Energy properties of wood pellets made from the unusual woody plants

Abstract

Utilization of biomass for energy purposes is becoming more current and supported by almost the entire world. One form of the biomass is wood pellets. At present, one of the disadvantages of wood pellets using is their relatively high price. It is mainly caused by high price of input (starting) material – wood sawdust of good quality without bark content. The article deals about using of non-standard (unusual) woody plants for wood pellets production. In the work they were tested properties of wood pellets made from Norway spruce, red raspberry and blackcurrant. There were evaluated moisture content, volatile content, fixed carbon content, ash content, combustion heat, calorific value, carbon content, hydrogen content, nitrogen content and sulfur content. The results showed that tested wood pellets made from unusual woody plants (red raspberry and blackcurrant) has similar energy properties like wood pellets made from Norway spruce wood sawdust.