SET Proceedings 2978-4387 Caravel Press 10.65582/set.2012.042 2012.042 The Product Yields and Characteristics of Corncob Wastes Under Torrefaction Atmospheres LuJau-Jang ChenWei-Hsin LuKe-Maio ZhuangYi-Qing Graduate Institute of Applied Living Science, Tainan University of Technology, 710 Tainan, Taiwan, ROC Department of Greenergy, National University of Tainan, 700 Tainan, Taiwan, ROC Department of Environmental Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, 701 Tainan, Taiwan, ROC 02092012 11 1 978-1-995850-02-3 411 420 2 September 2012 © 2012 Copyright WSSET 2012

From the viewpoint of energy and environmental conservation, biomass has become a promising energy source due to its carbon-fixing and neutral-emission properties. Torrefaction is employed to improve the characteristics of biomass under an oxygen-free or nitrogen atmosphere. The cost of biomass pretreatment and difficulty of process control are increased in order to practically maintain an oxygen-free and closed environment. This study is conducted to understand the product yields and characteristics of solid products of corncob wastes as biomass after 1 hr of torrefaction by using nitrogen, carbon dioxide, air plus carbon dioxide as carrier gases, and at the temperatures of 250°C and 300°C, respectively. The product safety and storage properties before and after torrefaction are revealed by flash points and hygroscopicity. The results show that the product characteristics approach those of coal at higher temperatures and the product yields and retained energy of solid products also decrease as temperatures rise, regardless of what the carrier gases are. The physical and chemical characteristics of solid products are similar when carbon dioxide is used as a carrier gas compared to nitrogen, while poorer when air plus carbon dioxide is used.

 torrefaction atmosphere corncob waste flash point hygroscopicity 2 to 5 September 2012 11th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies SET2012 11 Vancouver, Canada