Standardized solid fuels

The development and application of standardized solid fuels (pellets and briquettes), preferably of organic origin, for residential and industrial use is very important for Chile. The main part of the thermal energy demand of the forest industry, and partially the demand of other industries in the central-southern part of the country, is supplied by boilers using forest biomass. Additionally, a 1,4% of the chilan electricity production is produced by cogeneration plants based on forest biomass.

However, the combusted material is very heterogeneous regarding humidity, size and heating value, leading to low combustion efficiencies, as evidenced by the substantial amounts of ashes with high carbon content, and in some cases to emission of air pollutants. The residential combustion is even more critical.

A fundamental step for reverting this situation is to incresase biomass homogeneity and density, lowering transportation costs, and therefor the logistic obstacles of forest biomass, especially for sawmill and bark.

In this context, CCTE-UDT's line of action follows the development and use of densified solid fuels for residential and industrial use, in close contact with the environment area of UDT and  the forest and related industry.

Another option is mixing forest biomass with coal, an alternative studied at the Chemical Engineering Departament of Universidad de Concepción. The coal content increases density, where  high volatil content of biomass imporves ignition properties and flame stability.