Mild Pyrolytic Treatment of Gmelina arborea for Optimum Energetic Yields

What is it about?

Biomass is a useful biofuel that can partially or completely replace fossil fuels. However, low energy density, high-moisture content and biodegradation are some of the setbacks that hinder its adoption on larger scale. One of the major routes to improve on these qualities is mild pyrolytic treatment called torrefaction. Torrefaction is a thermal treatment process that takes place between 200 and 300°C in an inert environment. The impact of this process on biomass could be affected by different factors such as temperature, residence time and particle size among others. Therefore, mild pyrolytic treatment of melina wood was carried out under various conditions to obtain the best factors that yielded the highest energetic yields (mass yield, calorific value and energy yield).

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Why is it important?

Our findings showed that temperature has the largest effect on the energetic yields compared to residence time and particle size. The optimum torrefaction conditions that produced the highest energetic yields were temperature of 260°C, residence time of 60 min and particle size of 2 mm as predicted using the factorial linear models. The mild pyrolytic treatment at a temperature of 260°C, residence time of 60 min and particle size of 2 mm is useful to produce solid biofuel with maximum energetic yields.