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Grinding characteristics of torrefied and white wood biomass pellets for power plants application: laboratory and industrial scales

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Abstract

This manuscript presents an experimental evaluation of the grinding of biomass pellet samples using ball mills. These samples are the torrefied and white wood pellets. Both samples were de-agglomerated with water to determine their original particle size before the pelleting process using RRSB model. Different design and operating parameters, including; ball charge fraction, classifier speed, fuel flow rates, and orifice size, are investigated. It was found that the particle size of torrefied pellets was finer than that of the white pellets. The results showed that grinding time had a significant inversed influence with the product fineness for both pellets at the laboratory scale. For the industrial scale, the aspired fineness of ≤ 30 % residue at a mesh size of 1.0 mm was obtained with a classifier. Moreover, power consumption decreased when increasing the discharge orifice width. The lowest specific power consumption was obtained at a classifier speed of 175 rpm.

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Abbreviations

d :

Diameter (mm)

d o :

Upper diameter (mm)

d′ :

Size modulus, characteristic diameter (mm)

δ :

Transformed diameter (mm)

δ′ :

Transformed size parameter (mm)

n :

Distribution modulus (−)

Q(δ):

Particle size distribution function (−)

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the managers of the Engineering Department working in the company Mitsubishi Hitachi Power System Europe and the laboratory staff at the Gebr. Pfeifer SE Germany, who did a great load of the practical work for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Engineering, German Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan

    Yaqoub Al-Khasawneh

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Ma’an, Jordan

    Habis Al-Zoubi

Authors
  1. Yaqoub Al-Khasawneh
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  2. Habis Al-Zoubi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Habis Al-Zoubi.

Additional information

Y. Al-Khasawneh received his Ph.D. degree in the Faculty of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering at the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg/Germany in 2009. After completing his Ph.D., he worked at Hitachi Power Europe at the Department of Process Engineering and Mechanical Design Calculation. Also, he worked as a lead engineer at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Group, Duisburg-Germany. Since 2016 Dr. Al-Khasawneh joined the German Jordanian University (GJU) in the Department of Energy Engineering as an Assist Professor. His research interests include; power plants, renewable energy and energy conversion systems.

H. Al-Zoubi is currently serving as an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Ma’an, Jordan. He received both his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan in 1993, and his Ph.D. in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from University of Nottingham, UK in 2007. Dr. Al-Zoubi’s research interests include adsorption process, waste water treatment, jojoba oil, and membrane technology.

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Al-Khasawneh, Y., Al-Zoubi, H. Grinding characteristics of torrefied and white wood biomass pellets for power plants application: laboratory and industrial scales. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 3407–3420 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0714-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0714-x

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