Abstract
Temer musa (Prosopis chilensis) is an invasive wild tree found in the desert of many countries, e.g., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, India, South Africa, and the USA. The thermochemical properties of this invasive tree were analyzed as a potential biomass feedstock for energy generation. The calorific value measurement of the temer musa wood was found to be 19.83 MJ/kg. Thermogravimetric analysis and derivative weight profiles displayed that the decomposition happened in four stages representing moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, and ash formation. The proximate parameters are in good range with other known biomasses and are found suitable for the thermochemical energy conversion. The gasification process confirmed the existence of several gases that are usually observed in invasive biomasses. All gasification gases were in the acceptable range, and no hydrogen sulfide gas was observed, which makes the conversion as environment friendly. The obtained results show that the energy conversion of temer musa is suitable for real-time implementation.
Highlights
Biomass is an attractive renewable energy source; it constitutes the biological matter obtained from living things and is possible to regrow [1,2,3]
Calorific value (CV) is a significant method for justifying the biomass as a potential source of energy [25]. is value is influenced by chemical composition, moisture, and ash content. e average gross calorific value (GCV) or high heating value (HHV) of temer musa was achieved by 19.83 MJ/kg on the dry basis and 17.93 MJ/kg on the wet basis. e standard deviations on a dry and wet basis are 0.3801 and 0.3436, respectively
Gross calorific value is the energy released from an oven-dry material, while the net calorific value (NCV) is from an airdry material [26]. e calorific value of oven-dried wood samples was reported in the literature as in the range 17–20 MJ/kg [27]. e calorific values from experiments are in good agreement with the values from the literature and even highest compared to the existed results. is indicated the heat energy contained in temer musa as a potential feedstock for energy conversion. e dry basis calorific value, 19.83 MJ/kg, is compared with other biomass materials from different countries of Africa (Table 1) to evaluate that temer musa has a high heating value as in a comparable range to the literature
Summary
Biomass is an attractive renewable energy source; it constitutes the biological matter obtained from living things and is possible to regrow [1,2,3]. Erefore, the conversion of these trees to energy is economically viable. Gasification, and pyrolysis are the leading technologies for the thermochemical conversion of dried biomass to energy [2, 4]. Gasification is in focus because it can transform various types of feedstock (biomass, coal, and biological wastes) into electrical energy through the syngas-powered generator, especially by the integration of biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cell- (SOFC-) based combined and heat power generation (CHP) [5,6,7]. Temer musa is an invasive tree that has not been studied before for the energy generation prospect.
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