ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. Consistent and reliable operation of biomass dryers is problematic across existing pellet fuel producers and emerging advanced biofuel firms due to inexperience of operators, temporal variation in biomass moisture content, and lack of knowledge about drying characteristics of their feedstocks. The precision to which select parameters can be sensed at the research and commercial scale greatly affects both precision and the cost of automated control. Temperature and pressure are two of the key parameters which can be accurately sensed with relatively low cost components. Sensors for relative humidity, air flow rate and real-time mass are also needed. Forest Concepts has developed a Research Drying Apparatus to collect meaningful characteristics about select biomass feedstocks to inform the algorithms and sensor requirements of advanced model-predictive controls for optimal dryer efficiency and operation.