Grindability determination of torrefied biomass materials using the Hybrid Work Index

摘要

The grindability of torrefied biomass materials is a difficult parameter to evaluate due to its inhomoge-neous character and non-uniform morphology. However, it is necessary to develop a grinding test that is representative of the wide ranging character of biomass and torrefied biomass materials. Previous research has shown that Resistance to Impact Milling (RIM) can be linearly correlated to thermally driven weight loss in biomass. In particular, the RIM equipment was found to supply the right energy level to physically break down structurally deficient biomass materials while leaving the un-touched material relatively intact [1-3]. However, the RIM procedure was not designed to extract the comminution energy. Alternatively, the Bond Work Index (BWI) procedure was developed to accurately assess the grinding energy of brittle materials [4,5]. However, the milling energy is too low to be effective for biomass comminution. In this research, the BWI procedure was utilized with the ball-mill approach in the RIM test to evaluate torrefied biomass materials. The hybridized procedure has been shown to be both highly correlated to energy consumption and sensitive to degree of torrefaction. The proposed Hybrid Work Index (HWI) is certainly useful for assessing torrefaction in a laboratory environment, but it may also be correlated to grinding energy at industrial scales.