Development and Application of Biomass Pellets

People's demand for biomass pellet make biomass pellet a popular solid renewable fuel, and also accelerate the development of biomass pellet making machines. There are some reasons that make biomass pellets production necessary.

The cost of fossil fuel keeps escalating, such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. The increased fossil fuel cost will make the production cost of each plant increase, too.

The environment pollution problem is becoming more and more serious. During the combustion of coal, it will create many different pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon granules, and dust, etc.

The raw materials of biomass pellets are everywhere, and the cost of biomassy raw materials is low. There are many different types of raw materials that can make biomass pellets, such as biomass chips, biomass shavings, sawdust, biomass branches, cotton stalks, rice husk, grass, etc. All these materials are wastes from biomass plants and farms, that you can easily get hands on them with very cheap price.

Biomass Pellet Advantages

The advantages of biomass pellets compare to traditional coal:

1. Biomass pellets compressed by biomass pellet mills do not have the poisonous chemical components, so the biomass pellet ashes can be used directly on the farms. The Biomass pellet ashes have large quantity organics, such as potassium. But, coal creates large quantity thiophosphorous compounds and coal residue after coal combustion period. If we throw the coal residues directly on the ground, it will damage the earth.

2. Biomass pellets have high volatilization rate and low ignition point. Biomass pellets can be burned sustainably. Biomass pellets can be used as the burning fuel of industrial boilers, right now, the industrial boiler manufacturers have developed the boilers specially designed for biomass pellet combustion.

advantages of biomass pellets compare to traditional coal

3. Biomass pellets have good combustion performance, before biomass pellet compression process, the pellet raw materials have been fully crushed into powder, and the moisture of pellet raw materials have been controlled under 10%, which ensure the combustion performance of biomass pellets. When the purity of coal is low, it can not be fully burned, it will create large quantity volatile components which include the unburned carbon, carbon oxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc. All these components are contaminants that can heavily pollute the environment.

4. The combustion of biomass pellets creates less carbon emission, it is a type of renewable fuels which is environmentally friendly. But, on the contrary, coal is a type of traditional fossil fuels that create large quantity pollution gas during the combustion period.

5. The price of biomass pellet fuel is much lower than the coal price. Based the current fuel price, the average price of each ton of coal is $30 higher than the price of each ton of biomass pellets.

6. Biomass pellets have uniformed appearance, small volume, and high density. All these features make biomass pellets easy to transport and storage.

Why not directly burn biomass fuel

All these reasons make people eager to find a new type of renewable fuel. But why Biomass pellets? Why not burning Biomass directly? Here are some main reasons that make Biomass pellet production necessary.

1. Biomass sources are scarce, and log grade biomass has a wider application range. It can be used to make quality furniture, handicraft, musical instruments, paper, etc. Moreover, the growth of trees is slow, and log grade biomass has high moisture content, which needs a long natural air drying process.

1. In some suburban areas in developing countries, many people may use other biomassy materials as the living fuel, such as cotton stalks. But different biomass materials have different sizes, density and moisture content, which makes the combustion performance unstable, and some large materials can not be put into the furnace. biomass pellets are the fuel with uniformed size, high density and low moisture content that are easy to burn. biomass pellets can be used for multiple combustion systems, and with the rapid development of biomass pellets, there are many different types of pellet combustion systems came out, both industrial and residential.

3. As we all know, if we want to ignite logs and branches, it is not an easy job. biomass pellet is much easier to ignite. Moreover, biomass pellets have higher combustion efficiency, less smoke, and higher unit heat value than other biomass materials.

Biomass Pellet Application

1. Biomass pellets can be used as the fuel for thermal power plants. Thermal power plants normally burn coal to generate electricity. Thermal power plants are the main electricity generation way in modern society. Although, there are a few thermal power plants use natural gas, but coal is also the main fuel for thermal power plants, and the pollution problem is a serious concern of global governments. 10,000ton biomass pellets can replace 8,000ton coal, and reduce 160ton sulfur dioxide emission, 80ton dust emission, and 14,400ton carbon dioxide emission.

2. Biomass pellets can also be used as the fuel for industrial boilers. Before biomass pellets stepped into the market, the majority of industrial boilers use coal or heavy oil as the burning fuel. A few industrial boilers use natural gas, but the cost of natural gas is much more expensive than coal and heavy oils, so it can not be widely accepted by the industrial boiler owners. As we all know, coal and heavy oil have pollution problems. But biomass pellets have little carbon emission that can reduce environmental pollution.

Biomass Pellet Application

3. Biomass pellets can be used as living fuel in everyone’s daily life. First, you can use biomass pellets as the fuel for your BBQ grill, it is much easier to burn than charcoal. Also, you can use biomass pellets as the heating fuel for your home, and there are many different types of pellet stoves has been brought to the market. biomass pellet is a clean fuel that has high combustion efficiency, and very easy to store. Nowadays, more and more families start to use biomass pellets.