Waste Biomass to Biocoal by Rotating Reactor Type Torrefaction Technique

India is an agriculture-based country and generates more than 600 million tonnes of biomass waste from different crops. The waste crop residue burning in the agriculture field poses a lot of environmental, health, and economic issues in the various part of India on the other hand it is a good renewable source of energy, widely available and carbon-neutral. In this direction, efforts are made to improve the properties of waste crop residue via rotating rector torrefaction. Torrefaction is a thermal process to convert biomass into a coal-like material, which has better fuel characteristics than the original biomass. Torrefied biomass is more brittle, making grinding easier and less energy intensive. The chopped waste crop residue was torrified at different temperatures ranging from 250 to 300⁰C in the protective environment. It is observed that the gross calorific value increases from 3640 to 4500 Kcal/ kg whereas fixed carbon content increases to 21 to 34 % and density increases from 0.22g/cc to 0.50 g/cc. The volume of torrified material decreases significantly as compared to raw waste crop residue. The 10 % use of the torrified product with sub-bituminous coal in different applications can consume hundred million tonnes of crop residue and as a result reduction in significant amounts of greenhouse gases hence earning carbon credit.

Co-firing of torrefied biomass with coal, combined heat and power generation, standalone combustion, production of bio-based fuels and chemicals, heating blast furnaces, and industrial applications

It reduces the volume of crop residue significantly, alters the physical and chemical properties of waste biomass, the calorific value is equivalent to that of sub-bituminous coal, hydrophobic, etc.