• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.96-105
• /
• 2016

This study investigated thermal properties and activation energy ($E_a$) of torrefied oak wood powders treated with various torrefaction times (0, 5, 7.5, 10 min) by using non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis at heating rates of 10, 20, $40^{\circ}C/min$ to check the feasibility of rapidly torrefied oak wood powders as a fuel. As the torrefaction time increases, onset of thermal decomposition temperature, lignin content, and the amount of final residue of torrefied oak wood powders were accordingly increased with reduced hemicellulose content. $E_a$ was determined by using Friedman and Kissinger models and respective R-square values were over 0.9 meaning very good availability of calculated $E_a$ values. The $E_a$ values of the samples were decreased with the increase of torrefaction time and the lowest $E_a$ value ob served in the torrefied oak wood powders treated for 7.5 min showed high feasibility of rapidly torrefied oak wood powder as a biomass-solid refuse fuel.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.181-195
• /
• 2020

Characteristics of carbonized biomass obtained from a Wood charcoal briquette manufacturing process using an open hearth kiln are analyzed in this research, and differences in the characteristics based on the results of a mechanical screening process and the position within the kiln. One type of biomass and five types of carbonized biomass were collected from a Wood charcoal briquette manufacturer. After screening and grinding processes were performed on samples of 1 type of biomass and 5 types of carbonized biomass extracted from a Wood charcoal briquettes manufacturer to classify by particle size, fixed carbon, ash, volatile matters, elemental composition, and high heating value (HHV) were measured. Experimental results showed that the carbonized biomass collected from the middle layer had the highest HHV, 20.4 MJ/kg, and therefore had the highest fuel quality. In terms of particle size, the carbonized biomass below 100 mesh had the lowest ash content and the highest HHV, carbon content, and fixed carbon content. Correlation analyses showed that ash content had negative correlations with HHV, volatile matters, fixed carbon, and carbon content, which suggested that ash content affected negatively on fuel quality.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.61 no.2
• /
• pp.258-264
• /
• 2023

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission assessment of kenaf pellet, produced from locally generated kenaf residues in South Korea, has been studied based on the EU RED-II methodology for calculating GHG impact of biomass fuels. Based on the production pathway of kenaf residue pellet and emission coefficients from EU JRC report, the life cycle GHG emission of kenaf residue pellet is assessed as 3.0 gCO₂eq/MJ_pellet and the life cycle GHG emission of electricity generated from kenaf residue pellet is assessed as 11.9 gCO₂eq/MJ when electrical efficiency of final conversion is 25%. The potential GHG emission reduction of electricity produced from kenaf pellet is 90.3% compared to the domestic electricity emission factor 42.8 kgCO₂eq/MWh. Also, the electricity produced from kenaf pellet can reduce at least 59.6% of GHG emission compared to the electricity produced from imported wood pellets.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.13-19
• /
• 1989

Two different quartz types of gasification reactor were used for pyrolysis and gasification of sawdust, ricestraw, ricehusk and municipal wastes which contain only cellulosics., operating at 1 atmospheric and vacuum pressure respectively. Also a stainless steel autoclave gasification reactor was used which is possible to use up to 100 atmospheric pressures and $800^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature to complete pyrolysis and gasification reaction. The catalysts used in this reaction w- ere $K_2CO_3$, $Na_2CO_3$, Ni and Ni-$K_2CO_3$ as CO-Catalyst. The product gas mixtures were identified to be CO, $CO_2$, $C_3H_3$, $CH_4$ and $CH_3CHO$ etc. by Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry. The pressurized gasification reaction shows significant increase in terms of methane composition and yield of product gases, comparing with those from unpressurized gasification reactions. The total volume of product gas mixtures amounts to 1600-1800ml per1gof waste of waste lignocellulosics or municipal waste, and the metane content of the gas mixtures reached to 40%, when $800^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature and 100 atmospheric pressures with Ni-$K_2CO_3$ as CO-catalyst in the pressurized gasification reaction were used. This results show that the product gas mixtures containing 40% of methane call be used for alternative enegy source.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.512-520
• /
• 2011

This study was preformed to investigate the characteristics of the green drying system for utilizing heat wasted during carbonization process. The green drying system utilizing waste heat is one of environment-friendly equipments because it needs no other energies from fossil fuel and etc. In this study, waste heat from three kilns was collected by stainless connection pipe, and in the green drying system the temperature and humidity was hardly changed. Charcoal charecteristics as fixed carbon, refining degree, hardness, pH, calorific value, and charcoal yield were analyzed to investigate kiln performance due to installation of green drying system. As a result, the green dry system installation hardly affected the characteristics of charcoal. In conclusion, the green drying system can be applied to maximize the profit of the farm household income and contribute to reduce fossil energy.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.456-461
• /
• 2012

