Higher heating value prediction of torrefaction char produced from non-woody biomass

Abstract

The higher heating value of five types of non-woody biomass and their torrefaction char was predicted and compared with the experimental data obtained in this paper. The correlation proposed in this paper and the ones suggested by previous researches were used for prediction. For prediction using proximate analysis data, the mass fraction of fixed carbon and volatile matter had a strong effect on the higher heating value prediction of torrefaction char of non-woody biomass. The high ash fraction found in torrefied char resulted in a decrease in prediction accuracy. However, the prediction could be improved by taking into account the effect of ash fraction. The correlation developed in this paper gave a better prediction than the ones suggested by previous researches, and had an absolute average error (AAE) of 2.74% and an absolute bias error (ABE) of 0.52%. For prediction using elemental analysis data, the mass fraction of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen had a strong effect on the higher heating value, while no relationship between the higher heating value and mass fractions of nitrogen and sulfur was discovered. The best correlation gave an AAE of 2.28% and an ABE of 1.36%.

Keywords

higher heating value / correlation / biomass / proximate analysis / ultimate analysis

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Energy Policy and Planning Office, Ministry of Energy, Thailand (Grant no: 07-01-54-001).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg