Executive Summary : | The annual production of crop residues in India is estimated more than 500 million tons (MT). Among these residues, surplus crop residues contributed in the range of 84 to141 MT/yr, in which cereals and fiber crops shares approximately 58 and 23% of the total crop residues. These surplus residues had poor quality in terms of high moisture content, low energy density, low heating value, difficulties faced in storage stability and grindability, and hydrophilicity, etc. limited the direct thermal, industrial, transportation, and storage applications. In addition, the physical and chemical properties of raw biomass are significantly different from fossil coal. As the physical properties like fixed carbon (FC) and volatile matter (VM) present in biomass is in the range of 0.5 to 20 wt% and 67 to 88 wt%, respectively, while coal contains 46-92 wt% and 0.9-50 wt%, respectively. Thus, before its direct application, torrefaction pre-treatment is necessary to minimize the above problems and simultaneously to improve the overall energy efficiency to counter balance against coal. Therefore, the most reliable and energy-efficient way to overcome this problem would be transform crop residues into a value-added product known as torrefied biomass via mild pyrolysis process having ability to preserve mass more than 50% and just about all energy (90%) in a raw biomass. Torrefaction process is having an application potential for preparing torrefied briquettes or pellets, which might be utilized as a feedstock for syngas production using gasifier technology and, in some cases, it acts as a substitute fuel to coal in power generation plant. Torrefied biomass has been producing the 2nd generation biomass pellets. In the proposed proposal a continuous type torrefaction system will be designed and developed especially to torrefied the agricultural crop residues. The reactivity of different agricultural crop residues for the production of torrefied biomass and its thermal performance of the developed system will be investigated to interpret the mass yield, energy yield, energy required for torrefaction, and net energy gain. In addition to this, the impact of torrefaction upon the composition of lignocelluloses and its thermal behavior will also be assessed with the help of a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Furthermore, the proposed study will be helped in waste management and additional revenue generation. The effect of recycle on greenhouse gas emission will examine. It will be accomplished by developing value addition practices, exploring the business models, and providing hands-on training to stakeholders to improve social acceptance of utilization of agricultural crop residues for fuel production. |