The effects of storage on the net calorific value of wood pellets

Lee, Jun Sian; Sokhansanj, S.; Lau, A. K.; Lim, C. J.; Bi, X. T.; Basset, Vaughan; Yazdanpanah, F.; Melin, S.

doi:10.7451/CBE.2015.57.8.5

Title: The effects of storage on the net calorific value of wood pellets

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

The wood pellet export from Canada to Europe has been increasing steadily in recent years (roughly 1.8 million ton in 2013). Due to distances involved, wood pellets remain in transit and storage for months before their final consumption. The net calorific value determines the price of wood pellet purchase in Europe. There have been concerns about the changes of net calorific values over time. In this study, the effects of storage time, storage configuration, storage temperature, and wood pellet quality on the net calorific value of wood pellets for a period of 6 months were investigated. Storage configurations were open or closed and storage temperatures were 25 °C, 35 °C and 45 °C. Two types of wood pellets used were whitewood and mixed. The results in closed storage indicated that storage time had a positive effect on the net calorific value where the net calorific value increased by 1% to 2% over the storage period. In open storage, the moisture content had the most significant impact on the net calorific value. The net calorific values of the two types of wood pellets were found to be significantly different at p < 0.001. A multivariable linear regression and analyses of variancemore »« less

Authors:

Lee, Jun Sian ^[1]; Sokhansanj, S. ^[1]; Lau, A. K. ^[1]; Lim, C. J. ^[1]; Bi, X. T. ^[1]; Basset, Vaughan ^[2]; Yazdanpanah, F. ^[1]; Melin, S. ^[3]

Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada)
Pinnacle Renewable Energy Group Vancouver, Richmond, BC (Canada)
Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada); Wood Pellet Assoc. of Canada, Revelstoke (Canada)

Publication Date:: Tue Jun 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1328351

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Canadian Biosystems Engineering

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 57; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1492-9058

Publisher:: Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 09 BIOMASS FUELS; wood pellets; net calorific value; storage time

Citation Formats


                    Lee, Jun Sian, Sokhansanj, S., Lau, A. K., Lim, C. J., Bi, X. T., Basset, Vaughan, Yazdanpanah, F., and Melin, S. The effects of storage on the net calorific value of wood pellets.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.7451/CBE.2015.57.8.5.

Copy to clipboard


                    Lee, Jun Sian, Sokhansanj, S., Lau, A. K., Lim, C. J., Bi, X. T., Basset, Vaughan, Yazdanpanah, F., & Melin, S. The effects of storage on the net calorific value of wood pellets.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.7451/CBE.2015.57.8.5

Copy to clipboard


                    Lee, Jun Sian, Sokhansanj, S., Lau, A. K., Lim, C. J., Bi, X. T., Basset, Vaughan, Yazdanpanah, F., and Melin, S. Tue .  
"The effects of storage on the net calorific value of wood pellets".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.7451/CBE.2015.57.8.5.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1328351.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1328351,

  title        = {The effects of storage on the net calorific value of wood pellets},

  author       = {Lee, Jun Sian and Sokhansanj, S. and Lau, A. K. and Lim, C. J. and Bi, X. T. and Basset, Vaughan and Yazdanpanah, F. and Melin, S.},

  abstractNote = {The wood pellet export from Canada to Europe has been increasing steadily in recent years (roughly 1.8 million ton in 2013). Due to distances involved, wood pellets remain in transit and storage for months before their final consumption. The net calorific value determines the price of wood pellet purchase in Europe. There have been concerns about the changes of net calorific values over time. In this study, the effects of storage time, storage configuration, storage temperature, and wood pellet quality on the net calorific value of wood pellets for a period of 6 months were investigated. Storage configurations were open or closed and storage temperatures were 25 °C, 35 °C and 45 °C. Two types of wood pellets used were whitewood and mixed. The results in closed storage indicated that storage time had a positive effect on the net calorific value where the net calorific value increased by 1% to 2% over the storage period. In open storage, the moisture content had the most significant impact on the net calorific value. The net calorific values of the two types of wood pellets were found to be significantly different at p < 0.001. A multivariable linear regression and analyses of variance performed verified the graphical results. Lastly, the authors postulated that the higher energy potential compounds, such as aldehyde and ketone, produced during pellet storage, caused the increase in net calorific values.},

  doi          = {10.7451/CBE.2015.57.8.5},

  journal      = {Canadian Biosystems Engineering},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 57,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Jun 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015},

  month        = {Tue Jun 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.7451/CBE.2015.57.8.5

