Service characteristics of pine bark as biofuel for electricity generation

Анотація

Currently, coal, oil and gas that are exhaustible energy sources provide about 80% of the energy demands of mankind. However, the availability of those resources is reduced. It’s use make the negative impact on the environment such as acid rain, carbon dioxide emission and so on. Economic and political problems with energy supplies  in Ukraine stimulates the search of alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, use of biomass for energy.

The aim of this essay is to explore the relationship between content of the bark in wood pellets composed of pine and its mechanical properties.

The influence of the bark content in pine pellets on their mechanical strength is studied. It is shown that wood pellets made from bark and branches have static bending strength compared with standard samples made of sawdust.

The current study found that bark is perspective raw material for making wood pellets, while introducing additional components is not necessary. Another important finding was that there were no significant differences in mechanical strength value of pellets made of pine bark and pellets made of pine sawdust.

Further research should be undertaken to investigate the certain processing modes, namely the feed rate of raw materials, steam temperature during extrusion etc.