Thermophysical properties of biofuel pellets made from paper wastes and energy crops under different pelleting conditions
| dc.contributor.author | Rahman, MD Mostafizur | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Erkinbaev, Chyngyz (Biosystems Engineering) Cattani, Doug (Plant Science) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Cenkowski,Stefan (Biosystems Engineering) Zhang,Qiang (Biosystems Engineering) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-05-20T22:41:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-05-20T22:41:53Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2021-04-26 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-03-04 | en_US |
| dc.date.submitted | 2021-04-26T07:41:11Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Biosystems Engineering | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science (M.Sc.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Large amounts of paper wastes are produced in everyday life, such as paper towels and cardboard packaging boxes. The goal of this study was to explore the feasibility and optimize the processing conditions to pellet paper wastes to be used as fuel. A flat die pilot scale pelletizing unit was used to make pellets from paper towels and packaging boxes. The effects of different parameters on the pelleting process and quality (thermophysical properties) of pellets were evaluated. It was found that moisture content (MC) had the most significant effect on the pellet quality and the best quality for paper towel and cardboard box pellets was achieved at 45% and 35% MC (wb), respectively. Also, it was found that low processing temperature (60-70 0C) with proper conditioning or drying time improved the pellet quality. Two days of conditioning at room temperature or drying at 38 0C was found to be sufficient to achieve statistically significant improvement in the pellet quality parameters. The paper towel and carboard box pellets achieved a maximum durability of 91.9% and 94.1% with a calorific value of 17195 and 17084 J/g, respectively. It was also found that the modified Henderson equation predicted the sorption behavior of the paper waste pellets more accurately than the Linear model and the Henderson equation. Properties of pellets made from four energy crops (miscanthus, prairie chord, switch grass and big blue stem) has also been investigated. There was no significant difference observed in the calorific values of the pellets made from these energy crops. Miscanthus resulted in the most durable pellets (roughly 97.5%). Pellets made from switchgrass and big blue stem had the highest bulk density (around 0.69 g/cm3). After second days of drying the average value of calorific value of the pellets made from the energy crops were 17853 J/g with an average bulk density 0.73 kg/m3 in comparison to the average calorific value of 17139 J/g and bulk density of 0.69 kg/m3 for paper waste pellets. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | October 2021 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35663 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Biofuel pellet | en_US |
| dc.subject | Pellet compaction | en_US |
| dc.subject | Paper waste | en_US |
| dc.subject | Energy crops | en_US |
| dc.subject | Calorific value | en_US |
| dc.title | Thermophysical properties of biofuel pellets made from paper wastes and energy crops under different pelleting conditions | en_US |
| dc.type | master thesis | en_US |