Eco-Energy Aspects of Production and Utilization of Agripellets

Abstract

In addition to the environmental reasons, growing energy demand, running out of fossil fuel supplies, and the expected increase in gas prices, all indicate that we must change in our power supply. We should be increase the renewable energies 14.65 %, up to 2020. The opportunity among the renewable energies available in Hungary largely lies in the utilization of biomass. This compressed energy has come into the purview of Europe and our country too. The EU market is ideal for wood pellet production. In Hungary, due to the characteristics of its agricultural industry, large amounts of herbaceous biomass are available. Straw and various agricultural by-products can be used as the raw materials for agripellets. Common complications of the various by-products used in pellet production are the ability to store and manage them, in addition to their combustion. Therefore, it is important to create pellets that will reduce the energy put into transportation and improve the combustion parameters. Despite the fact that we have the herbaceous raw material base, the agripellet production is only slowly developing in our country. One reason for this is that while we have various agripellet combustion furnaces and boilers, these systems are relatively expensive. In addition, due to the high ash content of herbaceous plants, it cannot be burned in wood pellet boilers. Furthermore, furnaces in the market are relatively few. However, Austria and a number of EU countries are helping with subsidies for the initial investment to make the changeover to pellet heating. In our studies, we dealt with the biodiesel production generated from the by-product of rapeseed stalk. After the grinding process, we produced rapeseed stalk pellets with a small pellet-making machine. Studies show that we can obtain a lot of energy from the rapeseed stalk. The location of the examination took place in T&T Technik Ltd. in Szentes. They are producing agripellets from different agricultural by-products. In the future, I would like to expand on energy balance research in the area of agripellet production.