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.

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