The Influence of Additives Upon the Energetic Parameters and Physicochemical Properties of Environmentally Friendly Biomass Pellets

Solid biomass fuels are economical and practical renewable energy sources. Exploitation of agricultural biomass as a fuel offers considerable advantages in different domains as energy supply as far as the climate is involved. In this study we intended to investigate the feasibility of alternative agricultural residues of grape pomace and corn cob pellets with addition of sawdust, starch, and waste rapeseed oil and to examine how these additives affects the calorific powers and pellets physical properties. Sawdust, starch, and waste rapeseed oil addition was 10 %. Pellets were produced by a manual single pellet press. The calorific powers of the biomass samples were experimentally determined using an oxygen bomb calorimeter (model 6200 adiabatic calorimeter Parr Instruments). The results show that waste rapeseed oil addition significantly increases the calorific powers in grape pomace and corn cob pellets. The highest calorific value was obtained for the grape pomace pellets containing 10 % waste rapeseed oil, 22.14 MJ/kg, compared to grape pomace control pellets, of 21.35 MJ/kg. The calorific values of corn cob control pellets were also increased when adding 10 % waste rapeseed oil, from 17.29 MJ/kg to The results obtained in this work, related to calorific powers, moisture, ash, volatile, sulphur and nitrogen content, fixed carbon, bulk density, fuel value index, energy density and combustion efficiency, revealed that depending on additives used and their dosage, an acceptable fuel pellet could be produced.