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Quantification of gas emissions from stored softwood chips as solid biofuels

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Abstract

Western Red Cedar (WRC) is one of the abundant softwood species, which is considered as a good source of biofuel. This paper aims at quantifying gas emissions from stored WRC woodchips and studying the potential health impact during storage and transportation. Experiments were conducted using lab-scale reactors for a range of temperatures under both non-aerobic and aerobic conditions depending on oxygen level. Results from tests using non-aerobic reactors showed that the highest carbon dioxide emission factor of 2.8 g/kg dry matter (DM) was observed at 20 °C for a storage period of 2 months. Although the carbon monoxide emission factor was much lower at 0.03 g/kg DM, it increased with increasing temperatures due to chemical oxidation. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions from the aerobic reactors exhibited similar trends as the non-aerobic reactors with respect to the effect of temperature. Total gas emissions were higher from the aerobic reactors compared with those from non-aerobic reactors. Results from the qualitative gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis indicated a range of volatile organic compounds was emitted from the stored WRC woodchips. Some of these volatile organic compounds might be associated with the characteristic pungent smell of WRC which could cause odor nuisance to the neighboring community. The total volatile organic compounds concentration was found to be positively correlated with temperature. At the end of the storage period, percent DM loss was below 1 % for both the non-aerobic and aerobic reactors, reaffirming the decay-resistance characteristics of WRC.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant number RGPIN 42377-12), British Columbia Innovation Council/Natural Resources and Applied Sciences Endowment Fund (Grant number NRAS), the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biomass Program, and the China Scholarship Council. Thanks are also due to Dr. Karen Bartlett for her assistance with the instrument for total VOC emission analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada

    X. He, A. K. Lau, S. Sokhansanj, C. J. Lim & X. T. Bi

  2. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    S. Sokhansanj

  3. Delta Research Corporation, 501 Centennial Parkway, Delta, BC, V4L 2L5, Canada

    S. Melin

Authors
  1. X. He
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  2. A. K. Lau
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  3. S. Sokhansanj
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  4. C. J. Lim
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  5. X. T. Bi
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  6. S. Melin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. K. Lau.

Appendix

Appendix

Mass of materials in the reactor: M

Void space in the container: V

At t = 0, N2 concentration is C n0

At time t, the N2 concentration is C nt, the volumetric gas concentration is C i, and the gas volume is V t.

Since N2 is an inert gas, which is not consumed or generated, the mass of N2 would remain the same over the entire test.

$$\begin{gathered} VC_{\text{n0}} = \, V_{\text{t}} C_{\text{nt}} \hfill \\ or, \, V_{\text{t}} = \, VC_{\text{n0}} /C_{\text{nt}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered}$$

Based on Ideal Gas Law, PV = nRT, where R = 8.31 J/mol. K for each gas species produced, PC i V t = (m i/M wt) RT

$$PC_{\text{i}} \left( {VC_{\text{n0}} /C_{\text{nt}} } \right) \, = \, \left( {f_{\text{i}} M/ \, M_{\text{wt}} } \right)RT.$$

Hence,

$$f_{\text{i}} = \frac{{PC_{\text{i}} VM_{\text{wt}} C_{\text{n0}} }}{{MRTC_{\text{nt}} }}.$$

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He, X., Lau, A.K., Sokhansanj, S. et al. Quantification of gas emissions from stored softwood chips as solid biofuels. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 12, 1549–1558 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0541-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0541-z

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