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

QUALITY OF WOOD PELLETS PRODUCED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA FOR EXPORT

Journal Article Tumuluru, J S ; Sokhansanj, Shahabaddine ; Lim, C Jim ; ... - Applied Engineering in Agriculture

Wood pellet production and its use for heat and power production are increasing worldwide. The quality of export pellets has to consistently meet certain specifications as stipulated by the larger buyers, such as power utilities or as specified by the standards used for the non-industrial bag market. No specific data is available regarding the quality of export pellets to Europe. To develop a set of baseline data, wood pellets were sampled at an export terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sampling period was 18 months in 2007-2008 when pellets were transferred from storage bins to the ocean vessels. Themore »« less
https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.35902
Quality of Wood Pellets Produced in British Columbia for Export

Journal Article Tumuluru, J S ; Sokhansanj, S ; Lim, C J ; ... - Applied Engineering in Agriculture

Wood pellet production and its use for heat and power production are increasing worldwide. The quality of export pellets has to consistently meet certain specifications as stipulated by the larger buyers, such as power utilities or as specified by the standards used for the non-industrial bag market. No specific data is available regarding the quality of export pellets to Europe. To develop a set of baseline data, wood pellets were sampled at an export terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sampling period was 18 months in 2007-2008 when pellets were transferred from storage bins to the ocean vessels. Themore »« less
https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.35902
Effect of low and high storage temperatures on head space gas concentrations and physical properties of wood pellets

Journal Article Tumuluru, Jaya Shankar ; Sokhansanj, Shahab ; Lim, C. Jim ; ... - International Wood Products Journal

Headspace gas concentrations and wood pellet properties were studied in sealed glass canisters at 5–40 degrees C storage temperatures. CO2 and CO concentrations at 5, 10, 20 and 40 degrees C at the end of 23–28 days of storage were 1600 and 200, 4700 and 1200, and 31 200 and 15 800 parts per million by volume (ppmv) respectively. Corresponding O2 concentration was about 19•49, 19•20, 18•0 and 2•07% respectively. Non-linear regression equations adequately described the gas concentrations in the storage container as a function of time. Safe level estimation functions developed were linear for O2 and logarithmic for COmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1179/2042645312Y.0000000019
Development of laboratory studies on the off-gassing of wood pellets

Journal Article Tumuluru, Jaya Shankar ; Kuang, Xingya ; Sokhansanj, Shahab ; ... - Canadian Biosystems Engineering

In the present study three sealed containers (304.8 mm inside diameter and 609.6 mm height) were developed to investigate the concentration of off-gases accumulated in the headspace as well as changes in some of the physical properties of wood pellets during storage. Pellets occupied 75% of the container volume leaving 25% headspace. The outside wall of the steel containers was wrapped with electric heating tapes and fiber glass insulation. The storage studies were carried out at room temperature of about 22 degrees C and at elevated temperatures of 30, 40 and 50 degrees C. The off-gases were collected and analyzedmore »« less
How is wood-based pellet production affecting forest conditions in the southeastern United States?

Journal Article Dale, Virginia H. ; Parish, Esther ; Kline, Keith L. ; ... - Forest Ecology and Management

Exports of woody pellets from the southeastern United States (US) for European power plants have expanded since 2009, leading to concerns about major negative environmental effects. US exports of wood pellets have grown from essentially nothing in 2008 to 4.6 million metric tons in 2015, with 99% of US pellets being shipped to Europe. To examine effects of this recent expansion of the pellet industry on forest conditions, we use US Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) annual survey data for 2002–2014 to analyze changes in timberland trends since 2009 for two fuelsheds supplying pelletsmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.03.022

Similar Records