Acta Scientiarum. Technology ISSN: 1806-2563 [email protected] Universidade Estadual de Maringá Brasil Ferreira Pedroso de Almeida, Leonardo; Vanderley Herrero Sola, Antonio; Ramirez Behainne, Jhon Jairo Sugarcane bagasse pellets: characterization and comparative analysis Acta Scientiarum. Technology, vol. 39, núm. 4, octubre-diciembre, 2017, pp. 461-468 Universidade Estadual de Maringá Maringá, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=303252893010 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Acta Scientiarum http://www.uem.br/acta ISSN printed: 1806-2563 ISSN on-line: 1807-8664 Doi: 10.4025/actascitechnol.v39i4.30198 Sugarcane bagasse pellets: characterization and comparative analysis Leonardo Ferreira Pedroso de Almeida, Antonio Vanderley Herrero Sola* and Jhon Jairo Ramirez Behainne Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Avenida Monteiro Lobato, km 04, 84016-210, Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brazil. *Author for correspondence. E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT. This paper presents a study carried out in a Brazilian pellet industry in order to determine the main properties of sugarcane bagasse pellets. Materials and methods are in accordance with standards from the Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT), Agência de Proteção Ambiental (EPA) and European Pellets Standard. The pellet properties mean values found in this study are: diameter (9.70 mm), length (22.70 mm), bulk density (726.32 kgm-3), mechanical durability (98.2%), moisture (5.49%), heating value (16.0 MJ kg-1), ash content (8.70%), fixed carbon (14.03%), volatile matter (77.27%), nitrogen (0.28%), sulphur (0.02%) and chlorine (< 0.02 %). The results are compared with those obtained from the literature and discussed according to international standards for biomass pellets, wood pellets and solid biofuel. The comparative analysis showed that there are differences between the results found in our study in comparison with other studies and international standards. The paper also presents the production process energy consumption and cost analysis. Keywords: pellets, sugarcane bagasse, biomass, bioenergy. Pellets de bagaço de cana-de-açúcar: caracterização e análise comparativa RESUMO. Este artigo apresenta um estudo realizado em uma indústria brasileira de pellets, a fim de determinar as principais propriedades de pellets de bagaço de cana. Os materiais e métodos estão em conformidade com as normas da Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT), Agência de Proteção Ambiental (EPA) e Norma para pellets europeia. Os valores médios das propriedades de pellets encontrados neste estudo são o diâmetro (9,70 mm), o comprimento (22,70 mm), a densidade (726,32 kg m-1), a durabilidade (98,2%), a umidade (5,49%), o poder calorífico (16,0 MJ kg-1), o teor de cinzas (8,70%), o carbono fixo (14,03%), as matérias voláteis (77,27%), o nitrogênio (0,28%), o enxofre (0,02%) e o cloro (< 0,02 %). Os resultados são comparados com outros obtidos a partir da literatura e discutidos de acordo com normas internacionais para pellets da biomassa, pellets de madeira e biocombustível sólido. A análise comparativa mostrou que existem diferenças entre os resultados encontrados em nosso estudo em comparação com outros estudos e normas internacionais. O artigo também apresenta uma análise de consumo e custos com energia no processo produtivo. Palavras-chave: pellets, bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, biomassa, bioenergia. Introduction Union and Japan are projected to be the largest pellets importers in the near future (IEA, 2012). In The use of traditional unprocessed biomass tends spite of that some kinds of residues have been to decline in the next decades, while the employed for thermal energy or electricity consumption of bioenergy tends to increase generation – such as rice husk studied by Behainne worldwide, regarding the high global primary energy and Martinez (2014) or sugarcane bagasse reported demand (International Energy Agency [IEA], 2012). by Hofsetz and Silva (2012) – fuel pellets have some In this scenario, besides other biofuels, fuel pellets advantages in comparison with unprocessed play an important role in the bioenergy market. In biomass. Among the advantages is the higher energy addition, the carbon from pellets could be used in density, implying lower storage and transportation many other applications, such as filtering, costs (Nilsson, Bernesson, & Hansson, 2011). pharmaceutical and chemical areas (Sousa, Pereira, Sugarcane bagasse pellets have similar Silva, & Ferro, 2012). characteristics (e.g. NO, CO and SO2 emissions) Nowadays, the main consumers of pellets are and conversion efficiency in comparison to wood Western Europe and North America. The European pellets (Cardozo, Erlich, Alejo, & Fransson, 2014). Acta Scientiarum. Technology Maringá, v. 39, n. 4, p. 461-468, Oct.