To verify the utilization of biomass as energy, the combustion characteristic has been studied by an experimental combustion furnace under an isothermal and non-isothermal combustion. The wood pellet, rice straw and rice husk were used as biomass samples in this work. The characteristics of emission gases, dusts and residues from biomass combustion have been analyzed and compared with those of reuse derived fuel (RDF). From isothermal combustion experiments, it was found that the incomplete combustion of rice straw was greater that that of rice husk, wood pellet and RDF. This is due to the fact that the combustion reaction rate of the rice straw was faster than that of other samples, and the oxygen concentration in rice straw combustion was rapidly decreasing. It was also found that $NO_{X}$ concentration of emission gas from wood pellet combustion was the lowest. From non-isothermal combustion experiments, it was found that all samples were burned before $900^{\circ}C$. Also, the temperature range of $NO_{X}$ emission was similar to that of CO emission, on the other hand, $SO_{2}$ was emitted at a higher temperature than that of CO emission.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.231-236
• /
• 2014

Sawdust, produced as an wood by-product, is usable biomass as liquid fuels if decomposed to monomer unit, because the chemical structure are similar to high octane materials found in gasoline. In this study, parameters of thermochemical degradation by acetone-solvolysis reaction of sawdust such as the effect of reaction temperature, reaction time and type of solvent on conversion yield and degradation products were investigated. The liquid products by acetone-solvolysis from sawdust produced various kind of ketone, phenol and furan compounds. The optimum sawdust conversion was observed to be 88.7% at $350^{\circ}C$, 40min. Combustion heating value of liquid products from thermochemical conversion processes was as high as 7,824 cal/g. The energy yield and mass yield in acetone-solvolysis of sawdust was 60.8% and 36.4 g-oil/100g-sawdust after 40 min of reaction at $350^{\circ}C$, respectively. The major components of the acetone-solvolysis products, that could be used as liquid fuel, were 4-methyl-3-pentene-2-one, 1,3,5-trimethylbezene, 2,6-dimethyl-2,5-heptadiene-4-one, 3-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one as ketone compounds.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.646-652
• /
• 2016

Biomass is regarded as one of the promising energy sources to deal with the depletion of fossil fuels and the global warming issue. Biocrude-oil can be produced through the fast pyrolysis of biomass feedstocks such as wood, crops, agricultural and forestry residues. It has significantly higher viscosity than that of conventional petroleum fuel and contains solid residues, which can lower the spray and atomization characteristics when applied to the burner. In addition, biocrude-oil consists of hundreds of chemical species derived from cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, and evaporation characteristics of the biocrude-oil droplet are distinct from the conventional fuels. In the present study, a numerical study was performed to investigate the evaporation characteristics of biocrude-oil droplet using a simplified composition of the model biocrude-oil which consists of acetic acid, levoglucosan, phenol, and water. The evaporation characteristics of droplets were compared at various surrounding air temperatures, initial droplet diameters, and ethanol mixing ratios. The evaporation time becomes shorter with increasing air temperature, and it is much sensitive to the air temperature particularly in low temperature ranges. It was also found that the biocrude-oil droplet evaporates faster in cases of the smaller initial droplet diameter and larger ethanol mixing ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.975-984
• /
• 2018

Fast pyrolysis bio-oil has unfavorable properties that restrict its use in many applications. Among the main issues are high acidity, instability, and water and oxygen content, which give rise to corrosiveness, polymerization during storage, and a low heating value. Esterification and azeotropic water removal can improve all of these properties. A 500 g of Quercus mongollica which grounded 0.8~1.4 mm was processed into bio-oil via fast pyrolysis for 2 seconds at $550^{\circ}C$. The esterification consists of treating pyrolysis oil with a high boiling alcohol like n-butanol at $70^{\circ}C$ under reduced pressure (100 hPa). All products are analyzed for water mass fraction, viscosity, higher heating value, pH, FT-IR and GC/MS. The water mass fraction can be reduced by 91.4 % (from 31.5 % to below 2.7 %), the viscosity by 65.8 % (from 36.5 to 12.5 cP) and the higher heating value can be increased by 96.8 % (from 3,918 to 7,712 kcal/kg), the pH by 1.3 (from 2.7 to 4.0). FT-IR and GC/MS analysis indicated that labile acids, aldehydes, ketones and lower alcohols were transformed to stable target products. Using this approach, the water content of the pyrolysis oil is reduced significantly. These improvements should allow the utilization of upgraded pyrolysis liquids in standard boilers and as fuel in CHP (Combined heat and power) plants.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.358-373
• /
• 2013

In this study, both mild acid and alkali treatments with 1.0 wt% and 2.0 wt% of $H_2SO_4$ and NaOH solution were applied to evaluate the effects on chemical compositions of wood biomass. Yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) and larch (Larix kaempferi C.) were chosen due to major species planted in Korea. Chemical treatments of biomass were carried out by being soaked in either acid or alkali solution with 1:20 ratio for 72 hours at ambient temperature. Afterward, lignin, 5 major reduced sugars, ash contents and elemental composition were determined. To statistically understand the relationship between samples and chemical treatments, the Tukey test, simple linear regression model and ANOVA analysis were introduced using a statistical software R. As results from both wet chemistry and statistical analysis, yellow poplar was more affected on the lignin and xylose contents by acid treatments under these experimental conditions. Meanwhile, larch was more affected on the composition of galactose and lignin by alkali treatments. A series of results in this study would show that equivalent chemical treatment makes a change the chemical composition of each species.