Industrial Experiments of Biomass Briquettes as Fuels for Bulk Curing Barns

Abstract

Biomass briquettes compressed from waste tobacco stalk have been tested for their potential fuel substitution of coal for the bulk curing operation. Parallel experiments were conducted in industrial scale bulk curing barns at six locations in Yunnan province of China using coal and biomass briquettes as fuels. The results showed that biomass briquettes performed equally as coal but superior at the high temperature curing stages because of their higher burning rate than coal. The energy efficiency for burning biomass briquettes ranged from 39 to 42%, higher than 36% from burning coal in parallel tests. The substitution of coal by the waste tobacco stalk briquettes, in conjunction with improvement in barn energy efficiency, offers the greatest potential for the Chinese tobacco industry to meet the Chinese national greenhouse gas emission intensity target of being 40–45% below its 2005 emissions level by 2020.

Keywords:

• Waste tobacco stalk
• Biomass briquettes
• Bulk curing barn
• Drying and curing