstrates the whole system fromthe forest to heat.

Briquetting of charcoal from sugar-cane bagasse fly ash (scbfa) as an alternative fuel

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Energia de briquetes produzidos com rejeitos de resíduos sólidos urbanos e madeira de Eucalyptus grandis

The incentive for consumption and production in large quantity in modern society generates enormous amounts of urban solid residues in the form of municipal solid waste (MSW). With the intention of reducing these residues of the municipal waste tips and to generate energy, briquettes with mixtures of MSW and residues of Eucalyptus grandis were produced. The briquettes were manufactured with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% of MSW in the mixture with wood waste and 12% of moisture content. The analyzed parameters used to choose the best treatments were combustion analysis versus ash content, mechanical strength and energy content. The briquettes up to 10% of MSW showed low resistance, and above 15% showed large increase in ash content. Therefore, the treatment that fulfilled the requirements for combustion versus ash content and mechanical resistance was of at least 15% of MSW, since the source of the ash is unidentified. Considering the net energy content, the best treatment was 25% of MSW, with 17,175 kJ kg-1. Nevertheless, it is strongly advised that further studies related to gas emissions are necessary.

Caracterização química e energética de briquetes produzidos com rejeitos de resíduos sólidos urbanos e madeira de Eucaliptus grandis

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Avaliação energética e ambiental de briquetes produzidos com rejeitos de resíduos sólidos urbanos e madeira de Eucalyptus grandis

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Qualidade da madeira de eucalipto em função do espaçamento, da adubação e da idade conduzida no sistema de curta rotação

Pós-graduação em Ciência Florestal - FCA

Caracterização físico-química da biomassa produzida em sistemas florestais de curta rotação para geração de energia

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Energia na Agricultura) - FCA

Mechanochemical synthesis of CaTiO3 from CaCO3 - TiO2 mixture

The synthesis of calcium titanate, CaTiO3, was performed by mechanical activation and thermal treatment. Milling for up to 360 minutes in a planetary ball mill mechanically activated an equimolar mixture of CaCO 3 and TiO2 powders. A small amount of mechanically activated mixtures was pressed into briquettes and calcined at 850°C for two hours. The effect of mechanical activation on the solid-state reaction was studied using X-ray powder diffraction and differential thermal analysis. The change of morphology and size of powder particles due to milling, were determined by SEM, while BET analysis was used to determine the specific surface area of the powder. The sintering process was followed by a dilatometer during thermal treatment up to 1300°C. The main conclusion of the analysis of conducted investigations is that CaTiO3 ceramics can be obtained from an activated mixture at a much lower temperature than reported in the literature owing to acceleration of the chemical reaction and sintering.

Health impacts of domestic coal use in China

Domestic coal combustion has had profound adverse effects on the health of millions of people worldwide. In China alone several hundred million people commonly burn raw coal in unvented stoves that permeate their homes with high levels of toxic metals and organic compounds. At least 3,000 people in Guizhou Province in southwest China are suffering from severe arsenic poisoning. The primary source of the arsenic appears to be consumption of chili peppers dried over fires fueled with high-arsenic coal. Coal samples in the region were found to contain up to 35,000 ppm arsenic. Chili peppers dried over high-arsenic coal fires adsorb 500 ppm arsenic on average. More than 10 million people in Guizhou Province and surrounding areas suffer from dental and skeletal fluorosis. The excess fluorine is caused by eating corn dried over burning briquettes made from high-fluorine coals and high-fluorine clay binders. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons formed during coal combustion are believed to cause or contribute to the high incidence of esophageal and lung cancers in parts of China. Domestic coal combustion also has caused selenium poisoning and possibly mercury poisoning. Better knowledge of coal quality parameters may help to reduce some of these health problems. For example, information on concentrations and distributions of potentially toxic elements in coal may help delineate areas of a coal deposit to be avoided. Information on the modes of occurrence of these elements and the textural relations of the minerals and macerals in coal may help predict the behavior of the potentially toxic components during coal combustion.