The Canadian Society for Bioengineering The Canadian society for engineering in agricultural, food, environmental, and biological systems. La Société Canadienne de Génie Agroalimentaire et de Bioingénierie La société canadienne de génie agroalimentaire, de la bioingénierie et de l’environnement Paper No. 06-107 Cost and Performance of Woody Biomass Size Reduction for Energy Production Ladan J. Naimi, Shahab Sokhansanj, Sudhagar Mani, Mozammel Hoque, Tony Bi, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada Alvin R. Womac Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN USA Sundar Narayan First American Scientific Corporation, Delta, BC, V4G 1A6 Canada. Written for presentation at the CSBE/SCGAB 2006 Annual Conference Edmonton Alberta July 16 - 19, 2006 Abstract Size reduction is often a first step in primary processing of biomass for its handling and downstream processing applications. Selecting appropriate equipment for size reduction has a very important role in the biomass preparation. One of the main reasons is that size reduction equipment consumes large quantities of power. In this paper, we reviewed commercial equipment used for size reduction of woody biomass. The review also included the capital cost, operating costs and performance of equipment. The performance of equipment is evaluated based on its power consumption and the quality of chip production, which includes average particle size and particle size distribution. The type of equipment used depends upon the end use of biomass. For pulping applications, woody biomass is chipped to a uniform size of 2.5cm x 5cm (1in x 2in) with a thickness of 6mm (1/4in). For energy production, the size of biomass depends upon the type of burners used and it ranges from 6mm (¼in) to 5cm (2in). To distinguish between wood chips for pulping and ground material for energy production the word "hog fuels" is used. The Papers presented before CSBE/SCGAB meetings are considered the property of the Society. In general, the Society reserves the right of first publication of such papers, in complete form; however, CSBE/SCGAB has no objections to publication, in condensed form, with credit to the Society and the author, in other publications prior to use in Society publications. Permission to publish a paper in full may be requested from the CSBE/SCGAB Secretary, PO Box 23101, RPO McGillivray, Winnipeg MB R3T 5S3 or contact bioeng@shaw.ca. The Society is not responsible for statements or opinions advanced in papers or discussions at its meetings.