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Fuel From Sawdust

July 27, 2001

Russia owns enormous reserves of coil, oil, and gas. However, such unconventional raw material in energy industry as biomass is of great importance. Its share amounts to 4 per cent now and, probably, will be increasing. Biomass, i.e. organic waste of wood industry and agriculture, trees of quick growth, is considered to be recoverable energy sources. Their reserves are recovered quicker in comparison with mineral resources. That is why in Russia and all over the world the technologies of processing biomass for energy industry have been developed for a long time. At the end of May, 2001 Head of All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electrification in Agriculture Professor Dmitrii Strebkov presented a report at the seminar "Russian Technologies for Industry". He told about a new installation that converts 60-70 per cent of biomass into liquid fuel of full value.

The installation bases on the method of fast biomass pyrolysis without oxygen access, which was invented by Professor Eduard Vainshtein at the Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences. Firstly, the raw material, which usually contains a lot of moisture, is heated instantly up to 250 C. The released vapor can be used for heating or other technical needs. The dehydrated mass is heated again very quickly up to 600-700 C. The large molecules of organic compounds are destroyed and the decomposition products gasify. Then the gas is cooled and the flammable liquid is formed. Very few waste products remain under these conditions: some wood charcoal and gas that cannot be converted into liquid. However, these components can be useful too. The similar technologies of getting fuel from biomass exist in other countries but the Russian scientists have pioneered founding the way to separate moisture from the fuel and it takes much more energy to burn it.

       The whole installation, which was constructed in All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electrification in Agriculture, occupies 30 square meters and weighs 600 kg. One man can operate it. The installation can produce one ton of liquid fuel ready for use every day and consumes only 5 per cent of the produced energy.

       The technology of processing biomass is best suited to north regions of the country where much wood waste is produced in woodworking enterprises. However, it does not seem sensible to use wood as fuel. That is why in the case of wood deficiency the scientists suggested growing raw material for the installation - quick-growing poplars and willows. When planting such a wood on a farm the trees become three meters higher in a year. They are cut with a combine, reduced to fragments and sent to processing. One hectare of such plantation can give 40 tons of wood.

       "In Russia power stations using biomass can produce more electric power than all the nuclear stations", Strebkov says. That is why the inhabitants of Arkhangelsk region where the installation will have been launched by the end of this year are waiting for it impatiently.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency

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