Current status and issue of standardization of thermal treated solid biofuels

Abstract

One solution to reduce CO₂ emission from fossil fuels effectively is to replace coal or coal coke with solid biofuels. When sold biofuels are used as alternative fuels of coal or coal coke, several functions except heating have to be added to solid biofuels. The permeability is one of the most important functions, because the furnace would not work if the permeability was not added to solid biofuels. Thermal treatment can be an effective reforming, and two types of thermally treated sold biofuels have been investigated so far to replace coal coke. One is a carbonized densified biofuel and the other is non-carbonized one. The latter one devised by Ida is called BIC. The temperature range of thermal treatment of BIC is around between 160 and 300 degree, which is much lower than that of carbonized biofuels. Therefore, the mass and energy yields of BIC are higher than those of carbonized biofuels. In this study, current status of ISO17225 for “Solid biofuels” including thermally treated densified biofuel is summarized and the effect of carbonization on the net reduction of CO₂ emission is investigated.