Energy production features of Miscanthus pellets blended with Pine sawdust

Abstract

The energy production features of pine sawdust-blended miscanthus pellets were investigated in this study in accordance with physicochemical, combustion and morphological characteristics. The aim was to determine the conditions in which blended biofuel pellets made from a mix of miscanthus and wood residues can meet energy production requirements and other desired features of a biofuel source. Thus, milled samples of each material were blended in various proportions of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% represented as M0, M25, M50, M75, and M100 where ‘M’ denotes miscanthus. About 6% of water was added to each blend to achieve a final moisture content of 10% on wet basis. Thereafter, the pure and blended materials were subjected to pressure agglomeration from a single pellet press to obtain homogeneously sized fuel pellets. The pellets were subsequently analyzed to determine compositional changes and characteristics relevant to their use as a source of green energy. The results indicated that the miscanthus pellet blended with up to 75% pine sawdust (M25) generally showed superiority in properties, exhibiting better thermal stability, reactivity and lower ash content in comparison to other blends. Although, as expected, pure miscanthus pellet displayed the highest ash percentage (5%), which was attributed to its biogenic nature, its content of ash was substantially reduced by blending with pine sawdust whose ash content was much lower (1%). Based on these findings, we can confirm that pine sawdust is an interesting material for blending with miscanthus for the manufacture of miscanthus pellets with enhanced properties.