Characterization of Various Biomass Feedstock Suitable for Small-Scale Energy Plants as Preliminary Activity of Biocheaper Project

Abstract

The PRIN (Research Project with Relevant National Interest) project “Biocheaper—biomasses circular holistic economy approach to energy equipments” started in September 2019 and involves several universities: Palermo as the university coordinator, Perugia, Cassino, Enna, Pavia and Bolzano. The main goal of the project is to increase the energy efficiency and reduce the pollutants emissions in small-scale biomass plant for energy (heat and power) production. The project focuses on residual lignocellulosic feedstocks from the agriculture and forestry sector, from energy crops in marginal lands and residues from rivers maintenance. Starting from the selection and characterization of potential feedstocks, the project aims at developing some prototypes for retrofit applications in existing biomass boilers, like a mini-cyclone for the reduction of particulate emissions and an exhaust air-water condensing system for the recovery of water and the reuse in agriculture. This work presents the first results of the project, in particular regarding the selection and the chemical–physical characterization of different biomass, available in different zones of Italy; in particular the authors investigated cardoon chips, carthamus chips, olive and wine pruning, residues from rivers maintenance. Each biomass sample was characterized in terms of moisture content, ashes content, volatile substances, fixed carbon, low and high heating value, content of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and main metals.

Opportunities and Challenges of High-Pressure Fast Pyrolysis of Biomass: A Review

“…Besides, the production yield depends on the reactor design and operation processes. The classes of the reactor are as follows: rotating cone reactor (RCR), fluidized bed reactor (FBR), entrained flow reactor (EFR), circulating fluidized bed reactor (CFBR), ablative reactor (AbR), and auger reactor (AuR) [55][56][57]. These types of reactors are comparable to CFBR reactors.…”

Available Pathways for Operationalizing Circular Economy into the Olive Oil Supply Chain: Mapping Evidence from a Scoping Literature Review

“…A wide range of conversion technologies are available for energy valorization of the olive oil sector by-products, with different possible outputs. The existing literature explores the opportunities of producing: syngas, to obtain electrical and thermal energy, by feeding a heat and power biomass plant with olive pomace [55][56][57], olive stones [59,60,62], or olive tree pruning residues [54,61]; electric energy [68] through the combustion of pruning residues; methanol from olive pomace via gasification [69], or from OMW via anaerobic digestion [58,70]; biogas by means of anaerobic digestion of olive pomace [67,74] or OMWW [71]; biofuel-as a sustainable alternative of biofuels based on specialized grown crops [21]-obtained from pruning residues combustion [64], from solid part of olive pomace gasification [73], or from waste cooking oil through homogenously catalyzed esterification [19]; combustible products from olive pomace (torrefied biomass or charcoal obtained, respectively, through torrefaction or slow pyrolysis processes) as sustainable substitutes of fossil fuels, such as coal [46,65].…”

Agro-residues for clean electricity: A thermo-property characterization of cocoa and kolanut waste blends

“…The most significant properties of particles during fuel combustion are volatile matter and fixed carbon contents [ 25 ]. Biomass materials are enabled for use as energy resources by these two properties because the measure of the ease with which biomass fuels can ignite and subsequently oxidize or gasify is significantly provided by the two factors [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. On the other hand, ash deposition and corrosion are two major technical challenges to efficient utilization of biomass for electric power (or heat) generation.…”