CIGR XVII th World Congress – Québec City, Canada – June 13-17, 2010 1 XVII th World Congress of the International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) Hosted by the Canadian Society for Bioengineering (CSBE/SCGAB) Québec City, Canada June 13-17, 2010 MATERIAL AND OPERATING VARIABLES AFFECTING THE PHYSICAL QUALITY OF BIOMASS BRIQUETTES Y. SONG 1 , J.S. TUMULURU 2 , K.L. IROBA 2 , L.G. TABIL 2 , M. XIN 1 , V. MEDA 2 1 Y. SONG, College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China, songyuqiu@yahoo.com.cn. 2 J.S. TUMULURU, Department of Agricultural & Bioresource Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK Canada S7N 5A9, tjayashankar@yahoo.com. 2 K.L. IROBA, kli931@mail.usask.ca 2 L.G. TABIL, lgt391@mail.usask.ca. 2 V. MEDA, venkatesh.meda@usask.ca. CSBE100429 – Presented at Section IV: Rural Electricity and Alternative Energy Sources Conference ABSTRACT Biomass is a renewable energy source and environmentally friendly substitute for fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum products. Biomass has low bulk density, which makes it very difficult and costly to transport and handle. One of the very good strategies to overcome these difficulties is to densify the biomass to a high density product like briquettes. Briquetting is influenced by a number of material properties such as moisture content, particle size distribution, and some operating variables such as temperature and densification pressure. In this study, experiments were designed and performed to produce briquettes using barley straw, canola straw, oat straw, and wheat straw. The chopped samples were densified using laboratory hydraulic press briquetting machine under three pressure levels (7.5, 10, 12.5 MPa), three levels of temperature (90, 110, 130ºC), at three moisture content levels (9, 12, 15% w.b.), and three levels of particle size (19.1, 25.04, 31.75 mm). For each treatment combination, ten briquettes were manufactured at a residence time of about 30 s. After compression, the dimensions of all the samples were measured; samples were then stored in Ziploc bags at a controlled environment for two weeks. Durability, dimensional stability, and moisture content tests were conducted after two weeks of storage of the briquettes. Results of the analysis indicated that moisture content plays a significant role on briquettes durability, stability, and density. Low moisture content of the straws (9-12%) gives better, denser, more stable, and more durable briquettes than moisture content at 15%.. The axial expansion was more significant than the lateral expansion, which in some cases tended to be nil depending on the treatment combination of the material and operating variables. At high temperature (130oC) and low moisture (9-12%), compacts with high durability rating were produced. At high pressure (12.5 MPa) and low moisture (9-12%), compact with high density were obtained. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that temperature has positive correlation with durability rating and no significant effect on the density, while pressure is positively correlated with the compact density.