Preparation and Characterization of Solid Biomass Fuel from Waste Mushroom Cultivation Bags

摘要

This study investigated the feasibility of preparing the solid biomass fuel from bio-waste material in the waste mushroom cultivation bag (WMCB) and examined whether the decaying carbohydrates due to the fungi present in the bio-waste material of WMCB affects the heating value of the solid biomass fuel. This study involves the following steps: (1) drying the bio-waste material of WMCB and the wood dust of Taiwan Acacia (TA); (2) grinding the bio-waste material of WMCB and the wood dust of TA into the powder GP_(WMCB) and GP_(TA), respectively; (3) characterizing the heating value of the powder of GP_(WMCB) and GP_(TA); (4) solidifying the air-dried powder of GP_(WMCB) (or GP_(TA)) into a biomass briquette BMB_(WMCB) or BMB_(TA) using the piston-in-mold process; (5) charcoalizing the biomass briquette BMB_(WMCB) and BMB_(TA) into the charcoal briquette WMCB CB and CB_(TA), respectively, using a home-made mechanical furnace of charcoalization; and (6) characterizing the charcoal yield, the ash and the heating value of the CB_(WMCB) and CB_(TA), respectively. Both CB_(TA) and CB_(WMCB) inhere the linear relationship between the average heating value and the charcoalization temperature. The RP_(HV), which indicates the reduction percentage of heating value of CB_(WMCB), is less than 10%, compared with the heating value of CB_(TA).