Sunflower Seed Husks Can Be Used As Fuel Pellets

Date: 07/22/2020 08:37:43 From: wood-pellet-plant.com Clicks:

Sunflower Seed Husks Can Be Used As Fuel Pellets

At present, oil seed husk as the raw material of biomass pellet fuel has been widely studied. Oil seed husk is an interesting and promising solid waste. As a byproduct of oil production, it has the advantage of high heat output, and its potential use is considerable. At present, many studies are focused on the preparation of biomass pellet fuels from oil seed husks, such as peanut shell pellets, walnut shell pellets, palm shell pellets, and so on.

Reported that sunflower seed husk is an excellent raw material for fuel with great potential in terms of cost and combustion applications, and can effectively be used as an alternative to fossil fuels. Spirchez et al. Briefly discussed the density and durability of sunflower seed husks as a solid fuel raw material. On this basis, pellets made from sunflower seed husks have been proved to be a cheap and convenient fuel, and the husks represent a promising raw material for biomass granulation. The use of different parameters in the pelletization of sunflower seed husks will affect the quality of the pellet fuel and energy consumption in the pelleting process.

Figure 1. Comprehensive utilization of sunflower seeds and methodology of this work.

Sunflower seed is a very common oil material, as shown in Figure 1. Sunflower kernels are used for oil extraction, and the remaining seed husks become solid waste.

Advantages:

• High calorific value: calorific value of pellets is 4.3-4.5 kW/kg. This figure is comparable with coal and 1.6 times higher than that of wood. During the combustion of 1000kg of pellets made from the husk, the amount of heat energy released is same as while burning 685 liters of fuel oil/500 liters of diesel fuel/479 m3 of natural gas, or 1,600kg of timber.
• High durability: the durability index of sunflower husk pellets is 18, which means they are harder than olive cake. Sunflower husk pellets are manufactured for high uniformity of fuel and better transportability.
• Economical: the cost is relatively low, compared to coal, fuel oil, and gas. With relatively low cost, sunflower husk pellets can be effectively used as a solid fuel.
• Environmentally friendly: the sunflower pellets are environmentally friendly fuel. When it is burnt, the amount of CO2 released is the same as during the natural decomposition of biomass, which is used to produce it. So CO2 emission is zero emission. Unlike traditional energy, carcinogenic or other dangerous substances are released either during storage or during combustion.
• Given these characteristics, sunflower husk pellets prove to have great use for furnace heating systems in industrial applications. All of these advantages make sunflower husk pellets ideal biofuel options.

Sunflower Husk Pelleting

*Crushing: sunflower husk needs to be crushed before pelletizing. The average length of sunflower husk is about 8.40mm, which is not available for pelletizing. The hammer mill can crush sunflower husk through the collision between the high-speed hammer and materials. Then, the output size can reach the diameter of 3-5mm.

Notice: Generally speaking, sunflower husk is quite dry with moisture content of around 8.65%, which meet the condition of 8-10% moisture in biomass pellet making. So there is no dry processing in the production line.

*Mixing: to ensure the best quality of sunflower husk pellets as biomass fuel, the dried sunflower husk can be mixed with certain sawdust, which makes sunflower husk pellets easier formed.

*Pelleting: when the pellet mill works, sunflower husks will be pressed under great force and high temperature of 140 – 1800F utilizing a ring die flat mill or flat die pellet mill to form columned granule with an average length from 10 – 30mm, and a diameter from 6 to 10mm.

*Cooling: after the pelletizing process, the temperature of sunflower pellets is about 60-80 degree Celsius and the moisture content is about 15%. A cooler must be used to reduce the moisture content of sunflower husk pellets to about 3-4%, thereby making it easy to store.

*Screening: cooled pellets are then screened to remove any remaining powdery material. Also, removed powdery materials can be reused for pelleting.

*Packaging: after the screening process, sunflower husk pellets will not directly enter into the fuel process. To avoid sunflower pellets affected with damp, the packing process in an automatic packing system is very necessary.

Table 1. Characterization of pellets made from sunflower seed husk based on ISO 17225-2.

In Table 1, based on ISO 17225-2, pellets made from sunflower seed husks showed low moisture content, high BD, and high DU. The moisture obtained in this research was lower compared to the requirements for woody biomass (10% wb). BD and DU are the main quality indicators for pellets, and an increase in these parameters indicates higher density.

The results show that in terms of price, sunflower seed husk pellet fuel is 71% cheaper than natural gas and 75% cheaper than coal, thus using it has higher economic benefits. Compared with the high taxation of fossil energy, especially in some European countries and China, the biomass from agricultural grain resources receives important subsidies from agricultural policies. In all, these facts show that sunflower seed husks are a good feedstock for biomass pelletization.

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