Effects of the Moisture Content on the Flow Behavior of Milled Woody Biomass

Abstract

Handling milled biomass particles in equipment like hoppers and feeders has been a long-lasting challenge in the bioenergy industry because of the poor flowability of these low density, high aspect ratio, and irregularly shaped particles. The inner pores of woody biomass particles complicate the granular flow behavior. When water exists in these intra-and inter-particle pores with sizes ranging from nanometers to micrometers, intricate processes such as hydrogen bonding, capillary effects, liquid bridge, and lubrication occur. However, knowledge of how these processes alter the bulk flow behavior of woody biomass particles is severely lacking. This study investigates the bulk flow behavior of loblolly pine chips in wedge-shaped hoppers considering moisture content. The fiber saturation point (FSP) of the material (30%) was determined through the differential scanning calorimetry analysis. The compressibility and shear resistance were found to increase with the increased moisture content through meso-scale testing. Moreover, hopper flow simulations suggest that the effective discharge rate decreases by 50% with the increasing moisture content up to the FSP, beyond which moisture content has no apparent influence on the effective discharge. This study highlights the importance of quantifying the biomass FSP in understanding biomass flowability at various moisture contents and sheds light on the trouble-free handling of wet woody biomass particles in the bioenergy industry.

Application of fluid rheology models for milled woody biomass and non-recyclable municipal solid waste particles

“…Previous studies investigated and proved the capability of the G-B hypoplastic model in simulating the flow behavior of loblolly pine materials [11]- [14]. Similarly, the flow behavior of rigid plastic was examined using the G-B hypoplastic model utilizing the SPH computational solver developed by [22] to model the flow of granular biomass, which was validated by simulating a set of angle of repose tests and axial compression tests for the milled loblolly pine material discussed in this study.…”

Flow Properties of Coarse Powders Used in Food Extrusion as a Function of Moisture Content

“…For granulated sugar, the increase in the moisture content (from 0.06 to 0.78%) decreased particle interactions with walls, shown by the decrease in the wall friction angle (from 9.5 to 6.3 • ). Due to the high cohesion and angle of internal friction, the decrease in the wall friction angle can be explained by the interparticle forces increasing with moisture content more than particle-surface interactions [32,33].…”