The production of wood pellets uses wood residues for raw material and the wood pellet industry is an increasing part of the forestry sector. Wood pellets are a well-known alternative to fossil fuels for private consumers and power plants, and the wood pellet producers are facing a large and increasing demand for their products. To optimize production control, and get guidelines for raw material pre-treatment, knowledge of how the raw material affects the production is needed.
The presentation will focus on a project that aims at describing how the raw material properties affect requirements for energy and machinery in production, and pellet quality. These production parameters can be related to the plastic and autoadhesive properties of wood and how these properties depend on raw material specie, particle sizes, surface properties, moisture content, temperature, pre-treatment and storage. These properties are highly variable in the different raw materials that are used by the pellet producers.
Keywords: Wood Pellet Production, Raw Material Properties, Pellet Quality
Authors
Niels Peter K. Nielsen
Industrial PhD student, Forest & Landscape, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark
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