| Project Name: | Solid fuels from wood molasses production residues |
|---|---|
| BPA Number: | 1828-01 |
| Funding Round: | |
| Report(s): | Final contract report held in Scion information data base SIDNEY Output no. 61543 |
| For enquiries contact: | Peter Hall |
| Phone: | 07 343 5899 |
| Email: | Peter.Hall@scionresearch.com |
Summary of Project and Key Findings:
Current BPA project BPA-1805-01 “Pine wood waste conversion to animal feed”, is investigating the production of wood molasses from sawdust. The solid residue remaining after extraction of the wood molasses makes up typically >85% of the initial dry sawdust weight, so it is likely that such a process would only be implemented as a pretreatment to add value prior to another process utilising the residues, quite likely as wood pellets or another form of solid fuel. However, the production of solid fuels from such residues has yet to be demonstrated.
This study confirmed that the solid residues remaining after extraction of “wood molasses” from sawdust could be successfully converted into both pellets and briquettes.
The study also showed that, compared to previous studies where chips were used, processing of sawdust through the pilot plant led to less molasses being produced per tonne of wood.
Based on the data obtained from this trial, extraction of wood sugars from sawdust in front of other wood processing plants does not appear to be financially viable. Further work to improve the pressing of steamed sawdust is warranted, as the low yield of molasses from sawdust adversely effected the economic viability of the process.
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