Granulių formavimo proceso tyrimai

Abstract

In recent time demand of environment friendly energy as well as biofuel constantly grows. Pe-rennial grasses becomes more and more popular as a herbaceous biomass. One of potentially per-spective sorts could be Artemisia dubia Wall. One of disadvantages what fast rotation plants has is a low density of material. This means that it has a low amount of energy in the same volume as the woody biomass has. Furthermore, amount of energy used for preparation of biofuel might outweigh the amount of energy gained from burning such fuel. Solution for these problems could be densification of biomass using the press. Results of research showed that density of pellet made of chopped Artemisia dubia wall de-pends directly on material moisture content and force used for densification. The maximum reached density was 1064 kg/ using material with 10±0,46% moisture content and pressing with 624 MPa force. Pressing material with 15,5±0,05% and 21,5±0,05% moisture content increasing the force had no effect on pellet density. The pellets has tendency to expand for some time (volume change) after the removal of the load. It happens in first 5 - 20 mins depending on pellet moisture. As the moisture is lower the expansion is faster and more stable. Expansion stops after 24 hours.