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Book chapter2013Peer reviewed

Environmental performance of three novel opportunity biofuels: Poplar, brassica and cassava during fixed bed combustion

Díaz-Ramírez, M.; Boman, C.; Sebastián, F.; Royo, J.; Xiong, S.; Boström, D.

Abstract

In the last few decades several types of solid biofuels have been proposed as possible sources for heat generation because of growing concerns about environmental pollution, and future fossil fuel supply uncertainties. Among other biomass assortments, short rotation coppice and herbaceous species have been considered. An important aspect to be evaluated to enable a sustainable introduction of such novel fuels is related to their environmental performance during combustion. In this work, three fuel types; one herbaceous energy crop and one short rotation coppice (both cultivated and pelletized in Spain), together with one agricultural residue (cultivated in China) have been assessed in terms of their emission levels of gases (CO and NOX) and particulate matter. The experiments showed that combustion of the fuels was attained under an acceptable level of CO emissions. However, concentration of NOX was rather high, but perhaps more important, a considerably high formation of fine particle emissions was observed. Consequently, the incorporation of primary or secondary particle precipitating reduction measures might be needed. In addition, the high ash content in these fuels can severely deteriorate the combustion performance and reliability. Thus, specially designed burners/grate units are therefore needed if a utilization of these fuels in small and medium scale combustion systems seeks to be feasible. Although the applicability of introducing this kind of biofuels to the residential heating sector perhaps seems to be rather limited, it should not always be rejected. Nevertheless, technology improvements would have to be considered to manage the current limitations. © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published in

Botanical Research and Practices
2013, pages: 133-147
Title: Herbaceous Plants : Cultivation Methods, Grazing and Environmental Impacts
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Bioenergy
Renewable Bioenergy Research
Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

  • ISBN: 9781626187290

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/132185