Analysis on the Use of Briquettes as an Alternative to Improve the Generation of Thermal Energy in the Locality of Aripuana-Brazil

Abstract

The city of Aripuana is one of the largest wood producer in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Wood residues are used in the electricity generation at three thermoelectric plants in this region. However, the plants have high costs in transporting the wood residues (due to poor road conditions). Hence, this paper compares the energy performance of wood residues in natura and compacted as briquettes by calculating the heating value and determining the influence of moisture content on the energy characteristics of wood residues. The goal is to demonstrate the viability of using briquettes in order to improve thermoelectric generation. The wood residues from this region are affected by the high humidity of the biome. An alternative to improve the use of energy contained in the wood residues is to produce briquettes with lower humidity. This allows one to maintain high levels of heat energy in a lower volume, facilitating handling and storage. The results show that the use of briquettes improved the performance of thermoelectric plants, generating 1 MW of electricity power with less than 1 ton of briquettes. This contributes to the preservation of the environment, reducing operating costs, transportation and storage of the raw materials.

Quality of eucalyptus wood chips for bioenergy as a function of drying time and horizontal chipper settings

“…Lower calorific value (LCV) and useful calorific value (UCV) were calculated according to Ref. [ 38 ].…”

Technical and Economic Analysis of the Implementation of a Self-Sustainable Briquetting Process for Electric Generation

“…Aripuanã is a location that has a high potential for the production of wood residues, allowing such residues to be used in the generation of electric energy in the region, however, this location has prolonged periods of rain that increase humidity and directly affects the energy properties of the forest biomass. Hence, it has been considered the study of the characterization of residual biomass as one of the main steps to investigate the energy potential of the region [19], considering the briquette production process as a better alternative for the use of the energy contained in the wood residues to producing bigger amounts of electric energy inside of a power plant.…”

“…To generate this amount, an average of 1340 tons/day is needed, however, the plant does not receive that proportion of waste per day, due to the precarious road infrastructure in the region (see Figure 2) that makes it difficult to transport the wood residues. Poor road conditions are related to heavy rains and lack of maintenance on them [19]. Currently, this plant receives an average of 800 tons of residues per day.…”

“…From the HHV, the LHV can be calculated by the Equation ( 1), this equation considers the amount of hydrogen in the elemental composition of the wood sample [19]. 6% hydrogen content was considered.…”

“…The transportation cost savings are considered as the cost benefits in the cashflow computation, then, by mean of the estimation of economic indicators as NPV, IRR and PBP the economic feasibility of the briquetting plant is demonstrated. Previous efforts as is [19] also demonstrated the energy potential of briquetting in thermoelectric generation improvement and the present work, in part, is developed in order to economically justify the investment on this type of technology which in addition, is adapted to the particular characteristics of the region, such as poor road condition, high moisture content and low proximity among several raw material resources.…”