Estudo do parâmetro friabilidade em briquetes de biomassa

Abstract

The search for technologies that are moving towards the reduction of the use of fossil fuels, either because of restrictions resulting from global pollution targets or by a drastic reduction in the supply of this energy source - making processes fueled by the energy of burning that type of fuel unsustainable - fosters research into energy generation based on renewable resources. The use of biomass as fuel is an alternative for the generation of energy. The briquette production (compaction of biomass), usually obtained from tailings from other processes, is growing in Europe and has favorable conditions in Brazil for a broad growth, which has already been observed by researchers and entrepreneurs attentive to the causes linked to sustainability. Within the entire briquettes production process, besides biochemical characteristics, a physical parameter of fundamental importance to the process and to the final consumer is friability, which provides evidence of resistance to impact and abrasion, recurring events during the manufacturing process, transportation and handling of the product. The study of this parameter aims at the production of briquettes of higher quality. In this scenario, the present work had as its objective the study of the friability, observing the influence of the manufacturing properties (applied compression load, briquettes mass, moisture of the material to be compressed) and the behavior of the manufactured fuels under different test conditions of friability. A benchtop friabilometer was used to carry out three (3) experiments on the briquettes of bagasse, Andiroba and the mixture of four species (Andiroba, Muiracatiara, Maçaranduba and pinus sp). The speed of rotation was varied at 10 rpm, 25 rpm and 50 rpm to investigate the influence of this parameter on the results obtained with the method used. Another parameter investigated was the compaction load, which varied in 24,2 MPa, 48,4 MPa and 72,6 MPa. All the tests were performed in triplicate, totalizing 81 samples.