-Dec., 2017 462 Almeida et al. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages. mechanical stability; duration of pyrolysis and For instance, the high level of ash content at high combustion; char structure and surface area; and pyrolysis temperatures could present problems in a char combustion rate. That study showed a gasifier (Erlich, Öhman, Björnbom, & Fransson, significant difference in the properties behavior of 2005). In addition, sugarcane bagasse presents high level of moisture content, demanding higher energy sugarcane bagasse obtained from several origins, consumption during the drying process. mainly in terms of ash content, which can cause The main advantage of sugarcane bagasse pellets serious problems in a gasifier. In another study, is the high availability of raw material in Brazil Erlich et al. (2006) investigated physical effects on (Hofsetz & Silva, 2012). Sugarcane is produced in both wood pellets and sugarcane bagasse pellets many countries and, currently, Brazil is the biggest during thermal treatment. The study concluded that producer, followed by India, China, Thailand and pellets properties influence the characteristics of the Pakistan. Brazil produces about 40% of the global pyrolysis and gasification processes. Erlich and production and the top 5 countries together account Fransson (2011) applied some tests in order to for 74% of total sugarcane produced (Food and analyze the impact of pellets properties on the Agriculture Organization of the United Nations gasification process. Cardozo et al. (2014) carried [FAO], 2014). The production of sugarcane in Brazil has increased almost 50% in the last decade, out an experimental study aiming to compare the reaching 631.8 million tons a year in 2014, with the combustion performance of different agricultural aim to produce sugar and ethanol (Empresa de residues, including sugarcane bagasse, based on Pesquisa Energética [EPE], 2015). Each ton of pellets standard in Sweden. Results from that study squeezed sugarcane produces around 27% of showed that the physical and chemical properties of bagasse. More than fifth percent of sugarcane the residues influence strongly gas emission levels. bagasse is used in the industry sector, and the In addition, they found that each residue has an remaining amount is used in both electricity impact on the power input, oxygen levels and generation and in the energy sector, for extraction, combustion chamber temperature and that the transformation centers and transportation processes, conversion efficiency depends on the properties and according to the Brazilian Energy Balance. Despite operating conditions during the combustion of the some initial barriers to be overcome, there is a great different biomass sources. Wang, Zhuang, Yuan, Yu, potential for enlarging the consumption of solid biomass in the Brazilian domestic market and for and Qui (2015) studied the effect of sugarcane exporting, as Walter and Dolzan (2011) pointed out. bagasse pellets on enzymatic hydrolysis. Pellets properties from different raw materials, Pellets properties are essentials in the study of such as softwood (Hartley & Wood, 2008), solid performance in thermochemical processes, such as biomass (Wu, Schott, & Lodewijks, 2011), canola combustion, gasification and pyrolysis. These (Chico-Santamarta, Chaney, Godwin, White, & properties can affect aspects related with transport, Humphries, 2012), bamboo and rice (Liu storage, handling, fuel conversion and et al., 2013), wood (Toscano et al., 2013), diverse environmental emissions. Pelletizing process of range of biomasses (Gillespie, Everard, Fagan, & sugarcane bagasse is a great alternative to McDonnell, 2013; Cardozo, Erlich, Alejo, & commercialize such biomass worldwide. Fransson, 2016), pinewood (Lerna-Arce, Oliver- The scope of this paper is to determine the main Villanueva, & Segura-Orenga, 2017), hardwood properties of sugarcane bagasse pellets in order to particles (Nguyen, Cloutier, Stevanovic, & Achim, compare with results from other studies and 2017), lignocellulosic (Stacolino et al., 2017), international standards. Wood pellets standards have bamboo, straw and sawdust (Si, Cheng, Zhou, been developed in several European countries Zhou, & Cen, 2017), different materials (Huang (ENplus, 2013) and North America (Pellet Fuel et al., 2017) have been studied by literature. While Institute [PFI], 2011). Brazil has no standard or research on wood and other biomasses pellets is guideline for pellets yet. This work also