A Study on Size Reduction of Eucalyptus Bark from the Processing Industry for Producing Biomass Pellets

Abstract

Recently, there was an increase in demand of biomass pellets as an alternative energy source. However, it is necessary to reduce the size of granular materials during the pelleting process. The size reduction of eucalyptus bark occurs in the industrial processing of biomass pellets production, using a hammer mill together with three sieve sizes of 3, 4, and 5 mm and the sieve speeds of 900, 1000, 1100, and 1200 rpm, respectively, which have been examined at a feed rate of 80 kg/h. The aims of this study were to determine the important parameters, namely rotational speed, to determine suitable sieve size for reducing the size of eucalyptus bark, and to analyze energy usage in the size reduction process by using a hammer mill. The results have shown that using a 5 mm sieve size at 900 rpm sieve speed resulted in the best operating conditions in order to offer the highest capacity and lowest specific energy consumption. Moreover, the average particle size of 0.15 mm was an acceptable value. This study could be very beneficial in the development process to produce biomass pellets.

Factors affecting the biomass pellet using industrial eucalyptus bark residue

“…4 Interaction between eucalyptus powder from each screen size and die speed of each moisture content: a SEC, b bulk density, c durability, and d fines (SO/DS = screen size of hammer mill (mm)/die speed of the pelleting machine (rpm)

Fig. 5 Relationship between hammer mill drum speed and SEC of eucalyptus bark size reduction for each sieve size (SO = screen size of hammer mill (mm)) [ 21 ]

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“… Relationship between hammer mill drum speed and SEC of eucalyptus bark size reduction for each sieve size (SO = screen size of hammer mill (mm)) [ 21 ] …”

“…The specific energy analysis throughout the production of eucalyptus bark pellet fuel was obtained by adding the specific energy in the eucalyptus bark reduction study of Sanchumpu et al [ 21 ] (Fig. 6 ) and the specific energy of the pellet study results (Fig.…”

“…The eucalyptus bark was then reduced in size using a hammer mill, which consists of 42 swinging hammers attached to a shaft driven by a 5-hp electric motor. The sieve’s screen sizes were 3, 4, and 5 mm using a drum speed of 1200 rpm [ 21 ]. The crushed samples (Fig.…”

“…Most of the industrial biomass residue is large, so a particle reduction process is necessary (preparing raw materials). The unusable material (stones or metal scrap) should be removed from the raw material before the crushing process [ 20 , 21 ] because stones and metals can damage the mechanical equipment (i.e., the hammer mill and pellet press). The material crushing process must reduce the particle size evenly.…”