Abstract
The thermal conductivity of solid biomass fuels is useful information in the investigation of biomass combustion behavior and the development of modeling especially in the context of large scale power generation. There are little published data on the thermal conductivity of certain types of biomass such as wheat straw, miscanthus, and torrefied woods. Much published data on wood is in the context of bulk materials. A method for determining the thermal conductivities of small particles of biomass fuels has been developed using a custom built test apparatus. Fourteen different samples of various solid biomass fuel were processed to form a homogenized pellet for analysis. The thermal conductivities of the pelletized materials were determined and compared against each other and to existing data.
Highlights
Modeling is an important tool in the design and operational control of a plant for biomass thermal conversion processes including combustion, torrefaction, gasification, and liquefaction
The objective of this study is to provide thermal conductivity data for accounting for differences between types of biomass fuel in the modeling of thermal conversion, combustion, and self-heating behavior
A set of test pieces made from poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) were made and the thermal conductivity was measured in the same manner as that for the biomass samples
Summary
Modeling is an important tool in the design and operational control of a plant for biomass thermal conversion processes including combustion, torrefaction, gasification, and liquefaction. It is important in the context of storage and handling since self-heating of biomass may lead to self-ignition. Models of the combustion of individual particles of biomass fuel have been developed at a fundamental level,[1,2] and these have been used as submodels for higher level modeling of furnaces using computational fluid dynamics.[3,4] While the power of the modeling tools has increased, the usefulness of the models has been limited by detailed and accurate data on the properties and behavior of biomass fuels. These may include various softwoods, hardwoods, herbaceous energy crops, agricultural residues, and other wastes or industrial byproducts
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