Determine of combustion characteristics of biofuel pellets produced from quinoa and amaranth harvest residues

The stems of many field plants are left in the field after the grain is harvested. Together this, agricultural waste or residue are called also to parts of cannot be evaluated in the garden agriculture, such as pruning residues, fruit processing waste, crust, kernels. These agricultural wastes or residues constitute a huge biomass potential. One way to assess this potential is to convert existing biomass into solid biofuel. In this study, stalk parts of plants of the quinoa and amaranth produced were collected from the field, ground and pelleted into solid biofuel form. In the pelleting process, a circular die perforated flat die pelletizing machine with a motor power of 3 kW and a processing capacity of 50-60 kg / h was used. 6 different pellet samples were produced by mixing 50:50 quinoa and amaranth harvest residues with pirina and pine shavings (100% quinoa, 50:50 quinoa and red pine shavings, 50:50 quinoa and powdered olive pomace, 100% amaranth, 50:50 amaranth and red pine shavings, 50:50 amaranth and powdered olive pomace). The physical and chemical properties, thermal values, thermal behavior and combustion gas emissions of the produced pellets were determined. The moisture content of the pellets was 12,79% - 15,62%; ash content 5.76 - 10.70%; volatile content 58.14% - 62.49%; fixed carbon content was found to be 15.55% - 18.41% and drop resistance was found to be between 96.20% - 98.99%. The densities of 4 different materials before pelleting ranged from 161.74 kg / m3 to 569.21 kg / m3, whereas the pellet densities obtained after pelleting were determined as 1255.24 kg / m3 and 1351.44 kg / m3, respectively. The lowest thermal value belongs to the pellet produced from amaranth harvest residues with 3653 kcal / kg, while the highest thermal value belongs to the pellet produced with a mixture of quinoa harvest residue and 50:50 with 4281 kcal / kg. Addition of pine and pine sawdust to quinoa and amaranth harvest residues has been found to increase the fixed carbon content, volatile matter and thermal value of the fuel, reduce ash content and thereby improved fuel quality.