Quality of pellets produced from agricultural wood residues specific to the Prut River basin

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the prospects for the use of agricultural wood residues, specific to the climatic zone adjacent to the Prut River and the qualitative characteristics of densified solid biofuels in the form of pellets produced from the main types of the agricultural wood biomass, taken from agricultural plantations in the Republic of Moldova and Botosani, Iasi, Vaslui and Galați counties in Romania. The aim of the paper is to establish the energy potential of the main indigenous agricultural wood residues and to analyze the quality of the pellets produced from these residues. The research results showed that the pellets produced from the studied agricultural residues mainly meet ENPlus 3 requirements for most qualitative parameters, except for those produced from blackberry and currant residues. Residues from the prunning of some types of fruit shrubs can be used to produce pellets by creating mixtures of different proportions, and their qualitative characteristics can be significantly improved by thermo-chemical pre-treatment of the raw material.