Efficient pulverization technique of woody biomass by a multiple tube vibration mill

In order to reduce consumed energy during woody biomass pulverization process and increase production rate of woody biomass powder, new pulverization pot for the vibration mill was developed. Multiple tube pot, arranged same small size tubes in parallel, was newly-designed, and various sizes of pulverization pot were also prepared for the pulverization experiment. In this experiment, effect of the pot size and the number of tubes of the pot on pulverization ability, such as pulverization particle size, crystallinity index of cellulose, consumed energy and productivity of woody powder, was evaluated. Pulverization ability in a large scale multiple tube vibration mill was also estimated in this paper. The number of tubes was completely unrelated with pulverization ability, when the size of tubes was same, in a multiple tube vibration mill. On the other hand, pulverization rate was significantly influenced by the pot diameter, and the pulverization rate of smaller pot was much faster than bigger diameter pot. Therefore, production of woody power was able to increase by using multiple small size tubes pot, and newly-developed multiple tube pot was also capable of reducing consumed energy per woody powder production significantly.