Quality assessment of solid biofuel made of sweet sorghum biomass

¹ Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Department of Sustainable Technologies, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic
² Research Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Drnovská 507, 161 01 Prague 6, Czech Republic

^* Corresponding author: ivanova@ftz.czu.cz

Abstract

The present article relates to assessment of energy utilization of sweet sorghum waste biomass as solid biofuel (briquettes). The briquettes were produced from biomass of pure sweet sorghum after juice extraction, mixture of sorghum with wood sawdust (ratio 1:1) and mixture of sorghum with wood shavings (ratio 1:1). Chemical, physical and mechanical properties of produced briquettes were measured in accordance with appropriate standards. The research results showed that the mixed sorghum briquettes with wood shavings have the highest mechanical durability and the lowest ash content; on the other hand, briquettes made of sweet sorghum and wood sawdust havethe best values of all other parameters, including higher calorific values, density, etc. Although addition of residual wood biomass improved the general quality of sorghum based briquettes, it was stated that the briquettes made of pure processed sorghum stalks belong to the category of high quality agricultural solid biofuels. It can be concluded that sweet sorghum is of very good prospects and thus it is a promising biomass feedstock for solid biofuels production (not only for the production of liquid biofuel as it has been used by today and has been known before).