Pellets Evaluation Made from Tropical-Climate Agricultural and Forestry Crops of Costa Rica with a Domestic Stove

Abstract

Propose The present study shows the results of the evaluation of the pellets made from two forestry crops and eight agricultural crops in Costa Rica by employing a 50 kW domestic stove. Methods The following variables were evaluated: flame outlet and flue gas temperatures and emissions (CO 2 , CO, NO, NO 2 , NO x and SO 2 ). Results It was found that the pellet consumption varies from 2.5 to 3.4 kg/h, where the former corresponds to Tectona grandis and the latter to the mesocarp oil palm fruit. Flame outlet temperature varied from 400 to 623°C and flue gas temperature varied from 205 to 322°C, where the lowest temperature corresponds to Phyllostachys aurea and the highest to the oil palm residue. T. grandis showed the highest variation in temperature, while Cupressus lusitanica showed the lowest variation. A result that stands out in the measurement of emissions is that the two forestry crops show the lowest values. Conclusions Different type of pellet produces different behaviour in domestic stove. Gynerium sagittatum and C. lusitanica were with greater heat generation and Pennisetum purpureum and T. grandis with the lowest heat generation.

Particle Size Distribution and Physicochemical Properties of Pellets Made of Straw, Hay, and Their Blends

“…These include sawdust, bark, forest residues, cereal residues and energy grasses [14]. The literatures report the use of several lignocellulosic biomasses for solid fuel production, such as: sawdust or residues from different trees [10,18,27,28], cereal straw or residues (wheat, barley, oat, rice) [29][30][31][32], corn stover [2,19,29,31,33], biomasses energy plants (willow, miscanthus, Jerusalem artichoke, Spartina pectinata, big bluestem, switchgrass) [3,7,19,23,29,31,[33][34][35], soybean waste (bark, stalk and defective grains) [18], sugarcane (bagasse, other residues) [18,36].…”

Pelletization of Agroindustrial Biomasses from the Tropics as an Energy Resource: Implications of Pellet Quality

“…The results of physicochemical characterization (Table ) indicate that RH has the lowest calorific value, which is due to its lower volatile material content and higher ash content . The high ash content of the raw material has a significant impact on the combustion process; nevertheless, the pelletizing improves the emission control of particulate material and facilitates the handling of the ashes of combustion processes, because the pellet combustion allows for the ash to agglomerate in the form of pellets and pellets agglomerated in the bottom of the device. ,, This, dependent upon the ash content, may imply a greater cleaning frequency of the thermochemical device and can be decisive in the choice of the most suitable material as solid fuel.…”

Characterisation of Pellets Made From Oil Palm Residues in Costa Rica

“…Additionally, the sensors to measure combustion gas were placed at this point. The information about this combustion test is detailed in Moya et al (2015a).…”

“…The second aspect of the combustion evaluated was the thermal analysis, in which heat loss due to dry flue gas and wet flue gas is evaluated, as well as the total heat loss, in order to finally establish the efficiency in combustion of the pellets. Concerning heat loss, the ASME PTC-4 (2011) method was used, which is catalogued as indirect and calculates loss as follows and widely detailed in Moya et al (2015a).…”