WOOD RESEARCH Volume 61, Number 2, 2016
Oliver-Villanueva José-Vicente, García-Andújar Enrique, and Gascón-Garrido Patricia

Analysis of durability and dimensional stability of hydrothermal carbonized wooden pellets

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a chemical pretreatment of wood waste for convert it in biochar by the application of high temperatures and pressures in a reaction time that do not exceed 10 hours. One of the main applications of the HTC biochar is as pellets. In this research durability against fungal decay and dimensional stability associated with relative humidity changes of HTC pellets were analyzed and evaluated. A comparison of these properties between HTC pellets and wooden EN+ pellets has been carried out. HTC pellets are significantly more durable against fungal attack, more dimensionally stable against relative humidity changes and denser than wood pellets, which confers better properties for logistics processes like storage and transport.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 64, Number 3, 2019
Cosmin Spîrchez, Aurel Lunguleasa, and Liviu Gaceu

Researches on grape husk waste obtained from the winery and its use as pellets for combustion

Nowadays, there is a tendency to find new sources of biomass and to efficiently use old sources, especially to find renewable fuels. The paper aims to use grape husks resulting from the preparation of wine as pellets for combustion. Oven dry grape husk were used to be crushed and graded with the sieve of 1×1 mm in order to obtain dust for pelletizing. The pellets obtained from grape husk winery have a good density of 979 kg. m-3; a good ash content of 4.53% and a better high and low calorific value of 20.150 MJ. kg-1 and 19.850 MJ. kg-1, respectively. All over, the obtained results showed that this kind of raw material (pellets) can be use successfully when they are pelletized.