Biomass pre-treatment for bioenergy – Case study 2: pre-treatment options for forest based residues
This case study discusses the merits of various pretreatment options for forest based residues using practical conditions as prevailing in Canada, such as
- moisture management by passive and active drying, covering, blending, and monitoring and modelling of moisture content;
- physical property management by chipping, grinding, sieving and machine visualization;
- ash content management by washing;
- density management by pelletizing.
The study shows that such pre-treatment processes can be very effective in upgrading the physical and chemical properties of biomass feedstock in order to facilitate and/or avoid stoppage of downstream processes. The usability and value of forest biomass for various end-uses can thus be increased by appropriate pre-treatments: they can significantly improve the quality, storability and transportability of biomass and enable more versatile end-uses, as well as cleaner combustion and energy production especially for small users.