INTERNATIONAL ENERGY JOURNAL

Volume 22, No. 02, Month JUNE, Year 2022, Pages 157 - 166

Simultaneous drying and torrefaction pretreatment of organic waste for upgrading calorific value

Jakkrit Saengpeng, Kittisak Khuwaranyu, Duangkamol Ruen-ngam

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Nowadays, renewable energy is of great interest to the world because it reduces greenhouse gas emission (GHG). Torrefaction is a thermochemical pretreatment process that converts biomass into biocoal. Recently, this technology was used during a study where organic waste, a type of biomass, was the focus of the experiment for upgrading biomass. The aim of this research is to evaluate the possibility of whether or not such technology can effectively be used to modify organic waste. Applying systematic composite sampling, the researcher discovered that the top four varieties of high contents were mostly vegetables: cabbage, nappa cabbage, morning glory and kale. The experiment was conducted using a universal oven with a heating rate of around 7.22°C/min and a controlled air flow rate of 40%. The temperature was set at a controlled range of 80-300°C and time was set in the range of 0-15 hours. A product called biocoal had a high heating value (HHV) of around 20.08 MJ/kg. Pretreated cabbage samples had a heating value 2.2 times higher than that of an unpretreated sample. The second test samples: nappa cabbage, kale, and morning glory had higher HHV values than unpretreated samples at 1.8, 1.8 and 1.4 times, respectively.

Keywords

Biomass; Drying; High heating value; Organic waste; Torrefaction

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