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Description:
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Increases in demand , lower emission standards , and reduced fuel supplies have
fueled the recent effort to find new and better fuels to power the necessary equipment for
society’s needs . Often , the fuels chosen for research are renewable fuels derived from
biomass . Current research at Texas A &M University is focused on the effectiveness of
using cattle manure biomass as a fuel source in conjunction with coal burning utilities .
The scope of this project includes fuel property analysis , pyrolysis and ignition behavior
characteristics , combustion modeling , emissions modeling , small scale combustion
experiments , pilot scale commercial combustion experiments , and cost analysis of the
fuel usage for both feedlot biomass and dairy biomass . This paper focuses on fuel
property analysis and pyrolysis and ignition characteristics of feedlot biomass .
Deliverables include a proximate and ultimate analysis , pyrolysis kinetics values , and
ignition temperatures of four types of feedlot biomass (low ash raw manure [LARM] ,
low ash partially composted manure [LAPC] , high ash raw manure [HARM] , and high
ash partially composted manure [HAPC] ) as well as blends of each biomass with Texas
lignite coal (TXL ) . Activation energy results for pure samples of each fuel using the single reaction model rigorous solution were as follows : 45 kJ /mol (LARM ) , 43 kJ /mol
(LAPC ) , 38 kJ /mol (HARM ) , 36 kJ /mol (HAPC ) , and 22 kJ /mol (TXL ) . Using the
distributed activation energy model the activation energies were 169 kJ /mol (LARM ) ,
175 kJ /mol (LAPC ) , 172 kJ /mol (HARM ) , 173 kJ /mol (HAPC ) , and 225 kJ /mol (TXL ) .
Ignition temperature results for pure samples of each of the fuels were as follows : 734 K
(LARM ) , 745 K (LAPC ) , 727 (HARM ) , 744 K (HAPC ) , and 592 K (TXL ) . There was
little difference observed between the ignition temperatures of the 50 % blends of coal
with biomass and the pure samples of coal as observed by the following results : 606 K
(LARM ) , 571 K (LAPC ) , 595 K (HARM ) , and 582 K (HAPC ) . |