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http://dx.doi.org/10.5658/WOOD.2015.43.6.757

Effect of Sawdust Moisture Content and Particle Size on The Fuel Characteristics of Wood Pellet Fabricated with Quercus mongolica, Pinus densiflora and Larix kaempferi Sawdust  

Kim, Seong-ho (Department of Wood and Paper Science, College of Agriculture, Life & Environments Sciences, Chungbuk National University)
Yang, In (Department of Wood and Paper Science, College of Agriculture, Life & Environments Sciences, Chungbuk National University)
Han, Gyu-Seong (Department of Wood and Paper Science, College of Agriculture, Life & Environments Sciences, Chungbuk National University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology / v.43, no.6, 2015 , pp. 757-767 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of moisture content and particle size of sawdust on the fuel characteristics of wood pellets produced with Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica, QUM), red pine (Pinus densiflora, PID) and larch (Larix kaempferi, LAK) sawdust using a flat-die pelletizer. Prior to produce wood pellets, the sawdust was controlled to the moisture content of 8, 11, 12% and was screened to the particle size of 2 and 4 mesh. In the analysis of its chemical composition, QUM had a high ash content, and PID and LAK contained large amount of lignin. In case of the fuel characteristics, PID pellets had the lowest moisture content of pellets (P-MC), and LAR pellets was found to have the highest bilk density (BD) and durability (DU). With the increase of moisture content of sawdust (S-MC), P-MC and DU of QUM, PID and LAK pellets increased, but BD of QUM and LAK pellets decreased. When size of sawdust used for the production of wood pellets decreased, P-MC and BD of LAK pellets and BD of QUM pellets increased. Decrease of particle size contributed to the increase of DU of QUM, PID and LAK pellets. In addition, BD and DU of QUM pellets produced with 12% S-MC sawdust increased as its particle size reduced. For LAK pellets, DU was not influence by particle size in the S-MCs of 10% and 12%, but increased with the decrease of particle size in the S-MC of 8%. Based on the results and economical aspects, 10% MC and 2 mesh paricle size for QUM sawdust and 12% MC and 2 mesh particle size for PID sawdust might be optimal conditions for pellets production, and fuel characteristics of wood pellets produced by the conditions greatly exceeded the minimum requirements for the $1^{st}$-grade wood pellets of the standard designated by Korea Forest Research Institute.
Keywords
mongolian oak; red pine; wood pellet; moisture content; particle size; fuel characteristics;
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Times Cited By KSCI : 2  (Citation Analysis)
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