Quality of Pellet Made from Agricultural and Forestry Waste in Mexico

Pellets for energy purposes are produced from various sources, such as residues from sawmills, carpentry, and other waste materials. As industry demands are always increasing, it is necessary to find new sources of biomass suitable for pelletization according to international standards, so that the present research aimed to characterize pellets from 17 sources of woody and agricultural biomass. Physical, mechanical, and energetic characterization was realized, evaluating length, diameter, density, moisture content, ashes, fixed carbon, gross calorific value, durability, and compressive resistance for pellet biofuels from agricultural and forestry sources. Pellets from all sources had moisture content less than 10%. The ash content in forestry residues was lower than 1% (except for laeta oak sawdust), in agricultural residues the values range from 2.12 to 10.54% (except for oil palm fiber). The gross calorific values were higher than 16.5 MJ kg−1. The durability showed the range 73.61–99.15%, and compressive resistance, the range 322–1,729 N mm−1, with oil palm fiber residues registering the lowest value, and laeta oak sawdust the highest. According to these results, pellets from forestry and agricultural sources had good characteristics for industrial and residential uses.