Higher heating values for pellets made from short rotation biomass of hardwood species
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals, AL (United States); and others
The use of pellitized woody biomass for fuel has increased substantially in recent years. The purpose of this study was to determine the higher heating values and ash content on four-year-old short-rotation trees: autumn olive, black alder, cottonwood and sycamore. These plantations were established on marginal agricultural land that was not suitable for food production in Midwestern United States. The effects of tree species, site, and regeneration technique on the fuel value were determined. For comparison purposes, the heat content of three commercial lumber species was also obtained. Test results indicated that the planting sites (bottomland versus upperland) and regeneration method (seeding-grown versus coppice-grown) factors did not affect the higher heating values of all pellitized specimens. The heat values averaged 4728 calories per oven-dry gram, which is greater than the 4580 cal/gram of three commercial hardwoods. The main factor species, as well as the interactions of species by site, species by regeneration, and site by regeneration, were significant factors in determining heat value. Black alder had the highest heat value, followed by autumn olive, cottonwood, and sycamore. Furthermore, a preliminary experiment indicates that alcohol, a liquid fuel, can also be made from the short rotation hardwoods in the laboratory scale. It is likely a pellitized coal product using lignin waste derived from the wood hydrolysis stage of the ethyl alcohol conversion process can also be made in the future.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 115246
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-200-8098; CONF-9508104-; ON: DE95009230; TRN: 95:006736-0025
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. meeting on biomass of the Americas, Portland, OR (United States), 21-24 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]; Related Information: Is Part Of Second biomass conference of the Americas: Energy, environment, agriculture, and industry. Proceedings; PB: 1741 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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