The evaluation of carbonized biomass on hue value for utilization of renewable energy

Abstract

Carbonization or torrefaction is performed to promote the fuel efficiency of biomass as a renewable energy source by increasing the biomass energy. Carbonized biomass is manufactured in large-scale furnace, and technology to measurement the carbonized biomass fuel characteristics is required in manufacturing plants because the best fuel is produced under the optimal conditions. Herein, we proposed a method of evaluating fuel characteristics by measuring the hue value of the carbonized biomass. In this study, a carbonization experiment on the raw biomass was conducted, and the characteristics of the carbonized biomass in terms of elements, heating value, lightness L* and chromaticity a* and b* were evaluated. As the results, a positive correlation was observed between the color difference ΔE and the heating value of the carbonized biomass. Moreover, changes in the lightness L*, and the chromaticity a* and b* of cellulose and xylose affected the carbonized biomass, whereas such changes in lignin a limited effect on the carbonized biomass. The color difference ΔE between the raw biomass and the carbonized biomass could be used as an indicator of the optimal production of carbonized biomass.

Keywords

• biomass carbonization
• char characteristics
• hue value