Evaluation of the Process Steps of Pretreatment, Pellet Production and Combustion for an Energetic Utilization of Wheat Chaff

Weiß, Barbara D.; Glasner, Christoph

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2018.00036

Cited by 13 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Prior research in the Sweedhart project investigated the densification of chaff via pelleting successfully and defined important conditions for the pelleting process [26].…”

Section: Conditioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cost Analysis of Chaff Harvesting Concepts in Germany

Unger

Glasner

2019

Agronomy

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This work assesses the costs of exploiting the biomass feedstock chaff. Chaff is a harvest residue generated during the conventional grain harvesting process and usually remains on the field. In this paper, the costs of collecting and supplying chaff to the end user with different harvesting methods and supply chains are analyzed. The costs are estimated for a base case defining a set of general assumptions. The impact of these assumptions is analyzed in a sensitivity analysis by means of tornado diagrams. A full costing method based on the VDI guideline 2067 part 1 is applied for the cost estimation. The cost analysis reveals that ceasing the fractioning of grain, straw and chaff during harvesting and transporting them as a mixture reduces the harvesting costs significantly. The costs are decreased due to a reduction in agricultural operations and processing large amounts of material. The lowest total costs originate from the production of chaff-straw bales. Harvesting chaff as a single fraction leads to the highest costs with the investigated supply chains. Comparing the costs of chaff supply to potential revenues shows that an exploitation of the harvest residue can be economically feasible.

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“…Prior research in the Sweedhart project investigated the densification of chaff via pelleting successfully and defined important conditions for the pelleting process [26].…”

Section: Conditioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A pellet press can process fibers between 3.2 and 6.4 mm [34]. Therefore, a reduction in size is necessary, before feeding chaff into the press [26]. In biomass pelleting plants, hammer mills are commonly used for grinding [25].…”

Section: Conditioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost Analysis of Chaff Harvesting Concepts in Germany

Unger

Glasner

2019

Agronomy

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“…However, although a relationship between the amount of residue maintained on the soil and the soil organic matter (SOM) was found in previous studies [14,15]. due to the low nutrient content in cobs and wheat chaff, their removal is considered unlikely to affect soil fertility [9,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the EU-28 produced yearly 152 Mt wheat and spelt [6], and chaff, a heterogeneous mixture of glumes, dust, short straw pieces, broken grain seeds, and weed seeds represents a potential biomass of 38 Mt year −1 . Considering the lowest heating value of chaff of 15.1 MJ kg −1 [7], and the removal rate of 0.33, for a stable soil balance [8], it is possible to estimate a theoretical energy availability of 191 PJ year −1 [9]. In EU-28 more than 9 Mha of grain maize are cultivated yearly [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Innovative System for Maize Cob and Wheat Chaff Harvesting: Simultaneous Grain and Residues Collection

Bergonzoli¹,

Suardi²,

Rezaie³

et al. 2020

Energies

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Maize and wheat are two of the most widespread crops worldwide because of their high yield and importance for food, chemical purposes and livestock feed. Some of the residues of these crops (i.e., maize cob and wheat chaff) remain in the field after grain harvesting. In Europe, just maize cob and grain chaff could provide an annual potential biomass of 9.6 Mt and 54.8 Mt, respectively. Collecting such a biomass could be of interest for bioenergy production and could increase farmers’ income. Progress in harvest technology plays a key role in turning untapped by-products into valuable feedstocks. This article presents a study of the performance and the quality of the work of Harcob, an innovative system developed for maize cob collection. Furthermore, the feasibility of using the Harcob system to also harvest wheat chaff during wheat harvesting was also verified. The results showed that it was possible to harvest 1.72 t ha−1 and 0.67 t ha−1 of cob and chaff, respectively, without affecting the harvesting performance of the combine. The profit achievable from harvesting the corn cob was around 4%, while no significant economic benefits were observed during the harvesting of wheat chaff with the Harcob system. The use of cereal by-products for energy purposes may allow the reduction of CO2 from fossil fuel between 0.7 to 2.2 t CO2 ha−1. The Harcob system resulted suitable to harvest such different and high potential crop by-products and may represent a solution for farmers investing in the bioenergy production chain.

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“…Combustion experiments of chaff showed that sorting of chaff before compressing can be beneficial for the handling and the combustion application. Furthermore, chaff can be compressed to briquettes or pellets to ease the handling, lower the transport costs and to decrease the storage volume of chaff [37]. Collecting chaff directly during the harvest in a trailer has the advantage that all weed seeds in the chaff fraction are assembled together with the chaff.…”

Section: Field Experiments With Wheat Chaffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of New Harvesting Methods to Reduce Weeds on Arable Fields and Collect a New Feedstock

et al. 2019

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During harvesting, grain, straw, and chaff with weed seeds are separated. The chaff is returned to the fields, resulting in weed problems in the subsequent crops. We estimated the fraction of weed seeds a combine harvester could potentially harvest and used various methods to collect the chaff and treat it with heat to kill weed seeds or reduce weed seed germination. Chaff with weed seeds was placed on top of the straw and afterwards baled with the straw as a method to remove weed seeds from the field. We exposed chaff with weed seeds to exhaust gas with various temperatures and durations to study whether this heating method could be used to reduce the input of viable weed seeds to the soil during harvesting. By collecting the shed weed seeds during the growing season, we estimated that a combine harvester could potentially harvest 41%, 11%, and 100% of the seeds produced in the growing season by Bromus hordeaceus, Cirsium arvense, and Galium aparine, respectively. When the chaff was placed on top of the straw, 45% of the weed seeds stayed in the chaff fraction on top of the straw swath after one day, 35% got into the straw swath, and 20% past through the swath to the ground. Therefore, baling straw with chaff placed on the top only had a limited effect on reducing weed seed infestation. The study showed that thermal weed seed control during harvesting could potentially be applicable and incorporated in an integrated weed management approach.

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Evaluation of the Process Steps of Pretreatment, Pellet Production and Combustion for an Energetic Utilization of Wheat Chaff

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

Cost Analysis of Chaff Harvesting Concepts in Germany

Cost Analysis of Chaff Harvesting Concepts in Germany

An Innovative System for Maize Cob and Wheat Chaff Harvesting: Simultaneous Grain and Residues Collection

Evaluation of New Harvesting Methods to Reduce Weeds on Arable Fields and Collect a New Feedstock

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