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Shear Processing of Wood Chips into Feedstock Particles

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2012 Dallas, Texas, July 29 - August 1, 2012  121337113.(doi:10.13031/2013.41744)
Authors:   David N Lanning, James H Dooley, Christopher J Lanning
Keywords:   Wood chips, comminution, specific energy, rotary shear

We have an objective to convert cellulosic biomass raw materials into small particles that are optimized for biochemical and/or thermochemical conversion to liquid transportation fuels. As a side effort, we are interested in producing feedstocks for composite bioproducts, solid biofuels, and other uses. Wood chips that have a typical length of 50mm are a common raw material. This experiment seeks to evaluate the change in particle sieve analysis, geometric mean dimension, and particle shape as wood chips are processed through one or more rotary shear configurations as well as to determine the incremental specific energy consumption. Wood chips processed by two passes through a 4.8mm cutter set changed the geometric mean dimension from 26.4mm to 5.6mm at a total cost of less 30MJ/odt. Additional combinations are discussed.

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