Comparison of gasification behavior of pulverized palm kernel shell charcoal with pulverized coal in blast furnace is necessary to use palm kernel shell charcoal in substitution for coal. The gasification behavior of these materials were observed by use of raceway hot model which simulated the lower part of blast furnace. The experimental results showed that the gasification behavior of palm kernel shell charcoal was affected by the quantity of the volatile matter as well as coal. And because the palm kernel shell charcoal had less quantity of ash than coal, the pressure drop of raceway in furnace decreased.

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A higher heating value (HHV) for an energy crop as a directly combustible material is an indices for choosing a herb species. HHV is measured by calorimetry; however, measuring a large number of samples for studies such as a plant breeding study is difficult. Therefore, we developed a method to estimate HHV from chemical composition. We investigated HHVs of some herb species as energy crops. Eight varieties of seven herb species were cultivated for 3-4 years with two fertilization levels and were harvested once or twice per year. Using calorimetry, HHV was measured from chemical composition for 31 of 165 samples. The actual values, the values estimated using the nutritive value of the feed (estimating method 1), and those estimated using carbon content (estimating method 2) were compared. Significant correlations were observed between the actual values and both estimated values. The actual values and those estimated by method 1 were not different, whereas a significant difference was detected between the actual values and those estimated by method 2. This result suggests that estimating method 1 was suitable to estimate HHV of herb species’ energy crops. The mean of the estimated HHV for all samples was 18.1 MJ/kg (dry weight), and the standard deviation was 0.29 MJ/kg (dry weight). Significant differences were observed among the herb species using analysis of variance.

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The objective of the present study is to discuss beneficial use of life cycle based assessment (LCA) for the decision-making on implementing local biomass projects. Focusing on a local biomass project in Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, we conducted document and interview surveys to clarify the introduction process of the project and examined when and how LCA can be used during the introduction process. The present study suggests that there are three possibilities in the production process to evaluate environmental and socio-economic impacts using LCA, namely, prospective, design and retrospective evaluations. In the Miura biomass project, although the planners did not conduct any evaluation of the project, they think that the prospective evaluation would have been beneficial because it can help get a consensus among the Congress and local stakeholders. The prospective evaluation using LCA can contribute to the design of a more effective project and the achievement of accountability in the earlier phases of local biomass projects by providing quantitative and objective information. Thus, the development of a practical method for the prospective evaluation of local biomass projects is required in the future.

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