Investigating the effect of process variables for ball milling of wood chips: energy demand and particle size

Abstract

Energy demand is the major drawback to using mechanical treatments within the biorefinery context. These treatments use energy to reduce particle size and crystallinity and, as a result, increase the accessibility of cellulose. However, the study of energy demand in milling needs to be more noticed. Therefore, this study aims to study how operational variables affect particle size and energy demand on one of the most used milling technologies: ball milling. The variables considered were mass of biomass, mass of balls and time. It was found that time is the most affecting variable for particle size and energy demand. Additionally, it was possible to optimise milling regarding energy demand and particle size. Furthermore, it was found that from the three traditional laws of comminution Bond was the one that gave the best results in terms of accuracy.