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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #402791
Research Project: Improving the Production and Processing of Western and Long-Staple Cotton and Companion Crops to Enhance Quality, Value, and Sustainability

Location: Cotton Ginning Research

Title: Thermal pretreatment technologies for moisture removal and upgrading the biomass quality

Author
item Tumuluru, Jaya Shankar
item FRODESON, STEFAN - Karlstad University
item MOHAMMADI, ALI - Karlstad University
item VENKATESH, G - Karlstad University

Submitted to: Springer Nature Applied Sciences
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/11/2023
Publication Date: 11/9/2023
Citation: Tumuluru, J., Frodeson, S., Mohammadi, A., Venkatesh, G. 2023. Thermal pretreatment technologies for moisture removal and upgrading the biomass quality. In: Bisaria, V., Hess, J.R., Tumuluru, J.S. editors. Handbook of Biorefinery Research and Technology. Dordrecht: Springer Nature Applied Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6724-9_49-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6724-9_49-1

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The supply-chain logistics – storage and transportation over long distances - and downstream processes in biofuel production are adversely impacted by the moisture content in the biomass feedstock. Most woody, herbaceous, cheaper biomass resources and municipal organic solid wastes have moisture content in excess of 30% (of the wet-biomass mass). This makes them less amenable to thermochemical biomass-to-biofuel conversion technologies like pyrolysis and gasification. If pyrolyzed or gasified, the resulting biofuels have a higher moisture content, which truncates their calorific values. When in storage, there is loss of dry matter owing to a tendency to aerobically/anaerobically get composted, and this is detrimental to quality of the biomass as a potential source of biofuel. Fire hazards due to spontaneous combustion of wet biomass are not uncommon. Grinding and drying wet biomass is relatively more energy-intensive and therefore costlier, and the outputs are characterized by varying particle sizes to boot. All this is reason enough for this chapter to focus on managing and controlling the moisture content of the biomass utilized in the biofuels-sector, by resorting to drying and torrefaction technologies. The chapter dwells on drying principles, modes and media in drying systems, types of drying systems, mechanical dewatering and torrefaction, the impact of drying, dewatering and torrefaction on the physical and chemical properties of the end-product, and techno-economic analysis of torrefaction.